Reviews
"The high-register passage work is vividly incisive, and when the action goes down to the deep bass – as in the Adagio molto of that sonata – the sound has a generous warmth. Tong deploys fine virtuosity in catching the lightness and wit of these sonatas, and he stresses Beethoven’s seemingly throw-away attitude to his teeming ideas as they tumble out. High points for me include the mercurial Allegro and gravely questioning Allegretto of the F major sonata, and the heartfelt Largo of the D major."
(BBC Music Magazine, December 2022, on Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Op. 10)
"Tong meets the demands admirably, articulating the virtuoso passagework of the Rondo finale with nimble fingers and great clarity. He is also capable of extracting poetry from the music where required, as for example in the final bars of the Largo e mesto of the same sonata, where the dynamics are exquisitely controlled to bring the movement to a close of perfectly attained peace. Neither is wit absent from Tong’s playing of a movement like the mostly playful Allegro of the F-major Sonata, where Beethoven uniquely in this set asks for the repeat of the development and recapitulation. Overall these are admirable performances, enhanced by a recording that presents the instrument itself in the best light, its lovely bell-like treble admirably set off by a characterful middle register and richly resonant bass notes."
(Early Music Review, January 2023, on Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Op. 10)
"For the listener more used to hearing these sonatas on a modern piano, Tong coaxes a remarkably rich range of details and colours from the fortepiano. The instrument is far less resonant than a modern piano, and the result is a more incisive, percussive and vibrant sound, with some wonderfully punchy bass details and a gloriously transparent treble... what this recording confirms is that Beethoven was a master of the sonata form, and Daniel Tong a worthy exponent of this wonderful repertoire."
(Art Muse London, December 2022, on Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Op. 10)
“Best of all is his spacious, operatically informed Largo, one of the strongest period-instrument interpretations of this great movement I’ve heard.”
(Gramophone Magazine, November 2022, on Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Op. 10)
"A Pullman voyage of discerning scholarship and period practice free of pedantry ... Michael and Tong take on this key repertory in a spirit of fresh, fearless égalité, stylistic certainty and all-round technical brilliance ... this is a thrillingly rewarding contribution to Beethoven's 250th anniversary year."
(International Piano Magazine, April 2020, on Complete Works for Cello and Piano by Beethoven)
“The London Bridge Trio bring this programme a vivid immediacy and an effortless sense of ensemble. … The Robert Schumann F major Trio takes the palm for the warmth and affection of this joyous rendition. The recorded sound is suitably intimate and pleasing.”
(BBC Music Magazine, 2020, on Leipzig Circle, Vol II)
"Everything here is played with sensitivity and conviction. The three players summon up the whirlwind that opens Fanny’s Trio in fine style, and the energy never flags, with a lilting, lifting rhythmic alertness in the two inner movements and a real sense of the mood shifting Sturm und Drang that drives Robert’s Trio. The gradual withdrawal from nervy melancholy to deep inwardness in Robert’s slow movement is impressively managed – inniger Empfindung indeed. And there’s an unforced naturalness – a lack of affectation – about these readings that many will enjoy: a tonal and expressive sweetness without getting sticky that feels just right in Clara’s Romances and Felix’s lollipop of an Op 109. … there’s a lot here to enjoy.”
(Gramophone, 2019 on London Bridge Trio Leipzig Circle, Vol I)
"I genuinely found myself listening to the Beethoven with new ears... a delicate balance between depth and playfulness [in Op. 96] that’s hard to beat amongst contemporary versions".
(BBC Music Magazine, 2019, on Beethoven Plus Volume 2)
“..patient, affectionate, warmly conversational, sensitive to harmonic detail… these are thoroughly engaging performances. Osostowicz and Tong hold urgency and charm in careful balance... I even found myself tickled to share the audience’s audible delight at the magical way Osostowicz and Tong play the end of Op 12 No 2. I think I may have sighed with pleasure myself.”
(Gramophone, 2018, on Beethoven Plus Volume 1)
"This is one of those rewarding recordings that makes you totally reassess music from the mainstream repertoire. Robin Michael’s gut-strung cello is softly sonorous, a perfect match for Daniel Tong’s masterly pianism on an 1897 Blüthner – said to have been played and chosen by Brahms on a visit to the Leipzig piano builder in the last year of the composer’s life. Modern instruments can give these works a hard, sometimes metallic edge. Here, we perhaps come closer to what Brahms and Schumann intended. The playing is virtuosic but the sound world is subtly shaded, almost restrained, and recreates the atmosphere of an intimate recital in a tasteful 19th-century drawing room. Recommended."
(The Guardian, 2017, on Brahms Cello Sonatas)
Dvorak Piano Quartets Release
(BBC Music Magazine)
"... Consistently sound musical judgement. The slow movement is a model of touchingly sincere expression… An excellent CD."
(Gramophone)
"The London Bridge Trio and viola player Gary Pomeroy capture perfectly the diverse qualities of these wonderful pieces, revelling in their Czech folk music influences in bravura displays of passion and commitment."
(The Guardian)
"Extraordinarily sympathetic Schubertian with his crystalline sonority and wonderful tiny rubatos"
Gramophone, David Patrick Stearns
“an extraordinarily sympathetic Schubertian with his crystalline sonority and wonderful tiny rubatos that release avenues of expression even in the simpler moments. No surprise that [Daniel Tong’s] all-Schubert disc on the Quartz label contains equally notable playing.”
