Classical

Latest CD releases reviewed

WAGNER: TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden/Antonio Pappano EMI Classics 558 0062 (3 CDs + bonus DVD) ****

This new Tristan, with Placido Domingo in the title role and the likes of Ian Bostridge in minor parts, is being touted as the last opera to be recorded in studio with a starry cast. Domingo, 63 at the time, is remarkably responsive in a role he has never sung on stage. His Isolde, Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, focused, penetrating, true, is if anything even better, and more consistently sure in her German. René Pape is a dignified Marke, Olaf Bär an insightful if rather coarse-toned Kurwenal, Mihoko Fujimara a Brangäne who breaks up the vocal line rather too much. The ecstasy and the agony of the doomed lovers is, of course, a matter for the conductor as well as the singers, and Antonio Pappano captures the slow-burning ache of longing as effectively as moments of tenderness and dramatic urgency, conveying the whole with a sense of spaciousness that's indpendent of actual tempo. The DVD offers surround sound as well as stereo, plus on-screen German libretto and subtitled translations. Michael Dervan

PÄRT: DA PACEM DOMINE; LAMENTATE
Hilliard Ensemble, Alexei Lubimov (piano), SWR Stuttgart Radio SO/ Andrey Boreyko ECM New Series ECM 1930 ***

Arvo Pärt turned 70 last Sunday, and the ever-loyal ECM label marks the occasion with a coupling of two recent works. Da pacem Domine (2004), for unaccompanied voices, is a short prayer for peace in a familiar, slowly pulsating Pärtian mode. Lamentate, for piano and orchestra, is a death-obsessed homage "to Anish Kapoor and his sculpture Marsyas" - it was premièred underneath the sculpture in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Gallery in 2002 (the title also reads as LamenTate). At nearly 40 minutes, this moody, broody piece, imbued with consolatory effects of shadows and fading trails, is Pärt's longest orchestral work, and has moments which remind one momentarily of his pre-1970s avant-gardism. In the end, though, it seems slight for its length. www.ecmrecords.com Michael Dervan

DECCA & PHILIPS RECORDINGS 1951-1969
Concertgebouw, Vienna Philharmonic, & London Symphony Orchestras/ George Szell Decca Original Masters 475 6780 (5 CDs) ****

Hungarian conductor George Szell (1897-1970) was an immaculate technician who, in his sinewy style and fondness for lean textures, anticipated many of the hallmarks of the period-instruments movement. His long association with the Cleveland Orchestra didn't preclude distinguished recording work in Europe. From Amsterdam came delectable accounts of excerpts from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and Schubert's Rosamunde, plus symphonies by Mozart (No 34), Beethoven (No 5) and Sibelius (No 2), and in mono from the earliest sessions by Brahms (No 3) and Dvorak (No 8), all done with cultured vitality. In London he blazed in Handel's Water and Fireworks music and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. And in Vienna he made the most gripping account you're likely to hear of Beethoven's music for Egmont. www.deccaclassics.com Michael Dervan

MENDELSSOHN, SCHUMANN, FRANCK, FRANCK, FAURÉ
Jean-Bernard Pommier, Northern Sinfonia/Jean-Bernard Pommier Virgin Classics 4821092 ***

This enterprising re-issue brings together some rewarding but less frequently heard piano works from the 19th century. There's Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses, the most substantial though not the largest of his solo piano works; Schumann's eight Novellettes (written for his beloved Clara and named by association with one of the great singers of the day, Clara Novello); Brahms's late, inward Intermezzi, Op 117; Franck's opulently chromatic Prelude, Chorale and Fugue and Prelude, Aria and Finale; and Fauré's limpid Ballade with orchestra. The readings by Jean-Bernard Pommier, one of France's leading pianists, are at all times rewarding in tonal refinement, if sometimes limited in breadth of vision. www.virginclassics.com Michael Dervan