On Record – Valerie Fritz & Nina Gurol: Pas de deux (NEOS Music)

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Valerie Fritz (cello), Nina Gurol (piano)

Clarke Viola Sonata (1919, arr. composer)
Debussy Cello Sonata in D minor, L135 (1915)
Höller Mouvements (2010); Piano Sonata no.3 (2010-11); Signe ascendant (2024)

NEOS Music 12526 [74’02”]
Producers Dominik Weinmann, Marie-Josefin Melchior Engineer Klemens Kamp

Recorded 14-16 April 2025 at Studio 2, Bavarian Radio, Munich

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

NEOS issues an album such as places three contrasted works by York Höller (b.1944) within the context of two sonatas from the earlier 20th century, which all adds up to an illuminating programme when realized with the artistry and perception of those musicians featured here.

What’s the music like?

His most recent piece for an instrument prominent in his output, Signe ascendant has Höller paying tribute to Pierre Boulez on what would have been his 100th birthday via a miniature whose motivic content is derived from the latter’s surname – its lucid and eventful unfolding typical of this composer. Written for a competition organized by Kulturkreis der Deutschen Industrie, the Third Piano Sonata comprises a single movement which is in almost constant evolution; its improvisatory opening phase setting out motifs to be developed in alternately incisive and lyrical episodes towards a conclusion the more powerful in expression through being so methodically attained. Coming respectively 42 and 24 years after his earlier such works, the present piece is no less summatory of Höller’s music at its time of composition.

Its being an ‘abstract’ or ‘imaginary’ ballet makes clear the link between Mouvements and similarly designated works by Höller’s teacher Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Not that it could be mistaken for any other composer – witness the sardonic playfulness of its Entrée, duly intensified in the Pas de deux; the Interlude affords a measure of ruminative while by no means uneventful calm, before the Finale ties up any thematic and conceptual loose-ends via a purposefulness as makes this work more than the sum of its already impressive parts.

The first of a projected six sonatas (only three of which were realized) intended to reinforce his innately French aesthetic, Debussy’s Cello Sonata gets a restrained yet insightful reading – its ‘Prologue’ exuding a fugitive uncertainty brusquely countered by the Sérénade, whose disjunctive gestures are duly channelled into the tensile energy of the Finale.

Even finer as an interpretation is that of the Viola Sonata by Rebecca Clarke, in its highly idiomatic cello transcription. Whether in the restless though precisely gauged musings of its Impetuoso, the speculative dialogue of its central Vivace then rapt serenity of its final Adagio which builds unerringly to the bracing and affirmative close, this is a superb rendering of a work that has (rightly) come into its own during the past quarter-century as a cornerstone of its repertoire.

Does it all work?

Undoubtedly – even if, as a sequence, it might have been preferable to have commenced with the Debussy then continue with the three Höller works and ended with the Clarke. That said, it is easy enough to re-programme the order and this hardly detracts from the persuasiveness of what is heard here; Valerie Fritz and Nina Gurol conveying the specific qualities of the duo works while pointing up stylistic connections between them. Those who know Höller’s Third Sonata through Fabio Martino’s account (Oehms) will likely find Gurol even more insightful.

Is it recommended?

Very much so. Spacious but not lacking definition, the sound is well up to NEOS’s customary high standards and there are succinct if informative booklet notes by the musicians. Hopefully there will be further such combinations of modern and contemporary music from this source.

Listen / Buy

You can explore purchase options on the NEOS website. Click on the names to read more about cellist Valerie Fritz, pianist Nina Gurol and composer York Höller

Published post no.2,912 – Tuesday 9 June 2026

On Record – Moses Pergament Volume One: A Musical Miscellany (Toccata Classics)

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Martin Malmgren (piano) (all except Fantasia differente) with Tomas Nuñez (cello) (Meditations, Melodia romantica, Fantasia differente); musicians from Agora Music Collective [Sebastian Silén, Lea Tuuri (violins), Mathias Hortling (cello)] (Chanson triste); Helsinki Metropolitan Orchestra / Sasha Mäkilä (Piano Concerto); Helsinki Chamber Orchestra / Aku Sorensen (Fantasia differente)

Moses Pergament
Piano Concerto (1951-2)
Sorrow Op.5 (1908-09)
Lyrical Dances (1912-14)
King Solomon – Sulamith’s Dance
Chanson triste (both 1915)
The Feast of Esther (1936): Dance; Adagio
They Stakes their Lives (1939): The Mill, Minuet (both arr. Malgren), Valse lente
Festive Fanfare (1961, arr. composer)
For Nicole (1974)
Meditation (1974)
Meditation (1969)
Melodia romantica (1970)
Fantasia differente (1969)

Toccata Classics TOCC0728 [76’28”]
Producer Martin Malmgren Engineers Matti Heinonen, Sofia Riippi

Recorded 2021-2024, with full venue details here

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Classics issued the first in a series affording an overview of Moses Pergament (1893-1977), a Finnish-born Swedish composer, conductor and critic whose music received belated recognition in his lifetime and has received scant attention in the half-century since his death.