Schubert Sonatinas | Published 24 Sep 2014
Paul Driver on 'Dvorak Explored' at Kings Place
"Antonin Dvorak's music is easliy taken for granted by the seasoned music lover, and hardly seems to cry out for revisiting and re-evaluation. But as the pianist Daniel Tong observes, music of the cahmber music is rarely heard, and this was his prompt for curating a three-day Dvorak Explored mini festival at Kings Place.
I caught the first and last four concerts, which were amplified by a talk and study day. I did not expect more than an ear-tickling experience, but straightaway the performance by the London Bridge Ensemble of the 'Dumky' Trio penetrated far deeper than the lobes of that organ. It was a long time since I'd heard it, and the effectiveness of the divertimento like sequences of short, intensely characterised movements, free from the ecumbrances of sonata form, was born in on me anews. Melody short forthe with magical poignancy, particularly from the cello of Kate Gould. With the violinist Arisa Fujita, and Tong's expertly balanced pianism (his colourful projection of different registers sometimes made him seem two pianists in one), she achieved an ideal balance of sound in the already acoustically fine-tuned Hall One.
Their account with the violinist Gary Pomeroy of Piano Quartet No.2 in E flat, was equally absorbing; and the baritoneIvan Ludlow's interpretation, with Tong, of the seven Op 55 Gypsy Songs (settings of the German) quietly shattering."
The Sunday Times, December 2014
"A depth that puts these performances in the front rank"
Fanfare Magazine, Paul Orgel
With its legacy of Curzon, Hess, and Gerald Moore, and the expatriate presence of Perahia and Brendel, England would seem to be fertile ground for Schubert piano playing of the highest order. So it is, with Imogen Cooper, Paul Lewis, and another English pianist, Daniel Tong.
Tong’s performances of Schubert’s penultimate sonata and the Moments musicaux, recorded with flattering sound by Quartz Music and accompanied by Richard Wigmore’s knowing booklet notes, achieve an unaffected feeling that results from interpretive decisions that are generally at one with the music’s natural flow and fluctuating moods. Unlike the gifted young pianist Inessa Sinkyevich, who recently issued an all-Schubert disc containing the D 959 Sonata—self-published, and more primitively recorded—Tong’s affinity for Schubert has a depth that puts these performances in the front rank.
He’s most persuasive in the most leisurely, songful music: the second and sixth of the Moments receive the finest performances here. Played straightforwardly with unwavering rhythm and flawless voicing, Tong well captures their stillness and tenderness. No. 6, the profoundest and slowest of the set is, interestingly, marked Allegretto, a cautionary communication to the pianist to maintain an underlying pulse, and Tong achieves this. Other movements, while undeniably well played, are less well characterized. No. 5 would benefit from more vehemence, a quality that doesn’t seem to be strong in Tong’s temperament, and No. 4’s careful, slow paced reading disappoints. The outer sections of the piece offer more than Bachian counterpoint, if allowed to move faster in a less literal fashion.Like the sixth of the Moments musicaux, D 959’s long Finale is marked Allegretto. In this case, it’s an indication that the movement should feel more leisurely than an Allegro. Tong’s tempo for it is fine, but his performance comes across as careful rather than carefree. I wish that he had let the second subject move forward, rather than keeping things so metronomic. Schnabel, with his uniquely transparent-sounding accompaniments, manages to make this movement, and the whole Sonata, seem not at all long. He lets the Finale flow freely, unafraid to create a little controlled chaos and bluster along the way. No other pianist has brought Schnabel’s imaginative pacing and constant creation of changing colors to a recording of this work.
If not on Schnabel’s exalted level, Tong’s D 959 well captures the Sonata’s varied moods: the majesty and overall lyricism of the first movement, the second movement’s “ghostly barcarolle” (Schnabel’s description) with its shift to wild fantasy in its middle section, and charming lightness in the Scherzo, done, again, at a slightly relaxed tempo.
CD Review, Schubert Piano | Published 1 Jan 2014
"The sheer full-blooded refinement of the playing"
BBC Music Magazine, Jeremy Siepmann (1 Apr, 2013)
Perhaps the first thing that strikes one on hearing this release is the quality of the pianism. Not its dazzling virtuosity (with the sole possible exception of the Wanderer Fantasy, Schubert never gives house room to the show-off) but the sheer full-blooded refinement of the playing. In an age when pianistic elegance and colouristic resource would seem to be in decline – certainly at international piano competitions – it’s always a blessed relief to hear an artist with Daniel Tong’s self-evident love and understanding of the instrument. At no time is there a hint of stridency, yet there is never any want of size. Nor at the other end of the dynamic spectrum do we hear that tonal anaemia so often confused with a true pianissimo.
The Whole Note, Terry Robbins
The English violinist Sara Trickey is joined by her regular duo partner Daniel Tong in an outstanding recital of Schubert Sonatinas for violin and piano on her latest Champs Hill CD (CHRCD080). The Callino Quartet accompanies her in the Rondo in A Major for Violin and Strings, D438.
The sonatinas – D Major D384, A Minor D385 and G Minor D408 – are actually the first three of Schubert’s violin sonatas, and were written in early 1816 when he was 19. They weren’t published until 1836, eight years after Schubert’s death, when Anton Diabelli, who had purchased a large part of Schubert’s musical estate from Schubert’s brother Ferdinand, issued them as Sonatinas by Diabelli, their true identity remaining unknown for many years.
