Album reviews and new releases: guitar master John Williams and a harpist at the movies

AV2362

AV2362

AV2362

Gershwin in Hollywood
The John Wilson Orchestra/John Wilson
Warner Classics 2564649373
 
John Wilson’s live tribute to George Gershwin is an exhilarating album of movie music, featuring mainly posthumous versions of great songs, composed by Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira. The Gershwins went to Hollywood in 1930, but their first film score, Delicious, bombed, and they quickly headed back to New York. They returned in 1936 to compose songs for the Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire classic, Shall We Dance. This fared much better, with six outstanding songs, including masterpieces such as 'They can’t Take That Away From Me'. However, while working on their next Hollywood assignment, A Damsel in Distress, Gershwin was laid low by crippling headaches, which turned out to be a brain tumour, from which he died, still not yet 40. But Gershwin's songs continued to be used in movies as diverse as the sentimental biopic Rhapsody in Blue, from which also comes a marvellous 10-minute overture that kicks off the fun here, through to Star!, with a fine arrangement of 'Someone to Watch Over Me'. Wilson has painstakingly reconstructed the original arrangements of Gershwin songs from ten movies, including classics like An American in Paris.  It’s not just the remarkable pizazz of Wilson’s orchestra that makes its impact here, but also the obvious authenticity of these brilliantly played arrangements. Sometimes Wilson is let down by the singers he uses, who, unlike the orchestra, often don’t sound as good as the original vocalists. But this one, recorded in front of an excitable audience at the Royal Albert Hall last November, is different and better, with both vocalists, Louise Dearman and Matt Ford, sounding convincing most of the time. Of the 17 tracks here, 15 are songs, and I still think Wilson should revert to music that gives his orchestra the chance to shine on their own. But this is still a top class issue that will give great pleasure both to nostalgists, and to young people discovering the genius of the Gershwins for the first time.

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Bargain of the Week

Simon Rattle and his Soloists - The CBSO Years
Nigel Kennedy/Kyung Wha Chung/Leif Ove Andsnes/Julian Bream/Katia & Marielle Labèque/Cécile Ousset/Peter Donohoe/Lars Vogt/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle
Warner Classics Warner Classics 2564648040
 
This second instalment of key recordings, made during Simon Rattle’s 18-year tenure in Birmingham, covers key concerto recordings. This box is best regarded as a lucky dip – with 26 concertos, ranging from Beethoven and Rachmaninov to Bartók and Malcolm Arnold. There are lots of terrific add-ons such as Peter Donohoe in Rhapsody in Blue, Nigel Kennedy playing The Lark Ascending, and Leif Ove Andsnes tacking on three Brahms’s Intermezzi to his excellent account of Brahms’s First Concerto. All these performances are good, and some truly outstanding, such as Kennedy playing the violin concertos of Elgar and Sibelius. What a sadness Kennedy has floated off into a weird world of his own, when he could play core concertos as well as this. Amongst other highlights, there’s another Norwegian, Truls Mork in an underrated recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Donohoe – with whom Rattle worked regularly with in Birmingham – in Bartok's three concertos; difficult music, brilliantly executed. A particular joy for me is Malcolm Arnold’s delicious Guitar Concerto, with its totally memorable, very English melody in the first movement, and then a bluesy tribute to Django Reinhardt in the second, played by its dedicatee Julian Bream. At £29 or less for 15 albums, this box is almost unmissable, even if you have these concertos played by others. No single recording ever tells you everything you need to know about key pieces of music like these concertos. And all of Rattle’s soloists have insights worth experiencing.
 
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Best of the rest

Schubert: Symphony No 9
Philharmonia Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnányi
Signum 431
 
Christoph von Dohnányi, now in his late 80s but still active, has been associated with the Philharmonia Orchestra for more than 20 years, first as principal guest conductor, then a decade as principal conductor, before becoming Honorary Conductor For Life in 2008. This Schubert 9, from a live concert at the Royal Festival Hall last October, brings out the best in him, and shows that his powers have not diminished with age. This is a sane, middle of the road account of Schubert’s masterpiece, and all the better for it.  The music is allowed to unfold seemingly without effort, but always with dramatic focus.  It’s a shame no coupling is available, but nevertheless, there should be a place in every CD collection for performances that make as much of the music as this one does, and are entirely free from attention seeking.
 
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Brahms: Clarinet Quintet/David Bruce: Gumboots
Julian Bliss/Carducci Quartet
Signum SIGCD448
 
Some of the finest music ever written is chamber music, which doesn’t always get the exposure it deserves. I’m on a bit of a crusade to promote chamber music on my Sunday show, given how many terrific albums of chamber music hit my desk, so here goes with two off the wall ones. The outstanding clarinettist Julian Bliss with the Carducci Quartet presents a fine mainstream account of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, arguably the finest of all of Brahms’ 24 chamber pieces, beautifully recorded at Snape Maltings last May. He also finds room for the contemporary composer David Bruce’s Gumboots.  Bruce’s imagination was fired by the dances performed by African workers in the goldmines under apartheid, who were, apparently, not only wearing gumboots but also chained together while they worked. Bruce has produced a very accessible 20-minute piece, with a slow 10 minute introduction and then six often exhilarating dances. If not exactly easy listening, this is nevertheless a piece to which you will want to return, which is not always the case with contemporary music.
 
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Time in Motion
Fukio Ensemble
ARS Produktion ARS38211

The German Fukio Ensemble are a quartet of saxophonists who do a fine job of presenting a well-known piece, Dvorak’s American Quartet, rearranged for saxophones. Stir in some contemporary music, and one of Manuel de Falla’s Spanish dances, and you’ve got a fascinating album, straight out of left field, and worth getting for the American Quartet alone. I’ve always had a soft spot for the saxophone, and am a sucker for this kind of album. More please.

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David Mellor is Opera and Classical Critic of the Mail on Sunday and presenter of his own show on Classic FM, Sundays