\n<\/p>\n
Julie Roset, soprano; Beth Taylor, mezzo-soprano; Lucile Richardot, alto; Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, tenor; Christian Immler, bass; Pygmalion; Rapha\u00ebl Pichon, conductor (Harmonia Mundi)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Rapha\u00ebl Pichon and the musicians of his Pygmalion chorus and orchestra have made some extremely fine recordings over the last several years, from their Monteverdi \u201cVespers\u201d<\/a> to their Mozart \u201cRequiem.\u201d<\/a> This Bach, however, is truly exceptional. It is not at all an act of staunch certainty and steadfast belief, the kind of monument that other conductors have made of this Mass. It\u2019s a human drama, filled with the struggle and complexity of our mortal experiences. Above all, it sounds alive.<\/p>\n Blessed with playing and singing of extraordinary virtuosity, Pichon<\/a> seems determined to find every last accent of expressivity in the score, resolved to shape the smallest details in service of his broader ideas. It\u2019s hard not to be swept away by the sheer vigor of \u201cCum Sancto Spiritu,\u201d performed as if a gust of the Holy Spirit were sweeping past, or by the regal grandeur of \u201cEt resurrexit.\u201d<\/p>\n Pichon is at his most breathtakingly interventionist at the first \u201cEt expecto resurrectionem,\u201d a moment that he sees as Bach inviting us into the darkest frailties of his faith: Everything stretches out as time dissolves and dissonance cuts at the ear. Still, this is Bach, and the \u201cDona nobis pacem,\u201d though uncertain at first, grants a new dawn that blazes with resplendent light. If this is Bach for our times, then we are fortunate to have it. DAVID ALLEN<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There\u2019s a lot to keep track of with the \u201cinverted\u201d string quartet known as Owls: It uses two cellos instead of two violins, necessitating repertoire rearrangement; it is game to play Baroque as well as contemporary material; one of its cellists, Paul Wiancko, also composes for the group. Perhaps the most notable thing about Owls, though, is the evident joy that Wiancko, his fellow cellist Gabriel Cabezas, the violinist Alexi Kenney and the violist Ayane Kozasa find when playing together.<\/p>\n Take the opening number on this album, Wiancko\u2019s \u201cWhen the Night\u201d (an extended homage to the first three notes of Ben E. King\u2019s \u201cStand by Me\u201d). After a melancholic intro, the interlocking melodic parts of the second minute receive loving, precisely etched attention. After that, you\u2019ll hear the group\u2019s take on a ricercar composed by the folk duo Trollstilt; a fervid dance by the Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh; a gorgeous morsel from Couperin; and another of Wiancko\u2019s stirring originals.<\/p>\n The closing piece is the group\u2019s arrangement of the finale from Terry Riley\u2019s two-hour string quartet \u201cSalome Dances for Peace.\u201d I came away from \u201cRare Birds\u201d hoping that Owls might commit to an all-Riley disc. And an all-Couperin set. Plus some more Wiancko originals. Whatever comes next, it may take some time. For one thing, Wiancko is a new member of the substantially revamped Kronos Quartet<\/a>. But with such audible chemistry, the members of Owls are bound to collaborate again. SETH COLTER WALLS<\/p>\n Ariel Quartet (Orchid Classics)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A good string quartet, so the saying goes, sounds like a single instrument. At moments on this lively first volume of its perusal of the complete Beethoven string quartets, the players of the Ariel Quartet come across like a living organism with a single central nervous system that transmits emotional impulses to every part of the body.<\/p>\n In this first set of six quartets, published in 1801, where Mozartian freshness mixes with fitful irascibility, it\u2019s often the middle voices that function as the engine of disruption. With needling staccatos, crisp articulation and breathless tempos, the Ariel players bring out the excitability of Beethoven\u2019s fast movements. Even in slow movements such as the heartbreaking Adagio of Quartet No. 1<\/a>, yearning lyricism is tempered by a restless pulse that draws the music inexorably forward. The result is an invigorating take on a repertory staple that restores a sense of lightness and unpredictability to works written by a composer who was just getting started in revolutionizing the string quartet genre. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM<\/p>\n London Philharmonic Orchestra; Thomas Ad\u00e8s, conductor (LPO)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In this world premiere recording of suites from Thomas Ad\u00e8s\u2019s stage works, the composer\u2019s electrifying theatricality and extravagant orchestrations leap out of the speakers. Even without singers, dancers or sets, his intentions remain radically clear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The \u201cLuxury Suite\u201d from \u201cPowder Her Face\u201d expands the orchestral forces of the original chamber opera, a daring abstraction of the Duchess of Argyll\u2019s salacious, tabloid-addled life. Ad\u00e8s dials up the work\u2019s sleazy, slinky glamour with a wanton lavishness. His second opera, an adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cThe Tempest,\u201d creates an entirely different sound world of enchantments. In the corresponding suite, the sprite Ariel\u2019s eccentric, wispy charms are of a piece with the earthier magic of Ferdinand and Miranda\u2019s newly kindled romance.<\/p>\n Ad\u00e8s\u2019s musical language feels recognizable, but also original. He deploys familiar sounds \u2014 a saxophone playing an unseemly tango or a magical atmosphere of glockenspiel, harp and woodwinds \u2014 without clich\u00e9. A spellbinding mercuriality keeps the music moving from one penetrating moment to the next.<\/p>\n His way with a sound picture invigorates the \u201cInferno Suite\u201d from his ballet \u201cDante.\u201d Shifting meters convey a queasy, fateful journey over the Acheron. For Satan, who is stuck in a lake of ice, slow-moving winds and strings create a chilly stasis, and the brasses groan deeply, to the very bowels of hell.<\/p>\n The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ad\u00e8s himself, is wonderfully fluent, commanding even, in his idiom. Particularly in the \u201cInferno Suite,\u201d the ensemble sketches characterful scenes of delicate pity, light mockery and withering damnation, matching the versatility of the compositions they bring to life. OUSSAMA ZAHR<\/p>\n Krystian Zimerman, piano; Maria Nowak, violin; Katarzyna Budnik, viola; Yuya Okamoto, cello (Deutsche Grammophon)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Every new album from Krystian Zimerman feels like an event. That\u2019s particularly the case with chamber music, which he plays marvelously<\/a> but rarely<\/a> records<\/a>. Here, in what seems to be his first recording of Brahms chamber works, he tackles the composer\u2019s two lesser-known piano quartets in the company of three string players with whom he has a rapport that is audible from the start, and does not flag, in these attentive and often searing performances.<\/p>\n Like much of Brahms\u2019s chamber music, the piano quartets are symphonically scaled works in which a Classicist\u2019s approach to form meets a Romantic\u2019s zeal for drama. The clash creates a friction that both drives the music\u2019s development and creates numerous hurdles for performers. All the latter are bested here: The four musicians maintain exacting pacing and balances, even in moments where the music seems to edge into pure rage.<\/p>\n Zimerman produces a deep, glowing tone without overwhelming his colleagues. The slow movements are full of unsentimental nobility, and the cellist Yuya Okamoto\u2019s playing in the Third Quartet\u2019s Andante is the essence of dignified lyricism. Given the heat they work up in the closing movements of each piece, one wonders what they could do in the \u201cGypsy Rondo\u201d finale of the more famous G-minor Quartet. They should tackle that next \u2014 or, frankly, anything else they feel like. DAVID WEININGER<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBeethoven: The Complete String Quartets Vol. 1<\/h2>\n
Thomas Ad\u00e8s: Orchestral Suites<\/h2>\n
Brahms: Piano Quartets Nos. 2 & 3<\/h2>\n