Trickey has known these works for some time – she says they have been “under my skin” ever since she first encountered them at the age of 14 – and it shows. Her foreword to the booklet makes clear that she understands exactly what these sonatas are: she refers to “the joy mixed with frailty, the poignancy and darkness which never quite subsumes a sense of hope” and to the “passing hints of almost everything that is to come.”
Trickey has a beautiful tone; it’s sweet, clear and pure, but never lacks a steely underlying strength when needed. Tong is an equal partner in every respect.
The Rondo, a more challenging work from 1816 presented here in its original form with string quartet, rounds out a simply stunning CD.
CD Review, Schubert Sonatinas | Published 4 Jun 2014
"These are first-rate players, and these readings are delightful and satisfying"
American Record Guide, Elaine Fine
The three early Schubert sonatas were named “sonatinas” in Diabelli’s 1836 posthumous publication (20 years after Schubert wrote them and 8 years after he died). They are accessible to violinists with a basic technique, but their musical demands require first-rate players. These are first-rate players, and these readings are delightful and satisfying because Trickey and Tong know how to regulate and manipulate the very long phrases. Tong, a British pianist who founded the London Bridge Ensemble, has the kind of singing tone that is absolutely necessary for these pieces. Sara Trickey is one of the most prominent young violin soloists in London and an excellent chamber music player.
Schubert’s Rondo, also from 1816, did not see publication until 1897. It is most familiar as a piece for violin and string orchestra, but Trickey plays it with a string quartet, the way it was originally published, with the cello as the lowest voice. The notes suggest that the solo violin part might have been intended for the violinist (and sometimes bassoonist) Otto Hatwig, but it is also likely that Franz Schubert wrote the violin part for his brother Ferdinand to play with the family string quartet. It is great to hear the Rondo in its original configuration.
Schubert Sonatinas | Published 19 Oct 2014
"The music on this CD makes for seventy minutes of sheer delight"
MusicWeb International, Christopher Fifield
Sara Trickey demonstrates a solid technique, consummate artistry, a wonderful sense of poetry, intelligent grasp of style and fine musicianship. As she rightly points out in her foreword to this unusual selection of Schubert’s music, the ingredients of the composer’s voice are present in each of the three sonatas. It was Diabelli who rechristened them ‘Sonatinas’ in 1836, eight years after Schubert’s death. What is more, they were entitled ‘Sonatas for piano with violin accompaniment’ by Schubert when he produced all three in a flourish in the Spring of 1816. This reversal of the description one would normally expect to read and hear — and I urge the reader to read Schubert’s description again, so unusual is it — is reflected in the partnership on the disc; there are moments when the violin is very much in the background.
Daniel Tong’s playing is both refined and sensitive, while both artists succeed in bringing out the dark side of Schubert’s music, those moments of Sturm und Drang and those wonderful chromatic passages which he uses to undertake a journey of modulation to remote and distant keys. Elsewhere the music has both charm and wit. Ländler tunes abound and Menuetts are fast — apposite word — becoming Scherzos. Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven are unsurprisingly omnipresent while glimpses of Mendelssohn and Schumann point the way ahead.
Schubert was a fine string player (both violin and viola) and if the Sonatinas may sound ‘easy’, it takes more than technical mastery to bring them off. Subtlety is the name of the game. The Rondo — perhaps a test bed for the heavenly length yet to come when Schumann described the ninth symphony and all its repeats — does rather overstate its case, though the basic material is absolutely charming. The idea to do it with a string quartet — Schubert’s original intention — is a very good one. To do it with a full string orchestra not only inflates it to concerto status but also loses the translucent detail each one of the four members of the fine Callino Quartet brings to the dialogue-accompaniment. Also written in 1816, the Rondo lay unpublished for eighty years before it appeared in 1897. This was a common fate for Schubert’s music after his premature death at 31 in 1828. It took forty years for the Unfinished Symphony to have a first public hearing.
Today we hear a great deal of his music, in particular songs, symphonies and chamber music but these sonatas deserve more of an outing than purely as a starter for a recital or a filler for a disc. This disc more than proves my point.
CD Review, Schubert Sonatinas | Published 30 Jul 2014
"An impression heightened by the generous balance given to Daniel Tong’s piano"
The Strad, David Denton
In order to improve sales of sheet music to amateur musicians, Schubert’s posthumous publisher downgraded the composer’s three violin sonatas to the less demanding medium of sonatina. In recent times they have been restored to their correct title, and there comes the rub – how, as a performer, does one approach them? This new Champs Hill release uses both terms, and in the event the ‘sonatina’ title concurs with the lightweight approach of the violinist here, Sara Trickey, who produces an elegant tonal quality with sensitive suppleness and subtle shading.
There are times when one feels that Schubert was composing piano works decorated by the violin, particularly so in the second movements of the D major and A minor sonatas, an impression heightened by the generous balance given to Daniel Tong’s piano. There is an abundance of charm in these players’ elfin-like approach to the final movement of the D major Sonata, and no lack of drama in the finale of the G minor. Trickey’s intonation and clarity are spotlessly clean throughout.
The disc ends with the seldom-performed Rondo for violin and strings composed at the same time as the sonatas. Here, Trickey’s violin dances musically around the playing of the young Callino Quartet. Sound quality throughout is very pleasing.
