CLASSICAL

Latest CD releases reviewed

FRANK MARTIN: MASS; SONGS OF ARIEL; MESSIAEN: CINQ RECHANTS; O SACRUM CONVIVIUM
RIAS-Kammerchor/Daniel Reuss Harmonia Mundi HMC 91834
*****

Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) wrote his Mass for two choirs between 1922 and 1926 as an exercise, "a matter between God and myself", which remained unperformed until 1963. The style is archaic, spellbindingly sensuous in its austerity - think of Gregorian chant -and its appeal has led it to challenge the composer's Petite symphonie concertante in popularity. Daniel Reuss shows its sinewy strength as well as its softer allure, and, contrariwise, in Messiaen's Cinq Rechants, he uncovers the music as the song of love it actually is, rather than the more abstract modernist tract that many others effectively see it as. This attractive and finely-sung collection also includes a smaller work by each of the composers, Martin's Five Songs of Ariel of 1950, and the haloed resonances of Messiaen's O sacrum convivium of 1937.  www.harmoniamundi.com Michael Dervan

PROKOFIEV: VIOLIN CONCERTO NO 1; SIBELIUS: VIOLIN CONCERTO; HUMORESQUES OP 89
Ilya Gringolts (violin), Gothenburg SO/Neeme Järvi Deutsche Grammophon 474 814-2
***

The young Russian violinist Ilya Gringolts brings a great variety of tone production and musical manner to bear on Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto. But most of the time the characteristic that stands out is the sense of deliberation he communicates. It makes his playing more consistently earnest than you might expect, so that where other players are persuasively bittersweet he's likely to sound more thoroughly melancholic. But the approach casts the music in an interesting light, and the four Humoresques of Sibelius's Op. 89, light music of the highest calibre, sound even better, deft and mercurial, with Neeme Järvi an alert partner. Gringolts's phrasing in the Sibelius concerto exhibits flat spots which cause the music to seem oddly grounded, limited in both momentum and expressive depth.  www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan

GEMINIANI: CONCERTI GROSSI AFTER CORELLI
Ensemble 415/Chiara Banchini (violin) ZigZag Territoires ZZT 040301 (2 CDs)
****

The music of Corelli was, in the words of Roger North, writing in 1725, "to musicians like the bread of life". And Francesco Geminiani, who studied with Corelli (and who died in Dublin in 1762), made the bread of Corelli's Violin Sonatas more widely available by arranging them as concerti grossi. Chiara Banchini famously made big band - 40-player - recordings of Corelli using period instruments, and last year performed them with an orchestra of no less than 80 players. She downsizes to just 15 musicians for Geminiani's Corelli arrangements. But the inclination to lushness is at all times apparent, and the sonic spread of the recording emphasizes the appealing richness of the conception. www.harmoniamundi.com Michael Dervan

STRAUSS: VIER LETZTE LIEDER & OTHER SONGS; SCENE FROM ROSENKAVALIER
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Berlin Radio SO, LSO/George Szell EMI Classics Legend 557 7520 (CD + DVD)
***
EMI's new Legend series couples classic recordings on CD with a short DVD of footage from the company's Classic Archive catalogue. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf brought ravishing vocal sensuality, high musicality and exceptional intelligence to bear on Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs when she recorded them with George Szell in Berlin in 1965. The CD includes 12 other Strauss songs, similarly finely done, five from the Berlin sessions as well as seven recorded in London three years later. The DVD offers the touching final 25 minutes of Act I of Strauss's Rosenkavalier, staged for a BBC recording in 1961, with the Philharmonia under Charles Mackerras. Sadly the DVD is compromised by the absence of the subtitles that are to be found on the Classic Archive issue. On top of that the booklet offers neither texts nor translations of the songs, and all 12 individual songs are ascribed to the London sessions. www.emiclassics.com Michael Dervan