Berlioz: Harold In Italy; Paganini: Sonata Per La Grand Viola

“Carpenter rises to all the challenges with great dexterity, preserving fine tone and pure intonation in the most (for the viola player) alarming situations...the performance of Harold, too, has much to recommend it - a fine-toned soloist, rhythmic, well-balanced orchestral playing and clear, bright recording. There are some especially imaginative touches of tone-painting” --Gramophone Magazine, December 2011

“the undisputed star is the first recording of the more virtuosic, original version of Harold in Italy which is fully exploited by Carpenter's beguiling, beautiful tone and thrilling technique. The orchestra is no bit-part player here; Ashkenazy's ensemble throughout makes this an outstanding collaboration.” --Classic FM Magazine, December 2011 ****

“Carpenter is the eloquent viola soloist in Berlioz’s Byronic symphony...[Ashkenazy and the Helsinki orchestra ] reveal the music’s narrative heart compellingly. Paganini’s own Sonata for viola and orchestra, scarcely on a par with Berlioz, nevertheless allows Carpenter to demonstrate his lyrical musicality and bravura.” --The Telegraph, 22nd September 2011 ****

“The excellent violist David Aaron Carpenter has reinstated a virtuoso passage in the opening adagio, originally sketched for Paganini. With Ashkenazy and the Helsinki PO, he gives a masterly account of the work, glowing and incisive.” --Sunday Times, 16th October 2011

Poème

"Akiko Suwanai, a tall, imposing violinist of striking stage presence, raised her bow for a sombre, intense descent of notes at the start: this was big-boned, noble playing, with its rhythmic life taut and rigorous.“ --The Times

"Suwanai belongs to those artists who strive for clarity above all. Her playing is pure sound, pure energy.” --chweinfurter Tagesblatt, April 2010

“Her sound is large and powerful, the phrases… are elegant and of effortless simplicity." --Classic Toulouse, October 2009

Berlioz: Overtures

“... a vivid , large-scale recording that brings out Berlioz’s detail really clearly, of which the excellent Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra players make a great deal. I personally feel the Berlioz’s textures are most truly rendered by instruments of his time, in the brass especially, but the playing here is satisfyingly mellow and vibrant, with warm strings and sturdy woodwind, yet also refreshing and translucent. This is aided by Andrew Davis’s tempos, fairly spacious and unforced but never slack, and now and then sizzling... a welcome release.” --BBC Music magazine – April 2013  - Performance ****   Recording *****

 

"...Sir Andrew Davis conducts these colourful and inventive scores with panache and he secures colourful, rhythmically precise performances from the Norwegian orchestra which plays with zest throughout the programme. The Chandos recording is up to the usual high standards of the house - I listened to this hybrid SACD as a CD - and Hugh Macdonald’s succinct notes are ideal. If you’re looking for a set of Berlioz overtures - a highly desirable addition to any collection - then this disc has very strong claims on your attention." --John Quinn - MusicWeb-International.com - 4 March 2013

“ ... [Davis] on fine form here with the Bergen Philharmonic. The opening to the Corsaire holds no terrors for them ... The lesser-known overtures reveal their virtues well.  Davis, abetted by an excellent recording, responds vividly to Berlioz’s pioneering orchestral textures...” --John Warrack – International Record Review – February 2013

Berlioz: Herminie, Les Nuits D'ete; Ravel: Sheherazade

“In her mid-forties, this voice has become richer and even more expressive, and he works on this disc suit her to perfection. She not only pronounces the words, she feels them...Her Nuits d'ete reilshes hues both light and dark, and if she'd been around to sing Berlioz's Prix de Rome cantata Herminie in 1828, who know, he might have won gold instead of silver!” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ****

“[Gens is] alive and vivid, giving a passionate account of the wonderful Sur les Lagunes. Elsewhere, she seems to me in too much of a hurry.” --Sunday Times, 9th July 2012

“warm, sensitive, the lyrical French soprano par excellence...Gens bring [Herminie] to life as sympathetically as any of her operatic portrayals...It is unusual to encounter a recording of Les nuits d'ete in which the colouring is so consistent throughout...Gens has in her sights a purer kind of poetry.” --Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“As you might expect, Gens's singing has sharpened its musical perceptions still further and acquired even more shades of colour since [her] earlier recording. No one today delivers French song with the combination of tonal beauty and verbal nuance she does, and each number of Nuits d'Eté offers a miniature masterclass...Pure ravishment.” --The Guardian, 21st June 2012 *****

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Etc

Bychkov has a fine ear for the textures, and the Orchestre de Paris has acquired a particularly warm, rich sound under him: the woodwind are beautifully blended (with a graceful cor anglais in Carnaval romain), and the brass strong and sonorous (with horns that seem to have abjured the old French vibrato). The recording supports these qualities. Bychkov is flexible in phrasing, and almost always makes this flexibility eloquent.

It is a little overdone in the Ball, but beautifully apt to the long, arching curves and irregular phrasing of the idee fixe itself. This whole first movement is beautifully played, as, with rich but lucid textures, is the "Scene aux champs". The rhythmic attack of the "Marche au supplice" does not have quite the menacing tread or other versions, but there is plenty of sinister atmosphere in the Witches' Sabbath.

There are dozens of discs of the symphony to choose from, but those looking for a modern orchestra version would do well to listen to this one before deciding. --JW, Gramophone

MP3 320 · 132 MB