The title of the new album, “Hope Amid Tears,” comes from an inscription Beethoven wrote on a copy of the manuscripts for the Cello Sonata No. Last year, in the midst of pandemic lockdowns, they recorded them again, along with three sets of Beethoven’s inventive piano-cello variations, with eloquent results. Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, longtime colleagues and friends, have played Beethoven’s five sonatas for cello and piano for some four decades, and won Grammy Awards for recordings of them in the 1980s. From the opening Adagio, passionate yet poised, to the ideally spirited Allegro finale, that sonata is a particular highlight of an intimate, stylish album. Whatever the tempo, a quintessentially French danciness is paramount, an elegant playfulness that breathes even through Italianate harmonic wanderings: The back end of the Gavotte in Senaillé’s Sonata in D here gets fascinatingly dusky. That restraint makes this truly a showcase for Langlois de Swarte, whose sweet, rich sound in these sonatas can be assertive, almost rustic, in fast movements and silky in slow ones, with a tasteful hint of wiry ping. But this recording of sonatas by Senaillé and the slightly younger Jean-Marie Leclair boasts the most celebrated partner: the Baroque eminence William Christie, who founded the ensemble Les Arts Florissants and joins on harpsichord with graceful restraint. This is Langlois de Swarte’s third release in the past year, following a duo disc with the exuberant lutenist Thomas Dunford and a recital of piano-violin music played in Proust’s Paris. I have Vanska's 5th, on BIS, and it is excellent.This dashing album has been my introduction to the composer Jean-Baptiste Senaillé - well loved by the French aristocracy in the early 18th century, but now an obscurity - as well as to the young violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte. I would also love to see Vanska's cycle (or how about a new one in MC sound with the Minnesota Orchestra-well, we can dream, can't we?). I believe Davis is now doing his third Sibelius cycle with LSO Live -it would be a real boon to see these on SACD. The Cincinnati orchestra plays beautifully, although to my ears without the character of the Concertgebouw or the Boston Symphony for Davis, and the recording is excellent in the Telarc fashion, which I would call a little distant - front row balcony circle, well blended, and lots of dynamics (in fact, the dynamics on this recording are stunning - I love the body that the engineers and Jarvi achieve when the orchestra is playing very softly). With Jarvi, the work does sound episodic as Lenw points out, with these conductors there is a cumulative line and tension that brings the symphony to its ultimate, glorious conclusion. The leaders in this are Monteux (although I haven't heard it in a long time), Colin Davis, and especially the George Szell recording with the Concertgebouw, which I have owned in one format or another for 30 years(and yes, I like what Szell does with Schubert's 9th). I respond better to a conductor who sees the 2nd as a 20th century classical work (eg., Sibelius as a Finnish Prokofiev, although the analogy is not exact). If you like the way Lenny conducted Schubert's 9th you'll like what Jarvi does with Sibelius 2. Lots of slowish tempos, some obvious building towards climaxes, etc. Lenw in his review, nails the description well - this is a Bernstein-esqe reading, although for me missing some of the line and cumulative tension that Bernstein could bring to a work. I think this is a good, not great, performance of its type, which is to say that Jarvi sees the Sibelius 2 as a subjective symphony. I can comment only on the Sibelius at this time, I haven't spent enough time with the Tubin yet (I have some of his other works by the way, and certainly he composed some good stuff-I just don't know this symphony well enough yet.)
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