Recent Releases No. 57 (CD Reviews)

by Karl Nehring


Chen Gang and He Zhanhao: Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto (arr. Yan Huichang and Ku Lap-Man); Saint-Saëns: Introduction et Ronde Capriccioso in A minor, op. 28; Massenet: “Méditation” from Thaïs; Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen. Joshua Bell, violin; Singapore Chinese Orchestra conducted by Tsung Yeh

 

Those looking for something different  but not too far “out there” might well find themselves fascinated by this recording, one that mixes East and West in an unusual way. The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, which was inspired by a romantic Chinese legend, was written in 1959 by the Chinese composers Chen Gang (b. 1935) and He Zhanhao (b. 1933). Their original version, which they richly scored for a full Western symphonic orchestra, has achieved global popularity. For this recording, however, violinist Joshua Bell has chosen to perform an adaptation of the work by Yang Hui Chang and Ku Lap-Man for an orchestra of mostly traditional Chinese instruments. As the liner notes explain, “the sound world of the concerto becomes more vivid , arresting, and visceral in this arrangement. For instance, instead of violin and viola sections echoing the sounds of the gaohu, the erhu, and the zhonghu – the Chinese bowed string instruments in various ranges – the Singapore Chinese Orchestra employs whole sections of skilled players of these as well as other traditional Chinese instruments. To anchor the ensemble sound, the orchestra includes Western cellos and double-basses. Aside from these, the percussion section and a guest harpist, however, all the other instruments are traditionally Chinese. The concerto is in seven short movements, with the solo violin, so expressively played here by Bell, weaving a tale of great passion throughout. The Chinese orchestra does not sound as exotic as the notes might lead the listener to expect; just not as full and soaring as a Western orchestra. It’s an interesting sound, to be sure, which carries over into the more familiar chestnuts that fill out this interesting-sounding album. 

 

Mozart Recital. Mozart: Gigue in G minor, K 574 “Eine kleine Gigue”; 12 Contredanses for Count Czernin, K 269b - Nos. 1, 2, 3, 12; Sonata No. 9 in D major, K 311; Allegro in G minor, K 512; Adagio in B minor, K 540; Variation on “Unser dummer Pöbel meint”, K 455; Sonata No. 12 in F major, K 332; Ave verum corpus, K 518 (arr. Franz Liszt). Su Yeon Kim, piano. Steinway & Sons 30211 

 

This all-Mozart recital is the first recording by the Korean pianist Su Yeon Kim (b. 1994), 2021 Grand Laureate of the Concours musical international de Montréal. The young artist has spent much of her career delving deep into Mozart’s music, having studied at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and competed successfully at the Mozart International Competition. Although this background gave her a good foundation, to record an album of Mozart’s music still presented a formidable challenge to the young pianist: “Even after 10 years of diligent studies, I still felt like there were a few steps left before I fully understood Mozart’s music and the spirit behind it,” she explains. “His music is full of life and power, encompassing the full spectrum of human emotions and transcending all eras and cultural boundaries. I feel that I also learned, through Mozart's music, how to face myself in unfiltered way, how to accept and express from painful sadness to sheer joy.” On the album, she presents a variety of music of different styles, from the quirky opening Gigue, the rollicking Contredanses, and of course a couple of more substantial pieces, the Sonatas Nos. 9 & 12. Of course, even within the sonatas, Mozart gives us a variety of emotions, and Su Yeon Kim brings a deft touch to the keyboard that brings balance to the proceedings. Between the two sonatas are three standalone pieces – an Allegro, a heartfelt Adagio, and the energetic and playful Variations on “Unser dummer Pöbel meint.” She then closes her recital with the meltingly beautiful Franz Liszt arrangement of Mozart’s  Ave verum corpus. As usual, Steinway & Sons has done an excellent job of capturing the sound of the piano. 

 

Per Nørgård: Three Nocturnal Movements; Symphony No. 8; Lysning. Peter Herresthal, violin; Jakob Kullberg, cello; Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra; John Storgårds, conductor BIS-2502 SACD

 

Per Nørgård (b. 1932, pronounced “Per Ner-Gore”) is generally regarded to be one of the most the most important Danish composers since Nielsen. Long ago I had heard some orchestral music of his that I had found intriguing; this memory led me last year to acquire a boxed set of his symphonies, eight in number, which had been released on BIS. I found the set challenging but fascinating and even included it in a supplemental post of some more of my favorite releases of 2022, which you can read here. In that set, Symphony No. 8 was by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Finnish conductor Sakari Oramu (b. 1965). There is also a YouTube video of Finnish conductor John Storgårds (b. 1965) conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic in 2012, in what was I believe was the work’s premier (you can find that video here). At the end of the performance, Nørgård comes forward to acknowledge the applause of the concertgoers along with conductor Storgårds, to whom the work was dedicated. (For those who might be interested, there is also a video made at about the same time in which Nørgård and Storgårds discuss the symphony (and Sibelius), which you can watch here. 

 

Fast-forward a decade, and Storgårds is now the conductor for this 2023 release (the symphony was actually recorded in 2022, the other works in 2019), this time with the Bergen Philharmonic. The program opens with Three Nocturnal Movements for violin, cello, and orchestra. Violinist Peter Herresthal and cellist Jakob Kullberg are two of Nørgård’s long-term collaborators; Kullberg in particular had significant input into the creation of the work, which is three movements that evoke confusion and calm, mystery in the darkness, random points of light. Nocturnal, yes… The symphony is also in three movements, with the first, marked Tempo giusto, being significantly longer than the other two (11:28 in this performance, compared to the nearly identical 6:50 Andante molto and 6:49 for the final movement, which is marked simply as ♩ = 90. The work is bold, busy (lots of notes), and although probably not to everyone’s taste (what is?), intriguing. It is one of those works that seems to get better as it goes along, until by the last few minutes you realize that you are enthralled – the final movement has won you over – and you want to listen to it again. But before you do, you can spend a little relaxing time (4:43) in the glade, which is the term Nørgård uses to characterize Lysning, a soothing piece for string orchestra. As we have come to expect from BIS, the sonics are first-rate. For the record, I did my listening to the CD layer of this hybrid SACD, which also includes stereo SACD and 5.0 surround layers.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

Readers with polite, courteous, helpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@gmail.com

Readers with impolite, discourteous, bitchy, whining, complaining, nasty, mean-spirited, unhelpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@recycle.bin.

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa