Music Web International CD of the Month Feb 2012 - Emanuel Ensemble CD Review
Gramophone Magazine - October 2011 - Emanuel Ensemble Review
Classical Music Magazine - 27th August - Phillip Sommerich - Emanuel Ensemble Review
Scena.org - Norman Lebrecht - Emanuel Ensemble Review 2011
The Metro Paper - 27th July 2011 - Emanuel Ensemble CD Review by Warwick Thompson
www.musicalpointers.co.uk - Emanuel Ensemble CD Review 2011
Sir James Galway - 2011 - Emanuel Ensemble CD Quote
Music Web International CD of the Month Feb 2012 - Emanuel Ensemble CD Review
You?ve probably never heard much of this music, and you?ll probably enjoy all of it. The Emanuel Ensemble, a young trio comprising a flute, cello, and piano, have really put together a smart, adventurous, and totally pleasing program here, ranging from contemporaries Robert Schumann and Louise Farrenc to the 1990s jazz world of Nikolai Kapustin. In between we?ve got a Carmen fantasy, a serenade by the legendary flautist Philippe Gaubert, and a Piazzolla tango. What?s not to like? ??Kapustin?s Trio begins the program. Nikolai Kapustin got his start in the early 1960s, as, in a way, the great hope of Soviet jazz: YouTube preserves fragments of his appearances on state television, including a jaw-dropping ?Toccata? for solo pianist and big band, which the composer dispatches with an ease and dispassion which make James Bond look neurotic. All of Kapustin?s music is totally jazzy to the ear, and most of it sounds improvised (his greatest influence is Oscar Peterson), but all of it is very carefully notated and written out, indeed as instruction-laden as a Mahler score. This paradox has been confusing critics ever since it started, but the composer, still alive, pays them no heed. His Trio, from 1998, is one of the composer?s first major chamber works, though he wrote it in his mid-fifties. The outer movements are jaunty and virtuosic showcases for his style of apparent improvisation but genuine development of central themes. The slow movement is, by contrast, much more sensitive than you?d expect. This is all wholly enjoyable, fairly compactly developed, and with very distinctive personalities assigned to each instrument. If you like the idiom, you?ll also love Kapustin?s brilliant string quartet. ??We travel back in time for much of the rest of the program. ??
Philippe Gaubert was a noted composer of quite a lot of flute music, as well as several well-executed ballets. The Pièce Romantique shows an equal sensitivity toward the cello, which ushers in the beautiful main tune; the seven-minute work really lives up to billing as a lyrical romance of great craft. ??The center of the program shrinks the trio down to two players: Robert Schumann?s Adagio and Allegro, originally for horn and piano, here showcases cellist Louisa Tuck, while François Borne?s Carmen Fantasy does for the flute roughly what Sarasate?s Carmen piece did for the violin. In the Carmen fantasy there?s an engaging obsession with the opera?s dark ?fate? motif, which brings out the flute?s lower, more expressive side. It?s a welcome change from the instrument?s stereotypically chipper persona. ????
The booklet rightly calls Louise Farrenc the best female composer of the 19th century, and I would venture to add that she was one of the best composers of any sex between the death of Beethoven and the rise of Brahms and Wagner. Her three symphonies (not two, as the essay misstates) are enormously impressive, and they?re also the Farrenc you?re most likely to know, since CPO recorded the full cycle. CPO also has a disc of her other piano trios (piano, violin, cello; piano, clarinet, cello) and a woodwind sextet. ??The trio offered here begins with a melancholy main tune of Mendelssohnian build; the piano writing is a solid backbone to the music, and the tight construction of the opening allegro, with its really exceptional melodies and unerring dramatic pace, would have been a proud moment for Schumann or the young Brahms. It?s also another good place to admire the affinity the Emanuel Ensemble players have for each other; I thought, as I listened, that this had better be the first of many CDs from the group. Farrenc?s trio is in four movements, and the last three are almost exactly five minutes each, highlighted by a presto finale which poses great dangers to the flautist and very skillfully brings the music from E minor to E major with wit and ingenious style. I?m again reminded of how difficult it is to explain Farrenc?s neglect.
