Spring classical music releases 2025: From Schumann to Debussy

Schumann – Violin Sonatas
Alina Ibragimova (violin)
Cédric Tiberghien (piano)
Hyperion CDA68354

These two have been playing as a duo for twenty years now and, fine soloists in their own right, their partnership is maturing into one of the great ones of our time. Their huge asset is their sense of period. Even if they are not playing on instruments comparable to the time when the music was written (which they often do) their understanding of appropriate style is endemic. The Schumann sonatas were designed for recitals in Düsseldorf by Joseph Joachim, Ferdinand David and Clara Schumann in the early 1850s and reflect the players’ virtuosity but also the equality of the partnerships. Ibragimova and Tiberghien recreate that perfectly. The violin is never overcome by the piano. Sometimes their delicacy is extraordinary but they can be fierce with music’s moods when they want to without forcing the tone. The first two sonatas were conventional in their gestation but the third was not published until a century after Robert Schumann’s death because it had started as a game between Schumann, Brahms and Albert Dietrich, each composing movements. Later Schumann, who had contributed two, added two more, making a complete sonata of his own, but Clara suppressed it: a pity because it is just as interesting as Robert’s others. The more I listen to this, the more I appreciate the intelligence of the playing and the excellence of the recorded balance.

John Field – Complete Nocturnes
Alice Sara Ott (piano)
Deutsche Grammophon 486 6238

Another musician who, at 36, is turning into a particularly fine artist is Alice Sara Ott. Not only is she a superb player, she has a calm assurance that is perfect for the music of the first half of the 19th century. The nocturnes of John Field could have been composed for her. Field, born in Dublin in 1782, was an assistant to Clementi in London but really found his fame (and, sadly, the Russian bottle) when they both travelled to St. Petersburg. When Clementi left (he’s buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey if you want to stop by), Field hung on and became the musical darling of the court. His great innovation, taken up by Chopin and others a couple of decades later, was the elegant and beguiling nocturne, gentle pieces of a few minutes long, too substantial to be mere bagatelles, not long enough to be sonatas. Field’s are full of charm but there is also a suggestion of melancholy and loneliness not far below the surface which lifts them far above the ordinary. Ott’s bewitching exploration of them reveals that feeling of contemplation on a quiet evening alone after a hectic day.

J. S. Bach – Keyboard Concertos 1, 2, 3 & 5
Beatrice Rana (piano)
Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Candida Thompson (director)
Warner Classics 5021732433589

The performers here are some of my favourites of the decade. Rana is emerging as one of the finest Italian pianists for a long time. Candida Thompson’s many years at the Amsterdam Sinfonietta have seen her transform it into one of the really elite chamber orchestras in the world and she is one of a trio of women directors from the violin, along with Stephanie Gonley and Lorenza Borrani, who have no need of conductors to keep their ensembles united. However, though I am not a purist when it comes to playing baroque music on big grand pianos (and Rana devotes a chunk of her liner note to explaining her choice) I do find these performances a little relentless, with too little variation in the tempi and drive in the long fast movements. The Steinway is a ferocious instrument and, since Rana plays along in most of the orchestral sections too (as was the tradition with the harpsichord) it is ever present. When there are four concertos of very similar construction on one album there needs to be rather more give and take in the approach. Each concerto is fine on its own but four in a row become a bit much. That said, the playing is crisp, well ornamented and immaculately together. I do feel that I’ve been put through an athlete’s gym session after it, though.

Debussy – Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (arr. David Walter), Violin Sonata, Cello Sonata, Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, String Quartet
The Nash Ensemble
Hyperion CDA68463

For sixty years Amelia Friedman has been bringing together the finest musicians she can find in London to play chamber music as the Nash Ensemble and this superb album shows she has not lost her touch. Walter’s arrangement of the faun’s afternoon is masterly (12 instruments: string and wind quintets, harp and crotales). The three sonatas written at the end of Debussy’s life, during the First World War, are relatively short but packed with originality. It is as if Debussy was shutting out everything going on around him and just getting on with his work, still fresh, still asking questions of players and listeners. Stephanie Gonley and Alisdair Beeson find a line of phrasing through its complexities that keeps it on track. In the far more playful sonata for flute, viola and harp, Philippa Davies (a long serving member of the ensemble) Lawrence Power and Lucy Wakeford draw out its nostalgic look back at the innocent days of the untroubled faun. Adrian Brendel and Simon Crawford-Phillips negotiate the shortest sonata, just under 12 minutes, with the right balance of energy without ever making it tense. The meat of the disc, though, is the String Quartet – Brendel on cello again, with Benjamin Nabarro and Jonathan Stone the violins and Lars Anders Tompter, viola. Here tension is important. This is the chamber work where Debussy bridges the gap between the 19th and 20th centuries, leaving Dvorak and D’Indy behind and anticipating Stravinsky. One could not ask for a more integrated and accurate reading than this – just listen to the pizzicato in the second movement or the veiled mistiness of the third. Can’t argue with this disc!