The Whole Music Experience

Since 2012 was a light year as far as reviewing jazz and classical recordings and heavier on world music recordings, this year I'm only including 7 recordings in the top classical and top jazz CDs for the year.  The Top Jazz CDs will appear a week from today.  You will also find two surprises on my list if you were expecting only European classical CDs. 1. Arcanto Quartett with Olivier Marron, Franz Schubert String Quintet op. 163, Harmonia Mundi 2. Kristian Bezuidenhout & Freiburger Barockorchester, Mozart Piano Concertos K. 453 & 482, Harmonia Mundi 3. Javier Perianes, Beethoven Moto Perpetuo, Harmonia Mundi 4. Isabelle Faust, J. S. Bach Sonatas & Partitas, Harmonia Mundi 5. La Nueova Musica with David Bates, Handel's Il Pastor Fido, Harmonia Mundi (box-set) 6. Ravi Shankar, The Living Room Sessions Part 1, East Meets West Music 7. Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat, Twinklings of Hope (Persian/Iranian classical), Kirkelig Kulturverksted

Isabelle Faust J.S. Bach Sonatas & Partitas Harmonia Mundi Isabelle Faust’s new recording of J.S. Bach’s Partitas & Sonatas reveals a different side of Bach’s repertoire for a solo instrument.   Not the first time I have heard these sonatas and partitas performed on a violin, this time I hear the lush polyphony sung by this single instrument.   As one passage lingers in the air resonating, a new one superimposes over it creating a rich sonic environment.   At times, it feels like Faust’s instrument has split into two musical personalities conversing with each other.   Listening to this recording on headphones offers a musical retreat that alternates between relaxing the mind and invigorating the body. Faust is easily one of the best violinists working today interpreting German and Austrian composers.   The violinist’s sensitivity melded with her technical brilliance wrings emotions out of every note she plays.   From slow melancholic...

Shostakovich Piano Concertos Alexander Melnikov Mahler Chamber Orchestra Harmonia Mundi Russian composers came to my attention during the past decade, with the wild piano concertos of Rachmaninoff to the playful and provocative works by Prokofiev.  Now I am listening to early piano concertos by Dmitry Shostakovich as they appear on Shostakovich Piano Concertos and Sonata for Violin and Piano op. 134 as performed by Alexander Melnikov (piano), Isabelle Faust (violin), Jeroen Berwaerts (trumpet), and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra directed by Teodor Currentzis.  The music here runs the gamut from playful and spirited, to solemn to disturbing ( Sonata for Violin and Piano). The program on the recording contrasts the kinetic energy of a young Russian composer, Piano Concertos 1 & 2 with the dark and dissonant Sonata for Violin and Piano, op.134 , which I just could not sit and listen to without feeling extremely tense. While I understand intellectually tha...

Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov Beethoven Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin Harmonia Mundi If someone wanted to become intimate with the Romantic musician-composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), spending time with the composer’s scores would certainly open a door. Many classically-trained musicians and scholars delved into the German composer’s scores, though barely decipherable given the composer’s messy handwriting and equally messy palette of raw emotions Beethoven brought to his sonatas and other work. And the musicians would also discover when researching the composer that he started out as a violinist and even mastered the instrument, though piano turned out to be his forte (pun intended). Hungarian pianist and Beethoven interpreter Andràs Schiff recorded the entire cycle of the German composer’s piano sonatas for ECM Records, with the last recording of the series released in 2009. Now, German violinist Isabelle Faust and Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov...