Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor

“His sell-out return to Wigmore Hall in April last year was as thrilling as everyone hoped. The evidence is here: opening with Bach's Partita No 2 in D minor for solo violin, the Soviet-born musician combines impeccable technique with a golden, powerful tone, muscular and sturdy but lithe too, without excessive ornament.” The Observer, 3rd February 2013

“Is Vengerov as good as he ever was? Time will tell. His Bach starts off tentative and effortful, before relaxing into the soulful Sarabanda and Ciaccona – the opposite of the fast, flashy style with which he previously dazzled...it’s only in the Wieniawski and Brahms encores that he switches on the gas.” Financial Times, 9th February 2013 ***

“Vengerov opened the recital with Bach’s D minor Partita. In a reading that’s one of the best out there – big-boned, justifiably confident and played with a swagger commensurate with this player’s talent. This is flawless violin playing – the double stops in the Corrente so easily achieved, the fourth movement’s Giga graceful and witty...Essential listening.” The Arts Desk, 16th February 2013

“He takes a while to warm up in the Bach Partita, and the opening Allemanda sounds cautious at first...The great final Chaconne has some awkward moments, not least in pacing and tonal firmness, though there are magical changes of colour. In the Beethoven there's more consistency...I imagine this was a thrilling concert.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2013 ***

“The playing throughout this disc is vastly sinuous; and though this may not be a seismic shift from his previous style, there is still a sense that he's shed the need to sound merely pretty in order to get closer to the scale and importance of the music.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013

“the technical perfection he displays in is performance of Bach’s Second Partita surpasses most of those set down in the studio.” The Strad, April 2013

“almost every piece is a novelty in Martin Fröst's dance-themed programme...This partnership of soloists and orchestra is an inspired one, not least in the smaller-scale pieces...There is a quirky and highly personal essay in lieu of booklet-note from Fröst himself.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“No point in pulling my punches: this is a wonderful disc. The playing is superb, and these dance-inspired pieces will put a skip in your own step...It's obvious that Frost and his Australian colleagues must have had enormous fun recording this programme and their enjoyment bubbles through at every turn. Frost's virtuosity is a delight in its own right, but it's deployed in the service of unquenchable good humour.” International Record Review, February 2012

“Performed in both the original and revised versions, Copland's hot, slick Clarinet Concerto bookends a programme that incorporates waltz, schmaltz, tango and klezmer. Not all of it works. Brahms's Hungarian Dances are downgraded to vehicle status as a showcase for Fröst's dexterity. But elsewhere (Piazzola, Hillborg, Högberg) soloist and orchestra sizzle.” The Independent on Sunday, 8th January 2012 ****

“Big-hearted Daniel Hope, backed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Sakari Oramo, seems equally at home in the wide open spaces of Bruch's violin concerto (which the master totally revised and improved) or the warm intimacy of Joachim's own delightful Romanze” The Observer, 13th March 2011

**** The Telegraph, 18th March 2011

“Hope’s way with the Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1 is lively, burning with gypsy passion. Temperatures calm down for Joachim’s own Romanze and his equally endearing Notturno.” The Times, 26th March 2011 ****

“The major offering here is Bruch's evergreen First Violin Concerto, which Daniel Hope plays with cliche-free, heartfelt intensity. He radiates espressivo allure in Joachim's own Romanza and Notturno...The Joachim connection is fascinating, and Hope plays each piece as a music gem in its own right” Classic FM Magazine, May 2011 ****

“The Bruch is finely and vividly recorded. In Oramo's hands the orchestration acquires a rich glow, with solo lines brought out most expressively. Hope brings to his interpretation glorious, full tone brilliance (in the finale) and expansive phrasing...The pieces with piano are all beautifully played” Gramophone Magazine, May 2011

“[The Bruch] receives a warmly committed account from the soloist and the hugely responsive Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Sakari Oramo. As in his recording of the Mendelssohn, Hope never takes this over-familiar score for granted and has imaginative things to say at every juncture.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 ****

“This performance [of the Bruch] overflows with incident and rich musical detailing...[Oramo], as a fiddler himself, knows this piece inside out...The finale dazzles, rounding out a captivating and insightful reading” International Record Review, May 2011