CD Review, Schubert Sonatinas | Published 24 Jul 2014
An Outstanding Recital
The sheer full-blooded refinement of the playing
BBC Music Magazine, Jeremy Siepmann
“Perhaps the first thing that strikes one on hearing this release is the quality of the pianism. Not its dazzling virtuosity (with the sole possible exception of the Wanderer Fantasy, Schubert never gives house room to the show-off) but the sheer full-blooded refinement of the playing. In an age when pianistic elegance and colouristic resource would seem to be in decline – certainly at international piano competitions – it’s always a blessed relief to hear an artist with Daniel Tong’s self-evident love and understanding of the instrument. At no time is there a hint of stridency, yet there is never any want of size. Nor at the other end of the dynamic spectrum do we hear that tonal anaemia so often confused with a true pianissimo.”
CD Review, Schubert Piano | Published 1 Apr 2013
Multi-configured Fauré from the London Bridge Ensemble
Gramophone, Harriet Smith
The unorthodox line-up of the London Bridge Ensemble means that it can create enterprising programmes with ease, though for this disc it does call upon the services of violinist Matthew Truscott and bass player Graham Mitchell too. La bonne chanson is the earliest piece here, sung with great warmth by baritone Ivan Ludlow, particularly the last song, with its intertwining imagery of the burgeoning of love and spring. Turn to Anne Sofie von Otter here and you find a rather more ethereal approach (which isn’t simply down to voice type). She also offers a more flitting, reactive reading of ‘N’est-ce pas?.’ In ‘La lune blanche’ Ludlow is mellifluous and confiding; but von Otter’s greater fragility and the way she embraces the language itself is more magical still.
Fauré’s Piano Trio dates from the year before he died. Trio George Sand made a very strong case for it recently, particularly in their duetting between violin and cello in the second movement- a real test of tonal beauty, also wonderfully conveyed in the Poltéra /Mitchell/Stott reading. This new set treads a middle ground, not as emotionally fraught as some but always warm, letting Faure’s exquisite lines speak for themselves. The extraordinary finale, which, with its jagged contours and darting phrases, forms such an unexpected riposte to what has gone before, demands virtuosity, synchronicity and edginess without violence. Trio George Sand are gentler than some, while the Capuçons are surprisingly laid back here. The London Bridge Ensemble aren’t afraid to tell it like it is, something they have in common with the Florestan.
The disc opens with another extraordinary late masterpiece: the Second Quintet. Here the new version has strong competition from the Quatuor Ebène with Angelich, thankfully one of the more successful sonic experiences in Virgin’s set. It’s a work the Ebène relish, combining a breakneck speed in the second movement with an almost merciless clarity, something the new group cannot quite match. But in the slow movement – the work’s beating heart – the tables are turned. It always makes me think of late Beethoven quartets, not least because that opening upward sixth echoes so powerfully that of the ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’ in Op 132, and the LBE fully reveal its otherworldliness, its apparent suspension of time, in playing that is as compelling as it is rapt.
CD Review, Faure | Published 1 Jan 2013
"Performances that tap the nostalgic element in Fauré’s music"
The Strad, David Denton
The London Bridge Ensemble’s passionate first movement of Fauré’s Second Piano Quintet, with its moments of sad reflectiveness, sets the scene for a performance where plausible tempos recapture the nostalgia of a composer in the autumn of his life. The mood momentarily gives way to playfulness in the scherzo, only to return in the Andante where the sadness seems to recall things that might have been. In this account those feelings still underline the busy final Allegro molto.
At times, the forwardly places piano tends to mask the inner details we hear in the more ideally balanced Piano Trio. In this latter work, Kate Gould’s radiant cello sings with lyrical fervour in the outer movements, and combines well with violinist Benjamin Nabarro’s fast vibrato in their smooth and refined accounts of the central Andantino. Matthew Truscott is the additional violinist in the quintet, and in both works the technical aspects of the playing are immaculate.
The disc is completed by Fauré’s setting of nine Verlaine poems, La Bonne Chanson, in his later version with string quartet and piano. Maybe the baritone of the London Bridge Ensemble’s resident singer Ivan Ludlow is too intrinsically British, but the performance has both tenderness and affection. Overall the disc has a pleasing sound quality.
CD Review, Faure | Published 1 Dec 2012
Brahms with Endymion Ensemble – Kings Place
Bachtrack, Madelaine Jones
The final item was the Trio in E flat major, with the return of the other Daniel (Daniel Tong) and two new faces to the stage, seasoned Endymion members Krysia Osostowicz (violin) and Stephen Stirling (horn). The performance of the group, individually and collectively, was outstanding from start to finish. The tricky off-beat rhythms of the first movement were navigated with apparent ease, the technical problems sidestepped completely to give an ethereal, timeless quality one can only imagine is what Brahms intended before pen ever had to be put to paper and the flexibility of a stream of music confined by the strictures of notation.
The second movement zipped along with delightful vim, the slower middle section allowing the mellow horn and passionate violin to intertwine with a melancholy beauty. From melancholy to abject despair, the third movement plunged into the absolute depths of darkness, Tong’s soft but thick and rounded sound in the opening setting the mood for the piece perfectly. The misty tension was unbroken from the first note to the last, each painful dissonance hanging heavily in the air, melting into a less twisted but no less tortured resolution. The final movement was a terrifically high-spirited way the finish the concert, each silence resounding with tongue-in-cheek humour, each note springing ecstatically from the last until the audience barely allowed the piece to finish before applauding rapturously.
