2

Brenda Barnes

from the president

Stiff Competition

in Siberia

Before I’m accused of exiling

Alan Chapman to Siberia in the

middle of winter, I want to set

the record straight. Alan was

invited to be a judge for the

Ninth International Tchaikovsky

Competition for Young Musicians which happens to be

in Novosibirsk, Siberia this month. Alan will be packing

his parka and heading there in a few days. He’s been

studying Russian for several months and will be able to

engage in basic conversation thanks to his incredible

ability to learn quickly (and I cannot begin to tell you

how jealous I am of his talent!).

The International Tchaikovsky Competition

for Young Musicians is the largest independent

professional contest for musicians 17 and younger

and an off-shoot of the International Tchaikovsky

Competition. Pianists, violinists and cellists are eligible

to compete, and winners of the youth competition

participate in the one for adults. Past winners of the

young musician competition include pianists Lang

Lang and Haochen Zhang (who also won the 2009

Van Cliburn International Piano Competition), violinist

Jennifer Koh (who went on to medal in the

International Tchaikovsky Competition), and

cellist Daniel Müller-Schott.

The competition has been held eight times in the

past 23 years in Russia, Europe and Asia. It’s a great

honor for us, and for Alan, that he was invited to serve

as a judge, and we are thrilled to give him the time

away to make it possible for him to participate. I am

grateful to the rest of our staff for chipping in and

helping at an especially busy time of year. We all look

forward to hearing about the exciting young musicians

Alan identifies whose recordings we will someday play

on KUSC.

As for those of us staying in sunny California this

month, we will offer our usual wide variety of holiday

music and specials on KUSC, in addition to the great

classical music you expect from us year-round. All of us

at KUSC wish you the happiest of holiday seasons and

the best year yet in 2016.

cover storyJim Svejda’s NEW

Holiday Gift Guide

KUSC’s Venerable Host Helps You Find the Perfect Present for Your Favorite Music Lover

HANDEL: Messiah. Soloists, London Symphony Choir and Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis. Philips 438 356-2 (2 CDs) (M)

A Festival of Fučík. Royal Scottish National Orches-tra, Neeme Jarvi. Chandos 5158CDs) (M)

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9.

Lucerne Festival Orchestra,

Claudio Abbado. DG 479

3441

The Chanukkah Story. West-ern Wind Vocal Ensemble. Western Wind 16 (2 CDs) (M)

DVOŘÁK: Complete Sympho-nies and Concertos. Soloists, Czech Philharmonic, Jiří Bělohlávek. Decca 478 6757 (6 CDs)

BEETHOVEN: String Quartets (16). Tokyo String Quartet. Harmonia Mundi 807641.48 (8 CDs) (M)

TCHAIKOVSKY: The

Nutcracker. Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, Antal Dorati. Philips 442 562-2 (2 CDs) (M) Philips 438 356-2 (2 CDs) (M)

STENHAMMAR: Serenade in F; Excelsior! Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Christian Lindberg. BIS 2058438 356-2 (2 CDs) (M)

SMETANA: String Quartets (2). Pavel Haas Quartet. Supraphon 4172-2

If the name of the man behind this sublime—yes indeed, sublime—Wigmore Hall recital is unfamiliar, then that’s hardly surprising. After the first two volumes of this live Mozart piano sonata cycle, this is only the third solo album that the English pianist Christian Blackshaw has so far released. Now in his mid-60s, Blackshaw put his career on hold in 1990 following the death of his wife. With three young daughters to raise and insufficient funds for full-time daycare—to say nothing of a powerful sense of parental responsibility—Blackshaw arranged his career around his family, rather than the other way around. He also possesses a sense of musical responsibility, which forced him to turn down an offer from “a German recording company” to record the Schumann Fantasy, explaining that as he had only been playing the piece for a year, he therefore felt he didn’t have enough to say. (Shades of Carlo Maria Giulini, who famously studied Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony for decades until he felt himself worthy of conducting it.)

From the opening bars of the D major sonata, it’s obvious we’re listening to perhaps the finest British Mozart pianist since Clifford Curzon, with whom Blackshaw “worked closely” (a phrase from the album notes) early in his career. While the playing is utterly seamless and unaffected, it’s also full of personality. The command of dynamic shading has a Curzon-like subtlety, with whispered pianissimos and diamond-like runs; the phrasing and voice-leading, while equally distinctive, also seem completely natural. In short, this is the kind of individuality which is not designed to draw attention to itself, but simply emerges from a fully-formed and immensely individual musician.

While in the outer movement of all the sonatas Blackshaw has some vastly interesting things to say—from K. 284’s variation finale, in which all the individual segments are not only shown off in brilliant, highly-polished relief, but also cohere in a masterpiece of what the composer Milton Babbitt called “cumulative containment,” to the sly yet wonderfully innocent traversal of the famous opening of K. 332—it’s what he does with the slow movements that finally sets the seal on his greatness as a Mozart pianist.

As with the previous installments in this indispensable series, you need to run—not walk—to order this one.

Mozart: Piano Sonata Volume 3;

Christian Blackshaw, piano; WIGMORE HALL LIVE 0076/2

by jim svejda

A Must-Have Mozart Albumrecord shelf

3

jim svejda hosts the evening

program on weeknights

from 7 pm to midnight

and the record shelf

sundays at 10 pm.

(M) = medium-priced recording

(B) = budget recording

(S) = super budget recording

New Renaissance. Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. LAGQ 0315

WILLIAM KAPELL: Complete Recordings 1944-1953. RCA/Sony 5431362 (11 CDs) (S)

JONAS KAUFMANN: : The Puccini

Album. Jonas Kaufmann, tenor; Orchestra of Rome’s Santa Cecilia Academy, Sir Antonio Pappano. Sony 8875 09249-2

LAWES: The Royal Consort.

Phantasm. Linn 470

ĒRIKS EŠENVALDS: Northern Lights. Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Stephen Layton. Hyperion 68083

FERENC FRICSAY: The Com-

plete Recordings on Deutsche

Grammophon (45 CDs) (B)

BACH: English Suites. Piotr Anderszewski, piano. Warner Classics 62193-9

MONTEVERDI: Vespers of San

Marco. Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini. Naïve 30557

ITZHAK PERLMAN: The

Complete Warner

Recordings. Warner Classics 0825646 150694 (77 CDs)

Celtic Reflections.

Barry Douglas, pf. Chandos 10821

SCHUBERT: Lieder. Christian Gerhaher, baritone; Gerold Huber, piano. Sony 8837 12172

ROBERT KAHN: Violin Sonatas (3). Julia Bushkova, violin; Arsentiy Kharitonov, piano. Toccata Classics 0021

ELGAR: The Dream of

Gerontius. BBC Symphony and Chorus, Sir Andrew Davis. Chandos 5140

SIR NEVILLE MARRINER: The

Argo Years. Decca 00208 1902 (28 CDs) (B)