CLASSICAL

Latest releases reviewed

SCHUBERT: SYMPHONY NO 9 IN C (GREAT)  Berlin Philharmonic/Simon Rattle EMI Classics 339 3822  ****

If you like your Schubert au naturel, as it were, this is probably not for you. Simon Rattle steers clear of the commonplaces of performing tradition in Schubert's Great C major Symphony to uncover a wealth of new angles and highlight passing details of hitherto unsuspected significance. You may wonder at times if you're hearing things correctly, and if you're the kind of person who likes to see the justification in the score, you'd better have a copy handy, preferably in the New Schubert Edition from Bärenreiter. In taking nothing for granted Rattle does at times lose some ease of lyrical expression. But the Berlin Philharmonic is in top form, and the music sounds at all times exceptionally fresh-minted, which seems to be exactly what the performance set out to achieve. www.emiclassics.com

Michael Dervan

MOZART: 'CONCERTANTE' PARIS. 1778 Freiburger Barokorchester/Gottfried von der Goltz (violin) Harmonia Mundi HMC 901897 ****

Mozart wrote all three works here on the 1778 trip in which he found himself but a small fish in the large world of Paris, sometimes brushed aside in favour of inferior composers. There's nothing inferior about the works here and the period instrument players of the Freiburger Barockorchester exploit to the full the ample opportunities for emphasizing the distinctive instrumental combinations involved. The Paris Symphony was Mozart's most instrumentally elaborate symphony up to that time and this performance gives it the real showpiece treatment, with the second version of the slow movement included as an appendix. Robert Levin's reconstruction of Mozart's original scoring (flute, oboe, bassoon and horn) is used in the Sinfonia Concertante. And the modern sentimental overlay often encountered in the Flute and Harp Concerto is carefully avoided. www.uk.hmboutique.com

Michael Dervan

ORDONEZ: 5 SYMPHONIES Toronto Camerata/Kevin Mallon Naxos 8.557482 ***

According to the New Grove Dictionary, Karl von Ordonez (1734-86) "helped to define the Viennese Classica style during the period from the 1750s to the 70s". He was a career civil servant rather than a professional musician, although he was proficient enough on the violin to take part in important performances in the Vienna of his time. The five three-movement symphonies recorded here (three of them in minor keys) are light and agreeable in manner. Kevin Mallon and his Toronto Camerata handle them with an airy grace and easy transparency that enhances their easy-listening appeal. It's interesting to encounter Ordonez's music in this Mozart year, if only to realize the gap there was between this skilful old hand and the genius from Salzburg, even in his early years. www.naxos.com

Michael Dervan

KIMMO HAKOLA: CLARINET CONCERTO; VERDOYANCES CRÉPUSCULES; DIAMOND STREET Kari Kriikku (clarinet), Finnish Radio SO/Sakari Oramo Ondine OCD 1063-2 ****

In the old days the extreme contrasts and sometimes crazy juxtapositions of Finnish composer Kimmo Hakola's 2001 Clarinet Concerto would have been termed surreal. Hakola adopts a wide range of different styles with the cool composure of a model showcasing outfits in a fashion show, although composure is a most unlikely outcome for anyone listening to or performing the piece. It's a 40-minute extravaganza which requires a soloist with the musical equivalent of actor Jim Carrey's facial and physical adaptability. Much of the contorting takes place in high-energy mode - Hakola particularly enjoys putting klezmer through the hoops - and the piece is one of the most consistently display-oriented concertos of recent times. Kari Kriikku, for whom it was written, plays it to the manner born, as he does also the earlier clarinet solo Diamond Street. The Jules Verne-inspired Verdoyances Crépuscules moves from energy into a dream-like trance. www.uk.hmboutique.com

Michael Dervan