Concert Review | Published 26 Nov 2012
"If you’re after an all Bridge disc … all in excellent performances, then look no further"
BBC Radio 3 CD Review, Andrew McGregor
BAX: Piano Quintet in G minor; BRIDGE: Piano Quintet in D minor – Ashley Wass (piano)/The Tippett Quartet Naxos 8.572474
BRIDGE: Piano Quintet in D minor; Three Sketches; Phantasie in F minor for string quartet; Pensiero; Allegro appassionato (H82); Sonata for Violin & Piano; Spring Song – London Bridge Ensemble Dutton Epoch CDLX 7254
“two pretty excellent recordings”
“[LBE] emphasise the links with Faure’s French Romanticism”
“The way they keep the work flowing through that mysterious middle section and the lovely lyricism of some of the playing make this a persuasive alternative…”
“a fine performance”
“if you’re after an all Bridge disc … all in excellent performances, then look no further”
Bridge Quintet, CD Review | Published 13 Aug 2011
"Ludlow has a beautiful bass-baritone voice"
International Record Review, Nigel Simeone
“The Liederkreis, Op. 24 is sung by Ivan Ludlow with Daniel Tong at the piano. Ludlow has a beautiful bass-baritone voice and excellent diction. He sings these songs with intelligence and a fine sense of drama, well matched by Tong…”
“Perhaps the best performance on this disc is the Fantasiestücke, Op. 88 for piano trio, a four-movement work (from the same time as the Piano Quintet and Quartet, despite its opus number) that is still something of a rarity. The playing at the start of the second piece is particularly beautiful, the answering cello and violin phrases given with a lovely unforced eloquence, sensitively supported by the piano.”
CD Review, Schumann | Published 7 May 2011
Bubbling Brilliance – Sonimage Schumann CD
The Sunday Times, Paul Driver
“perform superbly”
“rendered with a bubbling brilliance”
“heart-touchingly eloquent”
Full review here
CD Review, Schumann | Published 30 Jan 2011
"I found myself smiling through the whole program.These are lovely performances"
American Record Guide
This is Dutton’s second program of music by Frank Bridge played by this fine group of British musicians that calls itself the London Bridge Ensemble,. The (very appropriate) name certainly provokes an initial smile, but I found myself smiling through the whole program. These are lovely performances of music that Bridge wrote between the glorious British years of 1904 ad 1912, music filled with succulent harmony, transparency, lyricism, light and shadow.
The best known pieces here are the ‘Pensiero’ and the ‘Allegro Appassionato’ for viola and piano, which are given beautiful dark readings by Tom Dunn and Daniel Tong, and the light and lyrical ‘Spring Song’ which is played exquisitely by cellist Kate Gould.
The rest of the music is new to me. The two movements of the violin sonata are wonderful. The piece was left unfinished by Bridge, and Paul Hindmarsh did an excellent job piecing together whatever loose ends it might have had. It all sounds like first-rate Bridge to me, and it is given a sensitive and expressive reading by Tong and Benjamin Nabarro.
Even though Hindmarsh, in his liner notes, mentions that the piece [piano quintet] is ‘rather unwieldy and lacking the refinement and elegance of his mature chamber works’ I love the over the top romanticism and the beautiful ensemble writing. The London Bridge Ensemble has certainly rendered this piece less unwieldy to my ears. The string quartet has a completely different texture. It recalls a bit of the Wolf Italian Serenade sometimes, and there are touches that remind me of Dvořák and Borodin. A few piano miniatures complete this very satisfying program.
Bridge Quintet, CD Review | Published 1 Jan 2011
"Frank Bridge has been well served by this disc"
Fanfare, Jonathan Woolf
“The London Bridge Ensemble- whose name is a playful amalgam of composer, structure and idea – is ideally suited to the variety provided by the program and plays with sonorous expression”
“Violinist Benjamin Nabarro plays [the violin sonata] with considerable authority and pianist Daniel Tong negotiates every difficulty with absolute control. The smaller works round out the program very sweetly. The Three Sketches for piano include the charming “April” and the wistful “Rosemary”, while the two works for viola show an insider’s appreciation of the instrument’s singing and drivingly husky qualities, presented in splendid fashion by Tom Dunn. Similarly, cellist Kate Gould brings requiste warmth to the Spring Song
“elegantly and strongly performed, and attractively engineered”
Bridge Quintet, CD Review | Published 1 Jan 2011
"Another Generous Bridge Helping from this Sensitive and Stylish Outfit"
Gramophone, Andrew Achenbach
“Another generous Bridge Helping from this sensitive and stylish outfit”
“the poetry, flexibility and ardour displayed by these gifted players held me captive from first note to last”
“don’t hesitate for a moment – and fingers crossed for more Bridge from this exemplary team!”
Bridge Quintet, CD Review | Published 1 Dec 2010
"Another Recommendable Release from this Fine Ensemble"
International Record Review, Richard Whitehouse
“The London Bridge Ensemble’s follow up to its previous disc (reviewed in May 2008) duly extends its coverage of Frank Bridge’s chamber music over his first phase of creativity …..This phase is largely encapsulated by the piano quintet…..… Especially notable is the insight this ensemble instils into the emotionally inward transitions either side of the opening movement’s tempestuous development, as well as those between which Bridge has adeptly embedded the Scherzo within the slow movement – after which the finale combines passions with refined eloquence on its way to a heady conclusion. A fine performance…. “
“Spacious and realistic sound, with informative notes by [Paul] Hindmarsh, enhance another recommendable release from this fine ensemble.”
