This week Classical reviewer Geoff Adams listens to Schubert: Complete Sonatas starring Dunedin-born violinist Robin Wilson, and A New Heaven.
The Dunedin-born violinist Robin Wilson, paired again with a pianist also well known locally (Kemp English) provide satisfying interpretations of Schubert's four sonatas for violin and piano, recorded in Christchurch on a New Zealand label.
Franz Schubert completed his first three sonatas in 1816 at age 16 - probably written for his brother, Ferdinand. The earliest, D major D384, has only three movements but the others each have four.
D385 in A minor and D408 in G minor show the composer's development and musical invention, but D574 in A major is perhaps the most delightful of the sonatas, featuring the fast Scherzo before a meditative Andantino and final rondo-like collection of beautiful melodies shared between the two instruments. Nicely recorded.
Highlight: Lovely tunes and modulations.
After 30 years of worldwide performance and recording, The Sixteen under Christophers are an outstanding vocal ensemble, with their own period instrument orchestra.
Accompanied by Robert Quinney on a gorgeously toned pipe organ in a Clerkenwell (London) church, this disc contains 14 hymns created by British composers between the later part of the 19th century and the end of the 20th, representing the evolution of Anglican church music from Victorian times to the present - starting with Parry's famous setting of I was glad, written for Edward VII's coronation.
Enjoy the sheer range of vocal tones this group can produce, beautifully controlled - it breathes new life into some old favourites.
Highlight: Two modern settings of The Lord Is My Shepherd, by Goodall and by Rutter.