What’s the music like?

Not a few listeners (such as this reviewer) first encountered Pergament in Stig Westerberg’s recording of the ballet Krelantems och Eldeling, striking and eventful music which typifies his complex stylistic make-up overall. The present release ranges widely over Pergament’s output – thereby confirming his idiom to be less one of innate originality than a skilful and constantly evolving synthesis as draws on his Lithuanian ancestry, Finnish adolescence and Swedish maturity; all the while underpinned with elements drawn from his Jewish heritage.

This is nowhere better demonstrated than in his Piano Concerto. Whether or not the musical content infers any concrete programme, it provides a refreshing take on the three-movement archetype – taking in a tensile allegro prefaced by a commanding Maestoso, an eloquent and often plangent adagio, then a lively and increasingly propulsive Allegretto with the deftest of resolutions. Standing in a notable linage of such concertos by Hindemith (1945), Tcherepnin, Blacher (both 1947) and Rosenberg (1950), this is a significant work whose revival is timely.

The remainder of this anthology unfolds, chronologically, from the inwardly elegiac Sorrow and the quizzical playfulness of three Lyrical Dances, to the charged sensuality of Sulamith’s Dance then suffused lamenting (abetted in its revised scoring) of Chanson triste. Two pieces from a seemingly unused score for the play The Feast of Esther convey a calmly simmering intensity, and three pieces for the film They Staked their Lives yield an imaginative response to what appears a well-meaning but unintentionally hilarious perspective on Totalitarianism.

The proclamatory Festive Fanfare and touchingly evocative For Nicole lead into a group of cello pieces inspired by the artistry of Gaspar Cassadó. Although the latest of these, the solo Meditation sounds inwardly pensive next to the overt volatility of the eponymous duo from five years earlier or the distinctly equivocal interplay of Melodia romantica. The final piece also makes the deepest impact – Fantasia differente emerging as a processional of mounting anguish then sombre evanescence, its ‘Ciélo e térra’ subtitle hinting at an existential subtext.

Does it all work?

Pretty much throughout – owing not least to the commitment from these musicians, for whom making this album was far more than just another assignment. Above all, those contributions of Martin Malmgren who not only tackles the Piano Concerto with aplomb but also pens the detailed and what might be called ‘positively contentious’ notes on this composer’s life and music; part of a booklet which also includes a pertinent consideration of national identity by Henrik Rosengren. Those new to Pergament could hardly hope for a more inclusive context.

Is it recommended?

It is. Anyone suitably enthused should investigate releases on the Phono Suecia and Caprice labels, not least the choral symphony The Jewish Song regarded as Pergament’s masterpiece. The second volume of this Toccata Classics survey, devoted to songs, has just been released.

Listen / Buy

You can hear excerpts from the album and explore purchase options at the Toccata Classics website. Click on the names to read more about composer Moses Pergament and pianist Martin Malmgren

Published post no.2,911 – Monday 8 June 2026

Arcana at the Opera – Verdi: La Traviata @ Garsington Opera

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Verdi’s La Traviata, Garsington Opera at Wormsley, Stokenchurch, UK | Pictured: Madison Leonard (Violetta Valéry); Oleksiy Palchykov (Alfredo Germont) | Image © Julian Guidera 2026

Violetta Valéry – Madison Leonard (soprano); Alfredo Germont – Oleksiy Palchykov (tenor); Giorgio Germont – Roland Wood (baritone); Gastone de Letorières – Sam Harris (tenor); Baron Douphol – Chuma Sijeqa (baritone); Doctor Grenvil – Henry Waddington (bass baritone); Annina – Mathilda Bryngelsson (mezzo-soprano); Flora Bervoix – Alexandria Moon (mezzo-soprano); Marchese d’Obigny – Sam Young (baritone); Giuseppe – Matthew Sotillo-Cooke (tenor); Messenger – Peter Lidbetter (bass); Flora’s Servant – Sisa Mjekula (baritone)

Garsington Opera Chorus, Philharmonia Orchestra / Douglas Boyd

Director Louisa Muller; Designer Christopher Oram; Lighting Designer Marcus Doshi; Movement Director Matthew Steffens

Garsington Opera, Wormsley
Sunday 31 May 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Among Verdi’s most often revived works, despite a somewhat fraught premiere at La Fenice, La traviata has long since became a victim of that familiarity breeding contempt. From which vantage this production, itself a first for Garsington Opera, affords something of a corrective.