Bridge Quintet, CD Review | Published 1 Oct 2010
"Blood-rushing Triumphant Romance ….Magnificently Put Across by London Bridge Ensemble"
MusicWeb International, Rob Barnett
A blend of Passionately Torrid Romance and a Lighter Emotional Hand
In days gone by – the 1970s – Pearl LPs were the leading source of Bridge’s chamber music. Yes, there was the classic Argo LP of quartets 3 and 4, the Piano Trio and the Decca LP of Rostropovich in the Cello Sonata. However for breadth of Bridge coverage Pearl, the Bridge Trust, Paul Hindmarsh and the much missed John Bishop and his Thames Publishing were the places to go. In the 1980s Pearl issued a few Bridge CDs but much of its LP heritage remained locked in vinyl.
Lyrita have liberated the Argo recordings but Dutton have taken up the Bridge chamber music banner with a vengeance. Here is the latest disc. The disc has been assembled with a practised eye to variety and to listening to the disc all through. Michael Ponder’s engineering brings the listener front-seat close to the players.
The blood-rushing triumphant romance of the Piano Quintet is magnificently put across by London Bridge Ensemble. Much of it was written in the 1900s but having reached a creative impasse he let it fall aside and only finished it in 1912 when according to Paul Hindmarsh a major rewrite was done as well as adding a finale. The work has a towering sense of cohesion. Bridge remonstrates with the listener in the outer movements rather as if he were emulating the stormiest passions of Thuille or Bax in their Piano Quintets. The Adagio has some of the elusive harmonic tang of the later Bridge and the lyricism of early Fauré.
After such torrid emotions and tumultuous striving the Three Sketches are charming, shapely and familiar miniatures with a hint of what we later associate with the manner of Mayerl, Chopin and Godowsky. Daniel Tong turns these little lovelies with real sensitivity. The Phantasie in F minor for string quartet is in three movements or they are so tracked here. It won second prize in Cobbett’s 1906 competition. The whole thing is over in ten minutes. The middle episode is a touch sentimental but the outer sections are passionate if nowhere near the conflict and turbulence of the Piano Quintet. The Pensiero and Allegro Appassionato are for piano and Bridge’s own instrument, the viola. It is another one of his small company of affecting Fauré-style miniatures. He wrote similar format works for cello and violin. The Pensiero is sombre and intense. For contrast we have the Allegro Appassionato which is from the same world as the outward flanks of the Piano Quintet. Paul Hindmarsh – a lifelong advocate and good friend to Bridge’s music – completed the Violin Sonata in 1996 from the original materials dating from 1904. It’s in two movements and the style here is closer to the Piano Quintet with some superbly tender music and playing. In the first movement Benjamin Nabarro’s voluptuous caramel tone and sense of the fragility of this bloom is all-conquering. Many thanks to Mr Hindmarsh for rescuing this music and doing it with such sensitivity. I do not underestimate the dedication required. We play out with the pleasingly rounded yet superficial 1912 Spring Song for cello and piano. If you missed the London Bridge ensemble’s CD of the Bridge Phantasy Piano Quartet and Phantasie Piano Trio with a number of other rare works then this is the cue to track it down .
It’s on Dutton CDLX 7205. Good to see Dutton using that treasure of a recording venue the Wyastone Concert Hall in Monmouth – also the home of Nimbus and Lyrita. I hope we will hear more from there.
Bridge Quintet, CD Review | Published 25 Sep 2010
Ivor Gurney was one of several young English composers whose lives were affected or cut short by the First World War. His song cycle From the Western Playland was splendidly-performed by the baritone Ivan Ludlow, whose rich and powerful voice and excellent diction combined to present the varying moods of A.E.Housman’s poems. Equally-sensitive support came from the instrumentalists Daniel Tong (piano), Benjamin Nabarro and Magnus Johnston (violins), Tom Dunn (viola) and Kate Gould (cello).
Vaughan Williams’s song cycle On Wenlock Edge, written for the same combination of voice and instruments and again using the words of A.E.Housman, offers a detailed and sensitive insight into the poet’s thoughts. From the turbulent, powerful textures of the opening title song this was a performance to savour – voice and instruments combining to present the wide spectrum of moods presented with great conviction.
The final item, Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, took us back into the rich harmonic language of the mid 19th century. The spacious, impassioned textures of the intense opening movement led to a welcome respite in the gentle warmth of the slow movement. The Scherzo was played with tremendous conviction, its opening theme propelled remorselessly on each appearance, a mood matched by the power of the last movement’s final moments – a fine and stirring performance of this monumental work.
