Selective Listening | The best of 2024 by Emmanuel Bernier

Posted at 11:00 a.m.

Bach : Six Partitas, Martin Helmchen

At 42, Martin Helmchen has established himself as a symbol of keyboard excellence. The Berlin musician comes to us this time with an album recorded on a tangent piano, a curiosity invented at the end of the 18th century.^e century where it is wooden strips which strike the strings and not hammers, hence a sound close to that of the harpsichord, but also of the pianoforte. An ideal instrument to magnify the polyphony of the six Partites by Bach, which he plays with a sense of invention and expressiveness at every moment.

Bach : Complete Cello Suites – The 2023 Sessions, Jean-Guihen Queyras

More Bach? Worse: still his works for cello by Jean-Guihen Queyras! The Franco-Quebec musician wasn’t fed up with having released one of the modern reference versions at Harmonia Mundi in 2007? Now he’s doing it again with the same publisher! And this, always with his faithful cello by Gioffredo Cappa (1696). Just listen to the two versions of the Courante and the Sarabande of the Suite n^o 1 to see how far we have come. As in several other movements, the tempos widen slightly, somewhat tempering the youthful enthusiasm of 2007 with a hint of indecision, of ambiguity. A new classic!

Classical music

Bach : Complete Cello Suites – The 2023 Sessions

Jean-Guihen Queyras

Harmony of the World

Liszt: Sonata in B minor, etc.Nelson Goerner

Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner interests music lovers (often even amazes them) with each new release. Like his compatriot Martha Argerich, the fifty-year-old manages to create worlds with his piano, cultivating an art of beautiful sound which does not hinder the momentum of the story. After a formidable Iberia by Albeniz last year, Goerner has produced a Liszt CD bringing together some hits of the Hungarian composer, first and foremost the Sonata in B minorbut also the three Petrarch’s sonnets and other nuggets. It is not a Liszt who throws flames (Martha Argerich recorded the sonata in four minutes less!), but a Liszt poet who makes the piano sound like an orchestra of a thousand colors.

Classical music

Liszt: Sonata in B minor, etc.

Nelson Goerner

Alpha

Rachmaninoff for TwoSergei Babayan and Daniil Trifonov

Sergei Babayan and Daniil Trifonov are well known to Montrealers, who have heard them several times solo or with orchestra. After the very noted album Prokofiev for Twomade seven years ago with his friend Martha Argerich, Babayan is doing it again with his former student with Rachmaninoff for Twostill with Deutsche Grammophon. The combination of these two exceptional pianistic talents could only produce a little gem, and that is what happened with this recording of the two Suites for two pianos and Symphonic dances by the Russian composer. As a bonus, a magnificent arrangement by Trifonov of the Adagio from Symphony n^o 2. You beau, you grand piano.

Classical music

Rachmaninoff for Two

Sergei Babayan and Daniil Trifonov

German gramophone

George Enescu : Symphonies 1-3 & Romanian Rhapsodies 1 & 2, Cristian Măcelaru et l’Orchester National de France

The Romanian George Enescu is much better known for his Romanian rhapsodies and his opera Oedipus as for his symphonies. Little recorded, these come back in force with the complete engraved by his compatriot Cristian Măcelaru, at the head of the Orchester National de France, a fitting return, since it is France which saw the works created at the beginning of the 20th century^e century. His three completed symphonies, as well as the Romanian Rhapsodies, are served in an orchestral setting ideal for its colorful harmonies and polyphonic richness. Without being the most Dionysian conductor, Măcelaru clearly has a real love for these scores.

Classical music

George Enescu : Symphonies 1-3 & Romanian Rhapsodies 1 & 2

Cristian Măcelaru et l’Orchester National de France

German gramophone