March 2012

Informed by our unrivalled panel of critics, we choose the month’s must-hear recordings hoice

BEETHOVEN. BERG Violin Concertos Isabelle Faust vn Orchestra Mozart / Claudio Abbado Harmonia Mundi HCM90 2105

Recording of the Month ‘Faust brings a suggestion of gaiety that renders more poignant the effect of the dark , complex harmony – a bright memory rendered sad and bitter’

FOR THE REVIEW BY DUNCAN DRUCE, TURN TO PAGE 40

Hear every Gramophone Choice recording, including Recording of the Month, through the online Gramophone Player at gramophone.co.uk

SCHUMANN Symphonies Nos 1 & 3 Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen / Paavo Järvi RCA 88697 96431 2 ‘The resourceful orchestra is evidently manned by players who listen very closely to one another. An unreserved recommentation.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 47

TCHAIKOVSKY. MUSSORGSKY Orchestral Works Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Kirill Karabits Onyx ONYX4074 ‘Most ignore the metric ambiguity and place those two thwacks firmly on the beat – but Karabits savours the unruliness of the gesture.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 49

4 GRAMOPHONE MARCH 2012

BEETHOVEN Late String Quartets Brentano Quartet Aeon AECD1110 ‘What is so satisfying is the overall warmth of the playing, with speeds ideally chosen and never forced, with natural rubato and shading and with wonderfully sustained pianissimos.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 52

BACH. PISENDEL Solo Violin Sonatas Amandine Beyer vn Zig-Zag Territoires ZZT110902 ‘Beyer never plays on the listener’s emotions but instead maintains a sliver of detachment that, in the context of her stylish performances, seems appropriate.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 60

LISZT Années de pèlerinage Bertrand Chamayou pf Naive V5260 ‘In the three Petrarch Sonnets Chamayou’s soaring sense of ecstasy is complemented by blazing eruptions of passion, everything engulfed as it were in restless and romantic enquiry.’

REVIEW ON PAGE 61

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