Concert Review | Published 26 Mar 2010
Frank Bridge Songs and Chamber Music, Dutton Epoch
Gramophone
Tong, whose cultured pianism affords unqualified pleasure throughout
CD Review | Published 16 Mar 2010
Derby Chamber Music: Alec Frank-Gemmill, Florence Cooke, Daniel Tong
The Derby Telegraph
“Lennox Berkeley’s Trio got a beautifully turned performance combining muscularity and elegance, passion and thoughtfulness, with the concluding set of variations sharply characterised”
“Florence Cooke and Daniel Tong played Beethoven’s A minor Violin Sonata Op 12 no 2. They brought a fine sense of playfulness to the first movement and quiet dignity to the sombre recesses of the second”
Jeremy Thurlow’s horn trio Orion, receiving its second performance……. A very impressive piece”
“Brahms’s Horn Trio is one of his most deeply personal, and the players dug deep into its many expressive layers. ….their power and drive in the second and fourth movements offset their profoundly searching treatment of the third movement’s sorrow and introspection”
Concert Review | Published 10 Mar 2010
Alec Frank-Gemmill (French Horn) and Daniel Tong (piano)
Ben Ridler
“There was the added pleasure on this occasion of hearing, as one rarely does, the French horn as the featured solo instrument”
“the result was an imaginative and varied evening of contrasting colours and moods”
“Daniel Tong’s finely calibrated performance of Beethoven’s Sonata in F sharp Op.78… added depth and range to the programme”
Concert Review | Published 15 Feb 2010
Perfect performance by London Bridge Ensemble
Halifax Courier, Andrew Liddle
Halifax Philharmonic Club – Square Chapel Centre for the Arts
THE London Bridge Ensemble is a chamber group with a difference – its members are all young and good-looking. And, more to the point, Benjamin Nabarro (violin), Tom Dunn (viola), Kate Gould (cello) and Daniel Tong (piano) are international-class instrumentalists as this superb concert illustrated.
The Piano Quartet in E Flat Major, Op 47, which Robert Schumann wrote in 1842, provided them with a perfect opportunity to show their virtuosity. The same composer’s most famous song cycle Dichterliebe ‘The Poet’s Love” Op 48, a setting of Heinrich Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo, was sung by powerful baritone Ivan Ludlow, who demonstrated a purity of style and elegance of phrasing, perfect for its semantic and melodic subtleties.
Johannes Brahms began his moody Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op 60 in 1855. The most lovely phase was undoubtedly the andante, notes of pure gold resonating from Gould’s cello before, almost as an afterthought, the violin and viola extended the sublime melody which we took home with us.
Concert Review | Published 9 Feb 2009
"Daniel Tong Turns these Little Lovelies with Real Sensitivity"
MusicWeb International, Rob Barnett
“The disc has been assembled with a practised eye to variety and to listening to the disc all through. Michael Ponder’s engineering brings the listener front-seat close to the players. The blood-rushing triumphant romance of the [Frank Bridge] Piano Quintet is magnificently put across by London Bridge Ensemble………
…………….After such torrid emotions and tumultuous striving the [Frank Bridge] Three Sketches are charming, shapely and familiar miniatures with a hint of what we later associate with the manner of Mayerl, Chopin and Godowsky. Daniel Tong turns these little lovelies with real sensitivity. “
Bridge Quintet, CD Review | Published 15 Sep 2010
"Atmospheric and Evocative Programme"
Cumberland News, Colin Marston
London Bridge Ensemble for Penrith Music Club, Penrith Methodist Church: The Ensemble, founded in 2005, is well-known for its innovative concert planning and the concert included the imaginative combination of two early 20th century English song cycles and mid 19th century chamber music by Brahms.
These stylish newcomers deserve a place at the top table
Gramophone
There’s plenty to enjoy in this attractive survey of early Frank Bridge, which is bookended by mightily impressive accounts of two of the three fastidiously integrated works that the composer entered for W W Cobbett’s prestigious annual chamber music competition. In truth, I can’t immediately recall a more persuasive realisation of the lovely 1907 Phantasie Trio – brain and heart are fully engaged. What’s more, in the glorious Phantasie Quartet of 1910 these stylish newcomers deserve a place at the top table next to such exalted predecessors as the Tunnell Trio with Bryan Hawkins (Lyrita) and Benjamin Britten with members of the Amadeus Quartet from the 1967 Aldeburgh Festival (Decca, 8/00 – nla). Not even a weird studio noise at 4’46” breaks the spell.
Elsewhere the programme allows each instrumentalist to shine: Kate Gould sparkles in the flirtatious Scherzo (1901), Benjamin Nabarro brings a beguiling warmth to the winsome Souvenir (1904) and Tom Dunn joins pianist Daniel Tong and baritone Ivan Ludlow for the Three Songs of 1906-1907. We get a further eight songs, all written before the First World War with the imploring “My pent-up tears”, intimate “Come to me in my dreams” and harmonically probing “Strew no more red roses” the stand-out items. Ludlow’s vibrato is prone to widen under pressure but he sings with belief and intelligence none the less and generates a tangible rapport with Tong (whose cultured pianism affords unqualified pleasure throughout). No quibbles, either, with Simon Eadon’s superior engineering nor Giles Easterbrook’s comprehensive annotation. In sum, a most recommendable mid-price package.
Bridge Chamber Song | Published 11 Jul 2008
"The playing is replete with a passion that yields rich rewards"
The Strad
The choice of programme here offers a release that is unique in the fast-growing catalogue of Frank Bridge recordings. The two substantial ‘Phantasie’ pieces, framing the group of shorter works written in his salon style, were composed within three years of one another for entry in the annual Cobbett prize in 1907 and 1910, the requirements of the competition shaping the idea of the rhapsodic one-movement format chosen by Bridge.
