CLASSICAL

Latest CD releases reviewed

WALTON: BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST
Christopher Purves (baritone), Huddersfield Choral Society, Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, Laudibus, English Northern Philharmonia/Paul Daniels
Naxos 8. 555869 ***

It was Thomas Beecham, so the story goes, who suggested to the young William Walton, at work on this oratorio, that, "as you'll never hear the thing again, my boy, why not throw in a couple of brass bands?" He did, and the success of the work, premièred before Walton was 30, was immediate and lasting, not least because the music has proved durable under a wide range of approaches. Paul Daniels's is very focused on moment-by-moment issues, and baritone soloist Christopher Purves seems over-emphatic, so that the enduring impression is rather more of the performance than the music. And the fill-ups (the coronation marches, Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre) that leave the disc at under 50 minutes playing time seem a little mean, even at Naxos prices.

[ www.naxos.com ]

Michael Dervan

BIBER: ROSARY SONATAS
Pavlo Beznosiuk (violin), Richard Tunnicliffe (viola da gamba), Paula Chateauneuf (theorbo), David Roblou (harpsichord), Timothy West (reader) Avie AV 0038 (2 CDs) ***

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber's Rosary Sonatas, which number among the greatest violin works of the 17th century, are well represented on disc. These works make rampant and highly distinctive use of scordatura - retuning the strings of the violin to facilitate sonorities and effects not otherwise readily obtainable. Unusually, Pavlo Beznosiuk's performances often eschew the rhetorical in the music in favour of an emphasis on the contemplative. The sonatas, each connected to a Mystery of the Rosary, and the concluding Passacaglia for solo violin, are here preceded by psalter readings by Timothy West. The interleaving of music and speech means that CD player re-programming is necessary to hear the music alone. I would have preferred it the other way around.

[ www.avierecords.com ]

Michael Dervan

CARLO MARIA GIULINI: THE CHICAGO RECORDINGS
Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky EMI Classics 585 9742 (4 CDs) ****

Giulini, who turned 90 in May, is a conductor who made listeners aware of the thoroughness with which he dotted every 'i' and crossed every 't'. The older he got, the more time he seemed to need to shape the music to his satisfaction. The painstaking detailing for which he was so renowned is, however, well in evidence in these four specially priced CDs made with the ever-responsive Chicago Symphony Orchestra between 1969 and 1976, before Giulini's tempos had reached their ultimate in broadness. There's urgency and drama in his music-making, but always integrated in a way that seems born of contemplation. The high points are Mahler's First Symphony, the orchestral music from Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, and suites from Stravinsky's Firebird and Petrushka. The symphonies by Beethoven (No 7), Bruckner (No 9) and Brahms (No 4) sound a little over-worked by comparison.

[ www.emiclassics.com ]

Michael Dervan

CD reviews compiled by Tony Clayton-Lea