First unveiled at Santa Fe Opera two years ago, Louisa Muller’s staging provides a welcome abstraction – blurring the sense of any specific time or place without sacrificing that dramatic realism Verdi was intent on conveying in his handling of Piave’s skilful libretto. What comes over most readily is the interplay of outward (public) show and inward (private) confessional – abetted by Christopher Oram’s arresting and deftly rotating sets, along with Marcus Doshi’s alternately garish or spectral lighting and Matthew Steffens’s fluid yet alluring choreography.

Cast-wise the evening is dominated by Madison Leonard’s Violetta, a victim of circumstance too capricious to warrant respect if never too obstinate to seem other than empathetic. Caught between the dictates of her own desires and those of a society intent on having a piece of her, she presides over or propels the action even at her most vulnerable and has the vocal presence to match. Hardly her equal emotionally, Oleksy Palchykov is a steadfast Alfredo as out of his depth in this social milieu as in affairs of the heart, while always believable in his protestation of love as to override those admittedly selfish warnings from his father. To which end Roland Wood is a forthright but never unyielding Germont, drawn unwillingly yet inevitably into that ‘love triangle’ such as makes this opera far more social commentary than escapist indulgence.

© Copyright Clive Barda 2026

Smaller roles are unobtrusively well taken, among them Mathilda Bryngelsson’s supportive if uncomplaining Annina and Henry Waddington’s brooding yet compassionate Doctor. Chuma Sijeqa brings panache to the otherwise vacuous Douphol, with Alexandria Moon’s Flora and Sam Harris’ Gastone pertinent cameos both as confidants of Violetta or Alfredo respectively, and Sam Young not a little amusing as Flora’s lover d’Obigny. Neither can Garsington Opera Chorus be faulted for its contributions which, in themselves, mark something of a departure for Verdi by eschewing the brazenness of his earlier ‘crowd scenes’ for something altogether subtler and more insinuating. Verdi might not have drawn attention to the psychology of his situations as did Wagner, but this does not make his approach any less probing or insightful.

Verdi’s La Traviata, Garsington Opera at Wormsley, Stokenchurch, UK | Pictured: Alexandria Moon (Flora Bervoix) | Image © Julian Guidera 2026

Douglas Boyd steers a confident and assured course across an opera which can all too easily become episodic whatever its relative concision. He is no less mindful of a need to underline the restraint in orchestral writing that finds Verdi exploring more equivocal and ambivalent shades of expression; not least the fateful preludes to the first and third acts which, between them, encapsulate this drama’s emotional as surely as its motivic essence. Suffice to add that the Philharmonia renders the score with a finesse not always to be expected in the opera-pit.

A finesse, moreover, maintained throughout a final scene whose gradual evanescence makes the implacability of its closing chords the more startling. They undoubtedly set the seal on a production which, taken overall, restores to this opera an integrity it should always have had.

La Traviata runs until 24 July 2026 – with performances on 13, 20, 24 & 28 June, then 9, 11, 16, 20 & 24 July. You can find more information on the production and explore ticket options at the Garsington Opera website

Published post no.2,910 – Sunday 7 June 2026

In concert – Sarah Tandy @ Ronnie Scott’s, London

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Sarah Tandy (piano), Poppy Daniels (trumpet), Binker Golding (tenor saxophone), Jihad Darwish (bass), Jamie Murray (drums)

Ronnie Scott’s, London, 2 June 2026

by John Earls

“There’s nothing like breaking yourself in gently,” I whispered ironically to my companion as Sarah Tandy finished a blistering piano solo in the opening number of this show. It was clear from the outset that this was going to be something special.

I have seen Tandy play live quite a few times but only as part of saxophonist Binker Golding’s band (most recently at Ronnie Scott’s in April 2024 – you can read my review here). So it was great to see her performing her own compositions as band leader, and what a band they are. Golding on tenor saxophone, Jihad Darwish on bass, Jamie Murray on drums and Poppy Daniels who was magnificent on trumpet.

The concert comprised of two sets showcasing tunes from Tandy’s forthcoming album Delicious Capricious due for release in the autumn. After the breathtaking start, the first, mostly acoustic, set continued the pace, with the exception of a short meditative electric bass loop intro from Darwish. All the band got to shine with Golding and Daniels particularly in the spotlight giving bebop-ish flourishes. Murray let loose with some controlled drum thumping at the end of Bradbury Street, the only delve into Tandy’s excellent 2019 debut album Infection in the Sentence.

The second set was a more electric affair with Tandy focusing on electric piano and synthesiser but continuing to show marvellous keyboard virtuosity. Golding’s sax solos continued his earlier intensity but Daniels’ trumpet playing replaced the first set’s rapidity with a more reflective, melodic shaping that was no less enthralling.

