CLASSICAL

Schubert: Mass in A flat D678

Arnold Schoenberg Choir/Chamber

Orchestra of Europe/Nikolaus

Harnoncourt

Teldec, 4509-98422-2 (50 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1641

Schubert: Mass in E flat D950 Teldec, 0630-13163-2 (52 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1751

The Schubert bicentennial celebrations are sure to resurrect discussion of the precise nature of the composer's religious beliefs. In particular, In his settings of the mass, there's the question about his omission of the words "Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam Eccelesiam". In the notes to these new recordings, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt argues against reading too much into the pieces on the basis of what others have written about Schubert and adds his own conviction that "this music is not an act of pious devotion but Schubert's impassioned attempt to come to terms with death".

More importantly, perhaps, Harnoncourt sees the two late masses as ranking with Beethoven's Missa Solemn is as the "greatest, most important and artistically significant attempts to come to terms with the Christian liturgy". His performances are in line with his views, the tempos steady and on the slow side, the music making ripe and solemn, measuring out the threads of contrapuntal tension and tending to emphasise elements of dark drama rather than flowing lyricism. The music, without the immediate melodic appeal of the late sonatas and symphonies (though none the less rewarding for that), glows with an impressively austere radiance under Harnoncourt's guiding gravitas.

The recordings, with the clear toned Arnold Schoenberg Choir and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (modern instruments, period style playing) stem from concert performances given at the Stefaniensaal in Graz in June 1995. The soloists, soprano Luba Orgonasova, contralto Birgit Remmert, tenor Deon van der Walt and bass Anton Scharinger (joined by baritone Wolfgang Holzmair in D950), knit tightly into the overall style of the undertaking. How strange that in this year of Schubert celebrations there's still not a performance of one of these great masses in sight in Ireland!

Schoenberg: Private Concerts Series

Soloists of the Opera National de Lyon

Erato, 0630-13541-2 (54 mins)

Dial-a-track code, 1861)

Schoenberg must have one of the dourest of public images among great composers. His earnestness is well epitomised through the Society lord Private Concerts he founded in 1918 (members only, no reviews, no applause) to promote neglected contemporary music. But, side by side with heavyweights like Bartok, Stravinsky, Reger, Berg and Webern, place was found for chamber arrangements of a wide range of work from Strauss waltzes, Denza's Funiculi Funiculli and popular Viennese songs to the expanses of Reger's Romantic Suite.

The Soloists of the Opera National de Lyon lovingly celebrate this aspect of Schoenbergs work. The scoring is typically for a handful of woodwind, string quartet, piano and harmonium, and the venture carries a lot more interest than such dramatic downsizing might suggest. And, curiously, Reger (who featured more than any other composer in the Private Concerts series) has made little enough headway in concert that he still stands to benefit from the platform afforded his Romantic Suite on this new disc.

Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor/Clifford Curzon

Decca, 452 306-2 (57 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 1971

Beethoven: Emperor piano concerto

Vienna Philharmonic/Hans Knappertsbusch/Curzon

Decca, 452 302-2 (63 mins)

Dial-a-track code: 2081

Not everything peddled these days under the banner of "classic" fully merits that description. However, Clifford Curzon's fastidious 1963 recording of Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor, recently reissued in Decca's mid price Classic Sound series certainly fits the bill keeneared listeners may cavil at the traces of peak distortion in the recording, but the playing is extremely fine. A hollow sounding 1957 recording lends an air of remoteness to Curzon in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto where, with the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Knappertsbusch, it's the gentle Adagio which comes off best; however, the fill up, the Eroica Variations, is musically substantial and the sound of the later recording (1971) is superior.