Until now, the Georgian pianist Elisso Bolkvadze has recorded primarily for the Sony Classical Infinity Digital and Cascavelle labels. On her latest release, for Audite, she makes a number of highly original interpretative choices.

Her approach to the opening of Prokofiev's 1912 Second Sonata is redolent of Scriabin – plush, full-sounding and rife with detail. The rhythmic vitality of the Scherzo becomes waylaid by explorations of colouristic ornament and the misty haze enveloping the slow movement feels more French than Russian. The moto perpetuo of the finale rattles along at a splendid clip until it too is bogged down in an expressively overgrown contrasting section. In place of Prokofiev's brightly unambiguous colours and rhythmic elan vital, we encounter over-stuffed decor and aching expressivity.

The Schubert Impromptus are prevailingly lyrical, though the rhetorical eloquence and emotional urgency of each is diminished by indecisive rhythmic underpinning. For all its admirably vivid contrasts, the C minor Impromptu seems to wander, uncertain of its ultimate goal. The E flat Impromptu comes off as more notey than•fleet, while the abandon of its contrasting section is impeded by undue focus on inner voices. The golden melody of the beloved G flat major threatens to come untethered and float into the ether for lack of an adequately anchoring bass.

Throughout the disc, Bolkvadze's undeniably sensitive playing moves note to note. We are invited to admire each tree, if not each individual leaf, heedless of the magnificent forest surrounding us. Combined with a certain stylistic ambiguity with regard to both composers, the result lacks a strong personal stamp, prompting the question of just how fully Bolkvadze inhabits the music she plays.

As for alternatives in this music, both Frederic Chiu (Harmonia Mundi - nla) and Anne-Marie McDermott's complete Prokofiev cycles are of sustaining interest and Pletnev has a great deal to say in the Second Sonata. In the more personal realm of Schubert preferences, the performances of D899 by Maria-Joao Pires, Imogen Cooper and Vassily Primakov are more compelling.

The two concertos were recorded for DG a few years before these Lucerne Festival appearances. The Saint-Saens was recorded around 1960 for DG; this recording is from 1962. The Dvorak on DG was from 1962; this one is from 1967. The Saint-Saens is exactly half the length of the Dvorak, which lasts 37 minutes here.

You would expect a concert recording like this to be less than ideal in sound but perhaps more spontaneous. But there’s no predicting. The Saint-Saens sounds simply wonderful, and Martinon’s conducting is simply great. But the Dvorak is clearly inferior in sound to the DG—both cello and orchestra. And Istvan Kertesz was a fine conductor, but I’m afraid he is completely outshone by George Szell on DG, who has incredible fire and precision, who makes every moment and every instrument shine. If you have the DG Dvorak you certainly don’t need this. You might think a performance before an audience would be more exciting, but I assure you that Szell conducting this puts everyone else in the shade—and it’s the Berlin Philharmonic, too! The sheer quality of the orchestra is unbeatable. After all, this recording is simply the festival orchestra—unlike the Saint-Saens, which has the superb French Radio Orchestra under a great French conductor.
A four-minute encore is added (introduced by Fournier, whose French is as elegant and refined as his playing): the Pablo Casals ‘Song of the Birds’.

Audite a déniché une perle en même temps qu’un inédit dans la discographie du pianiste américain, emporté trop jeune par la leucémie. Le geste est foudroyant, la technique monumentale, l’inspiration riche en trouvailles. Une version très personnelle [...] ce portrait d’un génie du clavier, foudroyé en plein vol.

En résumé, un complément indispensable à la connaissance de cet ensemble majeur dans l’interprétation du quatuor à cordes au 20ème siècle.

Transparency of sound and clear interplay of instruments are hallmarks of chamber music, and there is also, in the best performances, a high degree of emotional connection that comes through clearly to listeners as it develops through the close interaction of a small instrumental group. This is the impression that emerges with the greatest clarity from the four-CD Audite set of Mendelssohn’s complete chamber music for strings, performed by the Mandelring Quartet.

Organ music by composers from the Iberian peninsula has a special place in the repertoire. Its peculiar style and the specific timbre of the organs for which it was written makes it rather difficult to be performed on organs in other parts of Europe. This inevitably has led to this repertoire being less wel-known than that of other countries.

The music included on this disc is presented as being written during the Golden Age. However, the largest part of the repertoire played here was written when that era - roughly speaking from 1520 to 1620 - had come to an end. Moreover, one of the composers, Manuel Rodrigues Coelho, was Portuguese; in 1580 his country had lost its independence which was only restored in 1640. Coelho published his Flores de musica from which the pieces on this disc are taken in 1620. At that time the country was not in very good shape; it certainly was not enjoying a golden age. Coelho also did not dedicate his collection to Philip II, as Martin Neu writes, but to Philip III; his father had died in 1598. The information in the booklet in regard to the historical context is not very accurate.