The performances from the London Bridge Ensemble wholly capture the engagingly fresh and lyrical content of both scores, and the playing is replete with a passion that yields rich rewards. The players take a relaxed view of the pulse of the music, with the strings immaculate in their well-centred intonation and a carefully judged internal balance. It is difficult to censure pianist the pianist, Daniel Tong, who cannot always resist dominating in his highly rewarding role.
The works for cello and violin are attractive salon pieces, well played respectively by Kate Gould and Benjamin Nabarro. The songs are less interesting in their content, but nicely sung by Ivan Ludlow. Close microphones produce excellent inner detail.
Bridge Chamber Song, CD Review | Published 28 Jun 2008
"A Divine Evening, Wigmore Hall"
Music and Vision, Tau Wey
The Wigmore Hall, Britain’s chamber music venue ne plus ultra, hosted the London Bridge Ensemble [5 June 2007], which performed a mixture of chamber music and song. In a programme which consisted entirely of music by nineteenth-century German composers, the ensemble chose such core works as Brahms’ Piano Quartet No 1 and Schumann’s Liederkreis.
While the rest of the music scene is moving towards innovation and renewal, drawing increasingly on multi-cultural music and new media, this concert at the Wigmore Hall rested comfortably with Romantic chamber music and song, which many in the audience would have been familiar with. Indeed, the fact that audience members at this hall are often acquainted with the works as well as the performers are, is both daunting and exciting. Although the programme was conventional, the ensemble did not need to be apologetic. Their performance shone from beginning to end, producing endlessly beautiful sounds that defied the acoustics by ringing on in the air beyond the end of the pieces. Schumann’s Piano Trio No 1 in D minor was performed with great commitment and tireless energy. The first movement was passionate, yet when the section with the cello harmonics arrived, the ensemble immediately created a heavenly sound that was chilling in its power. The tricky scherzo movement that followed was executed with faultless ensemble, culminating in a gloriously uplifting finish, The slow movement began with an exceptionally moving violin solo, and continued to be sublime and intense in expression. The last movement is, from the compositional point of view, somewhat long-winded and structurally awkward. However, the ensemble gave a successful performance with their sheer energy and tonal resourcefulness. Schumann had no such structural problems in his Liederkreis, Op 24. The musical expressions he wanted to convey also flowed out much more easily and concisely. The change from the combination of piano trio to accompanied voice was very welcome, the transformation of sound and texture being an immense relief from the intensity of the piano trio. Indeed, it felt as if the voice that yearned to sing in Schumann’s trio was finally given a human voice in the songs. Ivan Ludlow’s powerful and beautiful voice was able both to illuminate the proud and masculine sides of this song cycle as well as to delve into the subtler semantics of the poems. The Welsh Folk Songs by Beethoven were equally successful. Unusually accompanied by piano, violin and cello, Beethoven arranged these songs for amateurs. In the hands of these virtuosi, this simple music could not help but dance, fly and rejoice. For the audience it was thoroughly entertaining. The final work, Brahms’ Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor, had intense joy and life. The ensemble performed with a supreme sympathy for each other, which the audience by now had become accustomed to. There was a sense of unity and common purpose in their performance, which is the ideal of chamber music realised at its best. It was a divine evening of music making
Concert Review | Published 11 Jun 2007
"A Most Memorable Recital"
Musical Opinion, Robert Matthew-Walker
“an astonishingly successful occasion, in which Jennifer Pike was partnered by Daniel Tong.”
“Elgar’s Sonata received a deeply musical performance was both musicians’ total grasp of this fine yet demanding composition. A most memorable recital.”
Concert Review | Published 15 Jun 2000
"A Natural-born Stylist….Uncommon Panache, Fluidity and Spontaneity"
Classical Source, Douglas Cooksey
“For once one really had the sense that both players were so in tune and responsive to each other that they were able to play together with a rare sense of freedom.”
“What was rather remarkable – whether in the elliptical and elusive Debussy sonata, or the almost nightclub-like accompaniment to the fourth of Prokofiev’s Melodies, or the richly-voiced Brahms – was the way in which Daniel Tong succeeded unobtrusively and with the minimum of fuss in finding the individual tone of voice for each of these very different pieces. A natural-born stylist.”
“…playing with uncommon panache, fluidity and spontaneity; they achieved a smouldering volatile intensity entirely appropriate, the piece’s rapid swings of mood and tempo caught on the wing. Edge-of-seat stuff and totally convincing.”
“Tong’s accompaniment was particularly remarkable here: full-toned, rich, fluid but never heavy or hectoring, an object lesson in how to find the right tone of voice in this music.”
Concert Review | Published 15 Jun 2000
"Not the Notes which Count, but the Way You Play Them"
The Evening Standard
“It’s not the notes which count, but the way you play them. Tong displayed a versatile touch. Sally Beamish’s Piano Sonata had golden clusters in the lento and a roaring bass in the presto”
Concert Review | Published 15 Jun 2000
"Much Musicality to Offer….He Will Go Far"
Musical Opinion, David Allenby
“Daniel Tong was relaxed yet involved, and contributed the greater part of the atmosphere to each of the performances. Particularly impressive was his handling of the Janáček, where the busy textures and pungent ostinati needed careful balancing with the violin. There was much thought given to the internal weighting of chords, such as in the Adagio of the Brahms Sonata, and to the characterisation of groups of material in the Lutoslawski which created a febrile tension to the performance as a whole.”
“This is an accompanist who has much musicality to offer, without hogging the show. He will go far.”
Concert Review | Published 5 Jun 2000