Works for Guitar by Tarrega, J.S. Bach, de Faria and Ponce. Fabio Zanon, guitar – Naxos 8.554431 (65 minutes).
Among the many ongoing Naxos cycles, the ‘Laureate Series’ is probably one of the most enterprising. Its aim is to focus on young but very talented musicians, who are at the beginning of their career, and so need a wider exposure.
One such soloist is Fabio Zanon, a Brazilian guitarist, who since winning the 1996 Francisco Tarrega Competition has taken the musical world by storm. The young Zanon already showed signs of great promise when still a student, giving his first concert at the age of 16. He made his orchestral debut two years later in São Paulo, and this experience was followed by further success in competitions in Canada, Cuba, Spain and Italy. He attended Julian Bream’s master classes, and also performed at Wigmore Hall in 1995. Recent engagements have taken him to an acclaimed 50-concert tour of North America.
The programme on this disc is a mixed bag. Zanon incorporates works by five composers, with Spain’s Francisco Tarrega (1825-1909) featuring prominently with nine pieces. Bach’s Sonata in A Minor, BWV 1003 is given a marvellous transcription by the same soloist, while Alexandre de Faria (Brazil, b. 1929), Johann Kaspar Mertz (Hungary 1806-1856) and Manuel Ponce (Mexico, 1886-1948) are represented by one piece each.
As expected, this issue is a feast of colour and rhythm, but Zanon’s amazing skills are also a cause of admiration, and all guitar enthusiasts should find much to soothe their tastes and curiosities. An engaging and relaxing disc in clean, clear sound, which I recommend wholeheartedly.
Sibelius: Symphony No. 7; Tapiola; Pohjola’s Daughter; The Maiden with the Rose. GRIEG: The Last Spring. BBC Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitsky – Naxos 8.110168 (59 minutes).
This disc in the ‘Great Conductors’ series focuses on arguably one of the greatest exponents of this art of the 20th century. Serge Koussevitsky was a Russian émigré, who during his brilliant career forged a special relationship with Jean Sibelius, the great Finnish composer.
Having left his homeland after the 1917 revolution, like so many contemporary Russian musicians, Koussevitsky settled in America, and it was here that his art flourished. In 1924 he succeeded Pierre Monteux aschief conductor of the Boston Symphony, a post he held for 25 years, and it was also inthe States that the works of Sibelius featured consistently in Koussevitsky’s programmes.
The recordings on this issue date from 1933 to 1940, but Sibelius’s Seventh has never sounded so vibrant and intense. Critics comment that the finale has rarely been matched let alone surpassed, and the Boston recording of Tapiola is also imbued with an elemental power and unitythat tap the same source of the symphony.
Pohjola’s Daughter is also given a searing reading and Sibelius’s future abstract style, although brought to the fore with great clarity, is never allowed to diminish the descriptive colours of the story.
The two short pieces by Sibelius and Grieg are dispatched with a lightness of touch that has a wonderful mood of relaxation. Although restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn has worked wonders with these takes, the sound remains rather primitive. Still, this should not deter collectors from admiring a great master at work.
Rozsa: Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song, Op. 4; Duo for Violin and Piano, Op. 7; North Hungarian Peasant Songs and Dances, Op. 5; Sonata for Violin Solo, Op. 40. Phillippe Quint, violin, William Wolfram, piano – Naxos 8.570190 (60 minutes).
One of the pre-eminent composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Miklos Rozsa (1907-1995) was also a writer of works for the concert hall and chamber pieces. Born in Budapest, he demonstrated a talent for music at a very young age. Indeed, by the age of seven he was already playing Mozart in public.
An important influence on the young Rozsa was the peasant music he learnt at his family’s summer estate north of Budapest. Despite his father’s strong opposition, he eventually allowed his son to enter the Leipzig Conservatory from where he graduated in 1928. Rozsa’s career as a composer was now assured, and for the next 50 years his music, particularly his opulent and monumental film scores, fascinated young and old alike.
The works on this CD span the entire length of his glittering career, and all four reveal a composer of stature and imagination. The Variations and Peasant Songs and Dances both date from 1929, and are two of just three works that employ actual folk melodies. The Duo, Op. 7, was written two years later, and apart from its substantial length, the piece has also many happy and sunlit moments.
The 1986 Violin Sonata was composed during a very hard time, when illness forced Rozsa to concentrate on music for single instruments. Its austere, challenging and dissonant language reflects all the physical suffering that the composer was going through at the time. A highly interesting issue, in excellent sound and notes, that should more than enhance Rozsa’s reputation in the field of classical repertoire.
These CDs were made available for review by D’Amato Record Shop of 98/99, St John Street, Valletta.