Minkowski disc reviewed in Classical Music Magazine

PURCELL Hail! Bright Cecilia
HANDEL A Song for St Cecilia's Day
HAYDN Cäcilienmesse

Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble
Marc Minkowski

★★★

This lavishly packaged 2-CD set cleverly uses the St Cecilia theme to further link three composers who had major anniversaries in 2009. However, rather than Haydn's complete - and very long - Cäcilienmesse, Marc Minkowski includes only the Kyrie and Gloria, citing H C Robbins London's suggestion that Haydn may have initially composed these opening sections as a separate Missa brevis (although Minkowski also adds two movements from the later Credo as encores). Recorded in Grenoble's M2 auditorium - presumably live, given the edgy energy and somewhat murky acoustic - these very public celebrations of music's patron saint share an extrovert grandeur, which Minkowski's liking for bold gestures, big set pieces and exaggerated tempi underlines, too much so at times since quicker movements can sound hurried and some of the slower ones are almost becalmed. There are thrilling moments from soloists Lucy Crowe, Richard Croft, Anders J Dahlin (in the Purcell) and Nathalie Stutzmann (in the Haydn), but the performances overall are too declamatory, like art executed with too broad a brush.

GL

Anne Sofie von Otter joins naïve - Welcome video

At midem this year, we announced our exciting new signing, Anne Sofie von Otter.  At the announcment, the Swedish mezzo-soprano sent in a video discussing this new collaboration and her future recording projects with us.

We are very happy to be able to show you this video here:



To learn more about Brad Mehldau, the Jazz pianist with whom Anne Sofie will be collaborating on her forthcomin release on Naive, please see the video here:
 


Welcome Anne Sofie and Brad Mehldau and we look forward to a successful 2010!

Greilsammer's Mozart disc reviewed on La Scena by Norman Lebrecht

Mozart: piano concertos 22, 24
(Naïve)

★★★★

David Greilsammer, Jerusalem born, plays conducts and writes his own cadenzas for these even-numbered concertos, less profound than the oddities on either side of them. In the booklet, he then analyses the performance with two players in his New York-based Suedama Ensemble. The openness is refreshing, as is the pinpoint clarity of intonation. Tempi are brisk and the freshness appealing. Greilsammer and friends sound, even to a Mozart sceptic like me, like they are having fun. And so did I.

Alessandrini's 'Vivaldi' disc reviewed in Gramophone magazine

Vivaldi - Gloria

Sara Mingardo Contralto
Concerto Italiano/ Rinaldo Alessandrini

 

Rinaldo Alessandrini's 1997 recording of Vivaldi's most famous Gloria, RV589 was widely acclaimed in some quarters but the wisdom of hindsight makes it transparent that the Italian maverick succumbed to barmy hedonism in the celebrated D major opening. A dozen years later, Alessandrini's re-recording of the Gloria as part of Naïve's Vivaldi Edition bears the traces of the realisation that anarchic speed is not, after all, the best way. This new performance, coupled with the other of Vivaldi's extant settings, still sets off at a brisker pace than most but it is no longer wilfully madcap: the articulate playing of Concerto Italiano permits enough room for the details to emerge, and Alessandrini nowadays seems to have enough confidence in his musicians (and in Vivaldi) to let the muscular expression of rhythms function without impatient snapping at the musical fabric. Another notable improvement from 1997 is his plangent choir. "Et in terra" is perhaps a bit short on mystery and atmosphere but it ebbs and flows in an appealing way, and the fugal "Propter magnam gloriam" is sung with plenty of muscle. "Laudamus te" crackles with energy, and Anna Simboli's graceful "Domine Deus Rex coelestis" features an elegant violin solo by Nicholas Robinson. Sara Mingardo treats "Domine Deus Agnus Dei" like an operatic lament and her copious vibrato feels over-exaggerated (although Francesco Moi's organ realisation is spot on).

Concerto Italiano also delivers a zesty performance of Vivaldi's less famous Gloria setting (RV588). The choir's tuning and intonation can be a little frayed at the edges but the counterpoint in "Qui tollis" is meticulously balanced, Mingardo is at her best in the heartfelt "Qui sedes", and Alessandrini's spirited direction is irresistible. Both Gloria settings are preceded by short solo "introduzioni"; Ostro picta, armata spina (RV642) is played with a charismatic spring in its step and the high florid soprano part is expertly dispatched by Monica Piccinini; it is peculiar that Naïve does not credit her on the cover but prominently names Mingardo, who provides only a little more than the equivalent service for the introduzione to RV588.

David Vickers