????Everything is brought together by a Piazzolla encore, La Muerte del Ángel, vividly arranged (by whom?) to give each instrument a fiercely sexy moment in the spotlight. The booklet is a bit of a letdown, as there are no track timings of any kind and the biography of Farrenc is, as I?ve noted, not totally accurate. But this is such an exceptionally fine young ensemble, and such a marvel of a program, that I can?t possibly hold back from the highest recommendation. The sound quality, up close and personal but with plenty of warmth, is icing on a very fine cake. ??Brian Reinhart?
Sir James Galway, no less, has declared this ?an outstanding CD? and certainly this excellent group, founded by the felicitous flautist Anna Stokes in 2001, constantly offers a generously wide range of 19th- and 20th century music, much of it unfamiliar, all of it diverting. Ukrainian-born Nikolai Kapustin began his career in the world of Russian Jazz, an influence which is certainly felt in his Trio (1998), although it does not dominate the whole work. Here, the lively opening bursts in on the listener and immediately provides virtuoso roulades and ostinatos for the flute. The central Andante, however, is ?languidly nostalgic? and the music closes with an infectiously capricious finale.
Philippe Gaubert?s appealing Piece Romantique then creates a warmly lyrical mood, with a soulful cello melody, changing over to the flute, with both instruments then joining together in an inventive dialogue with the piano. Schumann?s Adagio and Allegro was originally written for horn and piano but transcribes equally well to the cello. Louisa Tuck plays it beautifully, at first wistfully, then with impulsive vigour in the closing Allegro.
In his Carmen Fantasy, Francois Borne gives the flute plenty of chances to be vocal in Bizet?s principal hit numbers, plus an opportunity for refined bravura in sparkling variations. Anna Stokes throws them off with great flair, while she is deliciously sultry in the ?Habanera?. Louise Farrenc (1804-75), professor of flute at the Paris Conservatoire, offers the most traditional work here, a four-movement Trio (1861-62). It has pleasing ideas, with a charming Andante, but is most individual in the Scherzo with its agreeably lyrical Trio, and in the spirited moto perpetuo finale.
But it is Astor Piazzolla who is chosen to provide the unpredictable final item for this enterprising recital. It was originally used as a brie, thrusting, fugal climax for the incidental music to a play, El tango del Angel, and makes a memorable close to a highly stimulating programme, impeccably played and recorded
Ivan march (Gramophone Magazine ? October 2011)
"Ever heard Nikolai Kapustin?s jazzy trio for flute, cello and piano? Me neither, and it?s a cracker. There?s more here by Gaubert, Schumann, Borne, Farrenc and Piazzola from three young English players, edgy, offbeat and fun-loving. The Schumann Adagio and Allegro is a quiet corner at this party, raptly played." - Norman Lebrecht (CD of the Week - August 2011 - scena.org)
Emanuel Ensemble (Flute - Anna Stokes, Louisa Tuck - Cello & John Reid - Piano)
"The latest disc, from a flute, cello, piano trio called Emanuel Ensemble (champs hill) is a delight. The players have unearthed a gorgeous, Schumann-like trio by 19th century french composer Louise Farrenc, which they play with suave assurance. There's an outstandingly passionate performance of the real Schumann's Adagio and Allegro, op. 70, too as well as some little know gems. A Winner"! - Warwick Thompson (Metro Paper - Friday 29th July 2011)
Emanuel Ensemble CD - " An outstanding CD...." - Sir James Galway
Emanuel Ensemble CD (Champs Hill Records)
Anna Stokes - flute Louisa Tuck - ?cello John Reid - piano
Champs Hill CHR CD 023
For sheer enjoyment this debut disc will take a lot to beat. The programme is cunningly created, with only the Schumann in "the repertoire" and several works that deserve to be there, notably Farrenc's splendid trio which should have a prominent place in any collection of trios for this attractive and versatile combination. They open with Kapustin's jazz-influenced trio and end with Piazzolla; composer of more than 1000 tango-related pieces, "to the tango what Johann Strauss II was to the waltz". Full sleeve notes including a copy of Malcolm MacDonald's excellent essay and the artwork can be read on line and downloaded as a pdf. Perhaps the Emanuels should try to set up commissions for their trio to vie with the extraordinary achievement of the Verdehrs for theirs? A very high recommendation for these young musicians flair and zest, and for seeing through their concept meticulously, with winning performances captured in fine recording.
Peter Grahame Woolf - www.musicalpointers.co.uk