jw
Jonathan Woolf
Cooke: Complete String Quartets, Vol 2 (Toccata Classics)
Arnold Cooke’s string quartets realised by the Bridge Quartet in some style [JW]
Turina: Music for Violin and Piano (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) Panache and passion – you won’t be disappointed [JW]
Talich Quartet: Gypsy Melodies (La Dolce Volta)
Songs from the Czech Lands, and points further East, seconded to the string quartet genre [JW]
Caetani & Fano: Violin Sonatas (Brilliant Classics)
Two rare Italian violin sonatas from the 1890s make for contrasting listening [JW]
Eduard Tubin: Chamber Music (MDG)
A successful Tubin mixed chamber selection, with two sonatas sharing disc space with some novelties. [JW]
Weldon: The Judgment of Paris (AAM)
A vivacious and engaging competition-winning masque performed with real style [JW]
Smethergell: Overtures (cpo)
More reclamations of the music of little-known William Smethergell – pleasing, charming music though rather niche [JW]
Haydn: Favourite Symphonies (Warner Classics)
(Déjà Review) Partnership of conductor and orchestra at something like its best [JW]
Itzhak Perlman: The Warner Classics Edition (Warner Classics)
Perlman’s 70th Birthday Box reissued in miniaturised form but with the addition of an extra disc, in time to celebrate his 80th birthday [JW]
Reminiscences (Blue Griffin)
Reflections on wartime experience fuse with Weimar-era drive – and a contemporary setting [JW]
Noskowski: Symphony No. 3 (Capriccio)
Noskowski’s finest symphony is played with flair and Step gets a rare outing [JW]
Martinů: Complete Works for Cello and Piano (Supraphon)
Another excellent entrant in the Martinů Cello Sonata lists but this time offering ‘The Complete Works’ [JW]
Kaufmann: Orchestral works (MDG)
Further Indo-European explorations of a pre-war Czech émigrée [JW]
Melartin: Symphonies 5 & 6 (cpo)
Music full of lyricism, depth and occasionally perplexing direction [JW]
Novák: String Quartets (Supraphon)
Vítězslav Novák’s string quartets presented with thoughtful care [JW]
British Music for Strings IV (cpo)
Light suites and chamber-scaled orchestral pieces by amiable British composers [JW]
A Cello Galaxy of British Women Composers (Divine Art)
British cello compositions spanning a century, almost all in premiere recordings [JW]
Suk, Martinů & Fišer: Violin & Piano (Supraphon)
A fine disc of Czech violin works performed by a youthful duo [JW]
Brahms/Strauss/Bax: The Beecham Collection (SOMM Recordings)
(Déjà Review) Another hard-to-resist entrant for the Beecham collector [JW]
Beethoven & Mozart: String Quartets (Biddulph)
The short-lived brilliance of the Primrose Quartet heard in 1939 broadcasts [JW]
Concertos from the Caucasus Vol. 1 (Toccata Classics)
An infusion of folklore enlivens three mid-century violin concertos [JW]
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht (conductor): Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)
A 16-CD slab of Inghelbrecht’s 78s, LPs and live recordings impresses through its authoritative, unsentimentalised approach [JW]
Das Partiturbuch: Instrumental Music of 17th Century Germany (Naxos)
(Déjà Review) Played with flair, imagination and no little virtuosity [JW]
Schubert: String Quintet, Symphony No.5 (Sony Classical)
(Déjà Review) One classic and one slight disappointment [JW]