Towards the end the band were joined for two numbers by MC Tee Peters whose rapping was a fast, fluent and well matched accompaniment to the music (although this Chelsea supporting reviewer couldn’t get on board with the pro-Arsenal sentiment of the second song).

On a day that had seen London smothered with heavy showers, the concert closed with a glorious version of On the Sunny Side of the Street kickstarted by Tandy before the band tore into it with joy and vigour concluding with Golding playing out a teasing finale. Among the many interpreters of this jazz standard was the great saxophonist Sonny Rollins who had died aged 95 the previous week and is one of artists in the framed gallery of pictures adorning the walls of Ronnie’s (a place he played). Whether intended as a tribute or not, it seemed a fitting end to the evening by this supremely talented younger generation of jazz musicians.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union and posts at @johnearls.bsky.social on Bluesky and @john_earls on X. You can subscribe (free) to his Hanging Out a Window Substack column here: https://johnearls.substack.com/

Published post no.2,909 – Saturday 6 June 2026

In concert – CBSO / Ilan Volkov: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring & Stokowski transcriptions

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City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Ilan Volkov (above)

Frescobaldi arr Stokowski Gagliarda Seconda (1627/1934)
Purcell arr Stokowski Dido’s Lament (1689/1949)
Debussy arr Stokowski The Sunken Cathedral (1910/1930)
Mussorgsky arr Stokowski Boris Godunov: Coronation Scene (1874/1936)
J.S. Bach arr Stokowski Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV565 (c1708/1927)
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (1911-13)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 3 June 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture (c) Hannah Blake-Fathers

He might not officially become Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra until next season, but Ilan Volkov – a valued collaborator over the past two decades – gave notice of his intentions with this enterprising programme of Stokowski and Stravinsky.

Stokowski, that is, in his role as an arranger often interventionist, frequently provocative while always compelling. The first four of these pieces played without break – the hieratic poise of Frescobaldi’s Gagliarda Seconda, with its layering of wind and strings, leading into Purcell’s Dido’s Lament with its soulful interplay of solo and massed strings. This sequence moved up a gear with The Sunken Cathedral, here becoming the most evocative of Debussy’s Préludes as its washes of percussion prepared for an apparition of sonorous splendour before returning to the murky depths. Volkov will hopefully schedule Stokowski’s entire Symphonic Synthesis from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov at a future concert though, for now, the Coronation Scene offered a tantalizing taster as its ringing ostinato patterns built toward a cinematic apotheosis.

It made sense to round off this sequence with Toccata and Fugue, most characteristic of the conductor’s numerous Bach reworkings and the most archetypal of all his arrangements. Its sonic opulence is balanced by an analytical acuity with the orchestral sections stratified so to bring out the motivic intricacy of its Toccata as well as the mounting impetus of its Fugue on the way to a glowering peroration. The CBSO gave its collective all in a piece that, whether or not this is actually by Bach, could not be an arrangement by anyone other than Stokowski.

Stokowski directed the American premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in Philadelphia some 104 years ago and the questing zeal heard in his 1930 recording seemed no less evident in Volkov’s performance – assuredly no powerhouse conception and all the more impressive because of it. With bassoonist Nikolaj Henriques given his head in its plangent Introduction, the first part proceeded stealthily and its myriad shades of detail or expressive nuance given focus through the music’s unfolding at a consistent while unbroken pulse. Such as the innate violence in Ritual of Abduction and inexorable Ritual of the Rival Tribes were drawn into an indivisible whole whose accruing tension found release in a seismic Dance of the Earth.

If the second part emerged more episodically, this was owing more to its actual content than to any interpretative failing. Certainly the diaphanous haze of its Introduction segued with due seamlessness into Mystic Circles of the Young Girls of ominous import. Nor was there any wanton pictorialism in Ritual Action of the Ancestors, with the trenchancy at the start of the Sacrificial Dance a telling foil to the unbridled impetus which followed. Others may have drawn a purely visceral frenzy from this music, but relatively few can have channelled such impetus through to so conclusive and (strange as this sounds) satisfying a final gesture.

Impressive music-making, then, that augurs well for Volkov’s three concerts with the CBSO next season. Hopefully there will also be an opportunity for this conductor to expand on his extensive discography, as part of what should prove an arresting and productive relationship.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the name to read more on conductor Ilan Volkov, while you can watch him in action in a number of videos below:

Jorge E Lopez | Symphony No.4

Ilan Volkov conducts works by Schreker and Strauss – YouTube

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 – Brussels Philharmonic & Ilan Volkov – HD

Published post no.2,908 – Friday 5 June 2026