“It's been true for many years now that American orchestras have been sounding more middle- European, but the Pittsburgh Symphony could easily be mistaken for a top German orchestra, like Leipzig or Dresden, in this music. Listen to the slow movement of the Fourth Symphony where Marek Janowski really has his players leaning into the harmonic radiance of the writing. All those wondrous transfigurations evolve so naturally and so dreamily that the brawny exuberance of the Scherzo – tough and resilient in Janowski's hands – really does come as an unexpected blast.
Approaches differ greatly with regard to the highly innovative first movement, the whole of which constitutes a development of sorts. So, how soon do the darkening clouds descend? For some they cannot descend soon enough. But here it's as if Janowski is delaying the inevitable right through to the high anxiety of the final pages. He tightens the screw relatively late in the movement. The slow movement then restores some sense of prior well-being and inner calm, as does the still centre of the finale with its tranquil flute and trombone-led chorale variation. The refulgence of the playing is a constant source of pleasure.
The Hungarian Dances come in Brahms and Dvorák's orchestrations, their kinship self-evident.
They are earthy and sinewy with plenty of surge factor in the lower strings and the requisite cheekiness in the phrasing exemplified by those traditionally tantalising hesitations and stomping downbeats.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“…the Pittsburgh Symphony - increasingly one of the nation's finest - could easily be mistaken for a top German orchestra, like Leipzig or Dresden, in this music. The refulgence of the playing is a constant source of pleasure and any conductor who is as mindful of Brahm's ingenuity, invention and sheer vision as Janowski demands to be heard. The Hungarian Dances... are earthy and sinewy with plenty of surge factor in the lower strings and the requisite cheekiness in the phrasing exemplified by those traditionally tantalising hesitations and stompling downbeats.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2009

“Both conductor and soloist take a lyrical approach to this Concerto. Paavo Järvi's tapering of the opening melodic gesture modifies its usually brusque, implacable drama, and Nicholas Angelich's expansive ruminations in the second theme, although expressive and dignified, borders on the languid.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 ****

“A delight to encounter precise, hand-in-glove ensemble-playing that manages not to sound pre-planned. ” Gramophone Magazine, June 2008

“Angelich's solo Brahms scarcely prepared us for the conviction and rapt intensity in this showpiece. With French pianist Frank Braley, Angelich also brings infectious zest to nine of the 21 Hungarian Dances for four hands, including the celebrated No 5 in F sharp minor.” The Observer, 13th April 2008

“Throughout a work once dubbed "a symphony with piano obbligato", the Frankfurt orchestra play superbly for Paavo Järvi, the strings burnished and deep-toned, the woodwind gracious agents of tenderness and consolation. Though Nicholas Angelich commands ample Brahmsian heft, his playing tends to emphasise the music's lyrical pathos, rather than its turbulent heroism. Momentum can suffer in the first movement, especially in Angelich's ultra-dreamy treatment of the assuaging chorale-like theme. But he distils a mystical inwardness in the adagio - a wordless requiem for Schumann - and balances muscular stoicism with luminous delicacy, even a touch of playfulness, in the finale.” The Telegraph, 10th May 2008 (on Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor)

“The range of dynamic truthfulness conveyed in Sarah Chang's performance, helped by a clear, full, naturally balanced recording, brings not just momentary delight in individual phrases but cumulative gain, in a reading that strongly hangs together. Not only does she play with exceptionally pure tone, avoiding heavy coloration, but her individual artistry doesn't demand the wayward pulling-about often found in this work. She's enormously helped by the fresh, bright and dramatic accompaniment of the LSO under Sir Colin Davis. In the outer movements she conveys wit along with the power and poetry, and the intonation is immaculate. Brahms's Hungarian Dances are delectable, marked by the sort of naughty pointing of phrase and rhythm that tickles your musical funny-bone just as Kreisler always did.
Here's a young artist who really does live up to the claims of the publicists.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The second instalment of Marin Alsop's Brahms symphonies series is as authoritative, understanding and warm-hearted as the first.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2005 ****

“This is a late-summer idyll of a performance, easily paced, nicely judged and warmly played.
For first-time buyers it will provide unalloyed pleasure; for older hands it will satisfy without necessarily enlightening or surprising.
It is one of those Brahms performances whose centre of gravity is in the violas, cellos and horns.
This is apt to the symphony's lyrical, ruminative character, though there are times when the music is robbed of its light and shade. In the finale, for example, one rather misses the chill-before-dawn mood of the lead-in to the recapitulation; and one needs a keener differentiation of horn and trumpet tone to catch the final page's incomparable D major blaze. Alsop's account of the third movement is strong in contrast, the oboe-led Allegrettograzioso strangely muted, the quicker 2/4 section done more or less to perfection. That said, you might think the slow movement under-characterised: insufficiently distinct in tone and temper from the first.
The symphony was recorded in Blackheath Concert Hall, the Hungarian Dances in Watford's Colisseum: a bigger, brawnier acoustic that doesn't suit the music quite so well. In dance No 18 in D, one of Dvorák's orchestrations, there is a noisy, cluttered feel to the performance. By contrast, the alfresco No 3 in F, winningly and economically orchestrated by Brahms himself, is played with real charm and style.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010