Classical

Latest CD releases reviewed.

RAMEAU: UNE SYMPHONIE IMAGINAIRE
Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski Archiv Produktion 477 5578 *****

This CD takes as its starting point the claim that Rameau was "the greatest orchestral genius in France before Berlioz". Unfortunately, of course, he wrote his orchestral music within his operas rather than as standalone pieces. The Musiciens du Louvre celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2002 with a special Rameau Gala, but, explains conductor Marc Minkowski, "we still sorely missed the symphonie that Rameau never wrote. And so we created it ourselves". They've pilfered choice moments from operas (removing vocal parts where necessary), and produced a remarkable 56 minute sequence that is as sure to delight existing admirers as it is to swell their number. Purists may object, but the achievement here is startling, sparkling, and touching, too. www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan

DVORAK: THE GOLDEN SPINNING- WHEEL; THE WOOD DOVE; THE NOON- DAY WITCH; THE WATER GOBLIN Berlin Philharmonic/Simon Rattle EMI Classics 558 0192 (2 CDs for the price of 1)***

These four late tone poems by Dvorak, orchestral ballads as the composer called them, were all inspired by the writings of Karel Jaromír Erben. The originals are fairytale grisly affairs, replete with suicide, eye gouging, child killing and dismembering. The music, which finds Dvorak at the height of his powers, (the successes of his American sojourn were not long behind him), is more fairytale innocent than fairy-tale dark. Simon Rattle is not the most sensitive of conductors when it comes to what you might call the music's once-upon-a-time atmosphere. He's often that bit too straight and earnest, careful and cautious when he really needs to let his hair down a bit. The playing of the Berlin Philharmonic, it has to be said, is not always in the orchestra's finest tradition. www.emiclassics.com Michael Dervan

BRUCKNER: SYMPHONY NO 5 Munich Philharmonic/Christian Thielemann Deutsche Grammophon 477 5377 ***

Christian Thielemann's sleeve-note on Bruckner's Fifth Symphony seems like the writing of a man spoiling for a fight. "His symphonies do not stand for something sacred," he says. With Bruckner, he thinks of "East Prussia, of German brick buildings, the architecture of the Hanseatic cities". There is "no message that I want to impress upon my listeners with this Fifth Symphony of Anton Bruckner: feel free to imagine whatever you please!" The recording stems from his inaugural concerts as generalmusikdirektor of the Munich Philharmonic last October, and the performance - all 83 minutes on a single CD! - is both lush and brash, svelte and rough-cut. If you're fussy about texture and gait in Bruckner, you may find Thielemann tripping you up a lot. If not, the ride is rarely dull. www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan

CLARA SCHUMANN: PIANO CONCERTO; PIANO TRIO Francesco Nicolosi (piano), Rodolfo Bonucci (violin), Andrea Noferini (cello), Alma Mahler Sinfonietta/Stefania Rinaldi Naxos 8.557552 ***

Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto, Op 7, written in the mid 1830s, is a work of her teenage years - the composer who would become her husband helped her orchestrate the finale. When she wrote her Piano Trio, Op 17, in 1846 she was already established as one of the great pianists of the age, someone to be spoken of in the same breath as Liszt. Her two largest works sound well in the performances here, which are conversational in style rather than rhetorical, limited in the quality of instrumental tone, but often refined in the shaping of detail and managing to capture a charming sentiment in the music. It's not hard to find people eager to overstate the cause of Clara Schumann as a composer. These in many ways understated performances do a lot more for her than some of her more insistent advocates. www.naxos.com  Michael Dervan