Fortunately the information about the music is more reliable. The main genre in Iberian keyboard music is that of the tiento. This is what would be called a ricercar or fantasia outside Spain, and is characterised by counterpoint and imitation. Many tientos employ the medio registro, the 'broken keyboard'. In many organs the keyboard was divided into two halves with different dispositions. This allowed the composer to write a solo part for one hand, often including virtuosic figurations, and a polyphonic accompaniment for the other hand. A good example is the Tiento de medio registro de tiple de octavo tono by Francisco Correa de Arauxo. He seems to have been more or less self-educated and acquired his skills by studying the works of others. He was ordained a priest and worked for many years as an organist at the collegiate church of S Salvador in Seville. From 1636 to 1640 he held the same position in Jaén Cathedral. In 1640 he was elected a prebendary of Segovia Cathedral. Here he also died in poverty. His organ works are collected in one book which was printed in 1626 and has a clear didactic purpose as the title indicates. This explains why the pieces are arranged in various stages in order of difficulty.

The Tiento tercero de sexto tono sobre la primera parte de la Batalla de Morales refers to another popular genre in Spain: the battaglia. It is an arrangement of a batalla by Morales, the most famous Spanish composer from the first half of the 16th century. His batalla is lost and therefore this tiento by Arauxo is the only way to get some impression of what that piece may have sounded like. The closing episode includes some typical features of batallas: repeated fanfare motifs and echo effects. The Tiento de dos baxones de octavo tono is another brilliant piece with two independent bass parts. As Spanish organs usually didn't have a pedalboard these parts are played on the manuals. The Tiento lleno segundo tono is a late specimen of the genre of the tiento. It has come down to us anonymously but is attributed to Diego Xaraba for stylistic reasons. He was organist at the Royal Chapel in Madrid.

Another important genre is that of the glosas. These are not fundamentally different from diferencias, or - in other languages - divisions, diminutions or passaggi which were frequently written in England and Italy during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The Tres Glosas sobre el Canto llano de la Immaculada Concepción is one of the best-known compositions by Arauxo and appears in many recordings of Iberian organ music. However, the Hymn to the Virgin Mary which is the subject of these variations is hardly ever sung. It is very nice that here the variations are embraced by a vocal performance of this hymn.

The third genre represented here is liturgical music. In the Catholic liturgy the organ played an important role in alternatim compositions: the verses of the mass or another liturgical chant were performed alternately by the choir and the organ. Here we hear two examples from the only published collection of keyboard music by Coelho, Flores de musica. It is the earliest surviving keyboard music printed in Portugal. According to the title the music is conceived for a keyboard instrument or the harp. It contains 24 tentos (Portuguese for tientos), three for every tone, and also over a hundred verses on various hymns and Kyrie settings. A specimen of the latter are the 5 Versos de Kyrie do 1. tom. The hymn Ave maris stella is also performed alternatim: the organ plays four verses with the cantus firmus moving from soprano to bass.

This disc offers a good survey of the keyboard music written on the Iberian peninsula during the 17th century. The value of this disc is enhanced by the fact that Martin Neu in his choice of repertoire has largely avoided the most obvious. Although Arauxo's music is often played, the pieces recorded here are not among the most frequently recorded, except the Glosas. Coelho's oeuvre is far less known. The collaboration with the ensemble officium in the liturgical pieces is another real bonus. On top of that Neu plays a magnificent organ, one of Spain's larger instruments with two manuals and 35 stops. The tuning is 1/5 comma meantone, the pitch is a=430 Hz. It dates from 1735 and was restored and partly reconstructed in 2006/2007. It proves itself the ideal medium for the music played here.

Footnote
Martin Neu has commented on a couple of points made in the review:
1) King Philip III of Spain was simultaneously King Philip II of Portugal (and of Sicily and Naples, and of Sardinia). As Coelho was Portuguese he dedicated his collection of keyboard works to 'his' King, which explains the reference to Philip II in the liner-notes
2) The 'golden age' (siglo de oro) is a fixed term for a period on the Iberian peninsula. That doesn't imply that it was a time of happiness and prosperity for the people. That is also not suggested in the liner-notes.

Gegen die «Königsdisziplin» Streichquartett, hat die gewissermaßen...

Es gibt nicht mehr als eine Handvoll professioneller Streichtrios und das Repertoire ist begrenzt. Dafür ist nicht zuletzt Ludwig van Beethoven verantwortlich, der diese Gattung erst zu höchster Blüte führte und dann schmählich im Stich ließ. Das Jacques Thibaud Trio hat jetzt eine Gesamtaufnahme der Beethovenschen Streichtrios vorgelegt.

Energiegeladen, wuchtig, vorwärtsdrängend – wer würde hier eine zweite Geige vermissen! Mit dem c-Moll Streichtrio aus seinem op. 9 hat Beethoven einen ersten Gipfelpunkt der Kammermusik erreicht, und es gibt Musikwissenschaftler, die dieses Opus sogar über die ersten Streichquartette stellen. Ohne die Lagen der einzelnen Instrumente zu verzerren, schafft Beethoven hier einen Klang von höchster Dichte, Geige, Bratsche und Cello sind harmonisch und melodisch so geschickt und einfallsreich miteinander verwoben, dass die Illusion eines vierstimmigen Satzes gar nicht mehr nötig ist.

