Classical

This week's classical CDs reviewed

TRANSMIGRATION

Atlanta Symphony Choruses & Orchestra/Robert Spano

Telarc CD-80673

Transmigration is a collection of American works associated with grieving. Samuel Barber's Adagio (heard in both string orchestra and choral versions) acquired that association only through its use at Franklin D Roosevelt's funeral. John Corigliano's 1965 Elegy (dedicated to Barber, and written while the older composer was alive) and Jennifer Higdon's 2004 Whitman setting for baritone (Nmon Ford) and orchestra, Dooryard Bloom'd (subject, Abraham Lincoln) show different facets of perilously sentimental neo-romanticism. John Adams goes some way to getting the best of both worlds in his On the Transmigration of Souls, a New York Philharmonic commission to commemorate 9/11. It's calm, then railing, and ends with an Ivesian twist. The directness and compactness of the Barber scores highest. www.telarc.com

HAYDN: QUARTETS OP 33

Cuarteto Casals

Harmonia Mundi HMX 2962022.23

Barcelona's Cuarteto Casals (pictured) seem to want to have it every way in their remarkable performances of the six string quartets of Haydn's Op 33. On the one hand, they demonstrate that they learned many a lesson from period performance practices. In fact, their vibrato is actually more restrained than some early music specialists. And yet they also like to drive things to extremes, exaggerating details in any number of ways, from rapid articulation that's like scrubbing, to portamento that's woozy, to lines that become so attenuated they're almost spidery thin. It's a roller-coaster approach, with an impetuosity that's at times almost dizzying. The effect ranges from the entrancingly delightful to the prattishly obtuse. There's nothing neutral here. www.tinyurl. com/6mchwb

SCHOECK: NOTTURNO

Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Rosamunde Quartet

ECM New Series 476 6995

If you wanted a handful of lines to encapsulate the mood of the substantial Notturno that Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957) wrote in the 1930s, you could do worse than these two: "He approaches but never does he reach her" and "The dark clouds hang low/so anxiously and heavily,/The two of us walk sadly/Back and forth in the garden". Schoeck's 45-minute work for baritone and string quartet was a favourite of the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who espoused Schoeck's dark night of the soul for many years. Christian Gerhaher is a worthy successor, both severe and touching in his handling of the poems by Nikolaus Lenau and Gottfried Keller. The Rosamunde Quartet show a perfect understanding of how to distil darkness out of delicacy. www.ecmrecords.com

NATHAN MILSTEIN, ARISTOCRAT OF THE VIOLIN

Nathan Milstein (violin), with various orchestras and pianists

EMI Classics Icon 698 6672 (8 CDs)

Nathan Milstein (1904-92) went through the same schooling under Leopold Auer as the great Jascha Heifetz, though with very different results. Milstein played with aristocratic poise and reserve, in a manner that favoured sensuality and stylish finish over raw excitement. EMI's Icon compilation of recordings made between 1954 and 1963 includes the Bach solo sonatas and partitas, a clutch of major concertos (Beethoven to Prokofiev) and sonatas (Vivaldi to Beethoven) as well as a generous selection of the miniatures he played with such incomparable grace. Try his 1960 account of Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for an insight into his combination of penetrating musicianship and suavity of delivery. www.emiclassics. com