CLASSICAL

Latest releases reviewed

HOROWITZ IN HAMBURG, THE LAST CONCERT

Vladimir Horowitz (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 7558 ****

This new CD includes all but one of the pieces from what turned out to be the great Vladimir Horowitz's last public concert, given at Hamburg's Musikhalle on June 21st, 1987. The 83-year-old piano wizard, who more than any other musician of the 20th century seemed to emulate the appeal of Liszt and Paganini in the 19th, is as capricious an interpreter as ever, but much gentler in tone  and manner than in his younger days. He tries to overcome Mozart (the Rondo in D and the Sonata in B flat, K333) by being caressing and flirtatious, and provides melting magic in Schumann's Kinderszenen. Chopin's Heroic Polonaise was better served by a younger Horowitz, but he still holds his own in short pieces by Liszt, Chopin, Schubert and Moszkowski. www.tinyurl.com/ 5b9s4r

HENRY PURCELL: CEASE, ANXIOUS WORLD - SONGS AND CHAMBER MUSIC

La Rêveuse Mirare MIR 033 *****

A lot of English performers take a strangely reserved approach to the music of England's greatest composer, Henry Purcell. It's as if they either feel too much reverence, or simply can't accept that the music's extraordinary harmonic scrunches are to be relished rather than handled with the musical equivalent of a stiff upper lip. The French group La Rêveuse and their soprano, Julie Hassler, have no such hangups, and their music- making has a pulsating life that brings out all the adventurousness and individuality that make Purcell such a cherishable composer. Their selection includes the songs Music for a while, Amidst the shades, O let me weep from The Fairy Queen, the Sonata in G minor, and, for contrast, a sonata by Godfrey Finger. www.tinyurl.com/6mchwb

BACH: CLAVIERÜBUNG BOOK III (EXC) Malcolm Proud (organ) Maya Recordings MCD 0803 ****

Malcolm Proud is an unfussy musician. If he were a chef, there would be little in the way of fancy nouvelle cuisine presentation. If he were an actor, there wouldn't be much in the way of histrionics. But Proud is also something of a musical visionary. His steady vision allows him to communicate music with an unusual sense of inevitability, giving the impression that he has captured and can convey the essence of what he's playing with unusual fixity. That's what he does in this 68-minute selection of 12 pieces from the third part of Bach's Clavierübung, played on the Metzler organ of the Stadtkirche in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland. The manner may be unassuming, but the rewards in music as great as Bach's are rich. www.tinyurl.com/6ldw5y

KEYBOARD CONCERTOS BY JC & JCF BACH The Music Collection/Susan Alexander-Max (fortepiano) Naxos 8.570474 ***

Johann Christian Bach (1735-82) was a chip off the old block in that he became a composer like his father Johann Sebastian, but not in his conversion to Catholicism or in matters of music style. In the latter he was a harbinger of a classical lightness quite the opposite of his father's manner. Susan Alexander- Max's new disc includes two concertos from JC Bach's Op 13, in the light and simple mode that made him so fashionable in his lifetime. Alexander-Max and the members of The Music Collective give zesty performances of both works, as well as of two rather meatier concertos formerly attributed to JC but now known to be the work of his older brother Johann Christoph Friedrich. www.naxos.com

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times