Auch wenn dieses Trio mehr ist als nur eine Vorstufe zum Streichquartett, so ist es doch ein wichtiger Entwicklungsschritt dorthin – der kammermusikalischen Königsklasse nähert sich Beethoven erst nach und nach und auf unterschiedlichen Wegen – Cello-Sonaten, Violinsonaten, Streichquintett – und eben fünf Streichtrios, in denen der Klaviervirtuose sich nicht zuletzt mit den spieltechnischen Möglichkeiten vertraut macht. Beethoven hatte zwar in seiner Kindheit Geige gespielt und als Bratscher sogar in der Bonner Hofkapelle mitgewirkt – bequem liegen diese ersten Streicherkompositionen weder in den Fingern noch im Bogen. Sie sind empfindlich, und wer links Probleme mit der Geläufigkeit hat und rechts kein Freund schneller Saitenübergänge ist, sollte besser die Finger davon lassen.

Mit jedem Werk, mit jedem Satz lernt Beethoven dazu

Anhand der vorliegenden Aufnahme aller Beethoven Streichtrios mit dem Jacques Thibaud Trio lassen sich kompositorische Entwicklung und Reifung wunderbar nachvollziehen.

Mit jedem Werk, mit jedem Satz lernt Beethoven dazu, wird mutiger im Umgang mit Stimmführung und Instrumenten und lässt auch seinen berüchtigten Humor nicht nur durchblitzen, sondern rabiat hereinpoltern – ausgerechnet dort, wo man ihn am wenigsten erwartet, einem weihevollen Adagiosatz.

Richtig ernst nehmen kann man dieses getragene Adagio nicht mehr, nachdem ein koboldhaftes Scherzo so unvermittelt hineingeplatzt ist. Das Jacques Thibaud Streichtrio verwandelt diesen Satz in eine Musiktheater-Groteske en miniature – ein Trauerspiel, das immer wieder von Komödianten gestört wird, mit dem Cello als Knallcharge. So lebendig, witzig und fantasievoll sich Beethovens op. 8 hier präsentiert, kann man sich kaum erklären, warum es dieses Werk bis heute nicht aus seiner Nische herausgeschafft hat; gleiches gilt für alle anderen auf dieser Einspielung versammelten Werke. Der Geiger Burkhard Maiß, die Bratscherin Hannah Strijbos und Bogdan Jianu am Cello erweisen sich als ideale Interpreten: Neugierig und immer auf der Suche nach dem Besonderen, sei es eine unerwartete Klangfarbe, Stimmung oder harmonisch-melodische Extravaganzen, die sich Beethoven leistet – das Trio macht den Hörer darauf aufmerksam, ohne jede Gelehrsamkeit, aber mit umso mehr Vergnügen und Spielfreude.

Ihre Außenseiterrolle werden die Streichtrios nicht loswerden

Das Jacques Thibaud Streichtrio, gegründet in den 90er Jahren in Berlin, ist eines der wenigen Ensembles, die fest in dieser Besetzung auftreten. Das langjährige Zusammenspiel und die damit verbundene Vertrautheit des Repertoires erlaubt es dem Ensemble, risikoreicher vorzugehen als zusammengewürfelte "Eintags-Streichtrios". Die Virtuosität der Musiker zeigt sich nicht nur in den sportlich-rasanten Tempi, sondern auch in der Mühelosigkeit und Eleganz, mit der sie untereinander agieren. Ihre Außenseiterrolle werden die Streichtrios auch nach dieser Aufnahme nicht loswerden, die Konkurrenz der 16 Streichquartette war, ist und wird übermächtig bleiben. Der Schlussstrich, den Beethoven so früh unter diese Gattung gezogen hat, wirkte sich auch auf die folgenden Generationen aus – erst in der Spätromantik und darüber hinaus erfährt diese Besetzung wieder die Zuneigung der Komponisten. Was seine letzten drei Streichtrios betrifft, so hat Beethoven sie in einem Brief nicht umsonst als "la meilleure", also das Beste seines bisherigen Oeuvres bezeichnet – hier finden Esprit und Erfindungsgeist zusammen, und im Keim ist schon jene radikale und verstörende Unbeugsamkeit angelegt, die sich in den späteren Kammermusiken Bahn brechen wird.

So endet der 1. Satz aus Ludwig van Beethovens Streichtrio op. 9 Nr. 3 in der neuen Aufnahme mit dem Jacques Thibaud Trio, ihre Gesamtaufnahme der Streichtrios ist kürzlich beim Label audite erschienen.

Ces deux disques ouvrent des perspectives parfois inattendues sur des oeuvres qu’on croit connaître.

Ces deux disques ouvrent des perspectives parfois inattendues sur des oeuvres qu’on croit connaître.