Classical, jazz and world album reviews: Vadim Guzman | Mendelssohn | John Randall Quartet | Stan Tracey Octet | Traditional and Vocal Instrumental Pieces | The Devil's Horn

Published on Thursday 18 December 2008 19:41

VADIM GLUZMAN: FIREWORKS ***** BIS, £12.72

IT'S called Fireworks, and the opening bars set off like a blazing rocket. Violinist Vadim Gluzman sets out his virtuosic stall with a rattling concert transcription of themes from Rossini's Barber of Seville and the temperature rarely drops thereafter.

Zino Francescatti's Polka is a whimsical firecracker and Fritz Kreisler's La Gitana cuts an exotic dash, only to be upstaged in sensuousness by Franz Ries's provocative La Capricciosa.

With hardly any let-up – although there are a couple of dreamier numbers, including Schumann's Traumerei – Gluzman and pianist Angela Yoffe round off this whirlwind romp with a selection from Fiddler on the Roof, Bloch's dark-hewn Nigun and finally the meaty virtuosity of Ravel's Tzigane. For lovers of good old-fashioned showing off, this is a sound buy.

MENDELSSOHN: CHORAL LIEDER

****

HARMONIA MUNDI, 13.70

THIS Mendelssohn disc is to be recommended on two fronts. First, it is a timely reminder – as we approach the bicentenary of his birth in 2009 – of the composer's pre-eminence as a writer of choral music, where he combined clarity of texture with delicate, well-judged sentimentality. Secondly, it might just spur on choral directors to perform these secular works, as they are misguidedly ignored for that aforementioned sentimentality. These crisp, clean a cappella performances of the various sets of songs – from the fresh Heine and Goethe settings of Op41 to the Eichendorff texts of Op59 and Hausmann's Im Wald that closes the Op100 Vier Lieder – make a compelling case, flirting capriciously with their directness of touch and the deliberate navety of the composer's approach.

Hans-Christoph Rademann directs the RIAS Kammerchor in a sequence of slick performances that are immaculately phrased and completely in tune with the simplicity of all 28 songs.

KENNETH WALTON

JAZZ

JOHN RANDALL QUINTET: INSOMNIA

***

TENTOTEN RECORDS, 13.70

THE latest release on drummer Clark Tracey's record label features a powerful quintet led by a new drum talent. John Randall caught Tracey's attention when he heard the group during a stint as an examiner at Birmingham Conservatoire, and this debut album is a fair indication of the qualities which caught his ear.

A first-class degree and a couple of prestigious awards later, the drummer's debut album has a tightly focused group feel and edgy, energised invention that augurs well for things to come. The core quintet is augmented on half of the tunes by guitarist Phil Robson.

All eight compositions are by Randall, and the players respond to their often subtle twists and turns in absorbing fashion. Don't look for straight-ahead swing – the music is relentlessly contemporary, reflecting their awareness and absorption of genres well beyond jazz.

STAN TRACEY OCTET: THE EARLY WORKS

****

RESTEAMED RECORDS, 17.99

ARTISTS issuing their own recordings is a commonplace – and often a necessity – these days, but pianist Stan Tracey was a pioneer in that regard. His Steam Records goes back to the days of vinyl, and this ongoing series of reissues is making those recordings available again in remastered form on CD.

This double set combines two classic live recordings, The Bracknell Connection (1976) and The Salisbury Suite (1978). They feature Tracey's excellent eight-piece band, which included such luminaries as saxophonists Art Themen and Don Weller, trumpeter Harry Beckett and Dave Green on bass. The only personnel change is that alto saxophonist Peter King is replaced by Jeff Daly on The Salisbury Suite.

Three decades on, the music retains much of its power and free-flowing invention, and the first disc also includes a long previously unissued track, Chiffik, from the Salisbury Arts Festival in 1976.

KENNY MATHIESON

WORLD

TRADITIONAL VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL PIECES: SHAKUHACHI, BIWA, KOTO, SHAMISEN

****

NONESUCH, 10.76

MORE riches from the seemingly inexhaustible Nonesuch Explorers series, first released as LPs in the 1960s and 1970s, and now remastered on CD. Each of these instruments has its own particular charm. The banjo-like shamisen, designed to be played outdoors or in performances of Kabuki theatre, suggests conviviality; the koto suggests deep thought, and was traditionally the preserve of scholarly virtuosos who composed sound-poems for it.

The biwa lute is subtler than its martial Chinese cousin, the pipa (whose name was simply adjusted when the Japanese imported it); the shakuhachi – once played by monastic "priests of nothingness" with baskets over their heads – is a bamboo flute requiring a zen-like poise and patience on the part of the musician (it's played with the lower lip partly inside the open top end).

When these instruments are put together in a lullaby – as in an inspired arrangement by the director of Ensemble Nipponia, whose music is featured here – the effect is exquisite.

The other highlight of this record is The Folding Fan as a Target, which is a Japanese variant on the William Tell legend, with the fan serving as the apple. Sung and self-accompanied by Ayako Handa, this suggests the sound of the wind and the arrow being let fly, in an atmosphere of extreme theatricality.

THE DEVIL'S HORN: BRASS-BAND TRADITIONS FROM THE HIGHLANDS OF BOLIVIA

****

PAN, 17.99

THIS unusual CD is the result of ethnomusicology at its best: Miranda van der Speck lived and played among these musicians while researching her doctoral thesis.

All the music was recorded at fiestas; rough and real, it's full of atmosphere. The liner notes paint a vivid social picture, noting aspects of the Andean culture that affect this exhilarating music.

MICHAEL CHURCH