Daniel Harding reviews
Schoenberg: Violin Concerto; Verklärte Nacht
Isabelle Faust (violin), et al; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding (Harmonia Mundi)
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding (Harmonia Mundi)
Widmann's 'bold and brilliant' new viola concerto
The cover is eye-catching: viola player Antoine Tamestit caught mid-scream, mouth wide open. There is a musical point to the image too. In Jörg Widmann’s 2015 Viola Concerto, written for Tamestit, the soloist becomes a theatrical figure who roams around the orchestra, leaving the usual spot near the conductor. And Widmann, actually a clarinettist by training, fully exploits the viola’s capabilities. Extended techniques – waving the bow through the air, tapping the wood, and yes, even shouting – turn the viola into a one-man-band.
The Wagner Project
Matthias Goerne (baritone); Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding (Harmonia Mundi)
Daniel Harding conducts Henze's Kammermusik
Titles can be misleading. Part song cycle, part chamber concerto, and part series of quasi-lute reflections, Henze’s masterly Kammermusik 1958 is a beatific setting of Hölderlin’s In lieblicher Bläue for tenor, guitar and small ensemble.