CLASSICAL

Latest CD releases reviewed

CHOPIN-GODOWSKY: ÉTUDES Boris Berezovsky (piano) Warner Classics 2564 62258-2 *****

It was Brahms, of all people, who arranged Schubert's Impromptu in E flat as a study, with the left rather than the right hand running up and down the keyboard. Leopold Godowsky's Studies on Chopin Études are much more fanciful. They heap difficulty upon difficulty by filling a lot of the available gaps with extra notes, spicing up the harmony, contriving to produce complete-sounding versions for one hand, and even finding ways of intertwining two studies into a single piece. Not many pianists dare to take them on, and Boris Berezovsky here goes one better by offering a selection of them (each paired with the appropriate, unadulterated Chopin) in live recordings. He may not have quite the clinical precision of Marc-André Hamelin (who recorded the lot in studio), but he contours and colours them with wonderful and often delicate flexibility. He also throws in a caressingly affectionate account of Godowsky's best-known original work, Alt-Wien. And, yes, he plays the pure Chopin very nicely, too. www.warnerclassics.com Michael Dervan

CHOPIN: NOCTURNES 1-19 Maurizio Pollini (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 5718 (2 CDs) ****

It was through the Chopin Piano Competition in 1960 that the 18-year-old Maurizio Pollini first won international fame. These days, in his early 60s, he takes a rather firmer line with Chopin's Nocturnes than he did in his youth. His playing, both then and now, conveys both nobility and passion. But nowdays his concern to sustain the projection of long melodic lines rather than worry the music with intrusive personal detailing seems even greater than before. There are times when one misses some of the freedom of rubato and apparent directness of affection that informed his recordings back in the 1960s. But there's been no cooling in the ardour of his playing, which, as always, is technically unassailable and carefully balanced in musical judgement. www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan

BEETHOVEN: VIOLIN CONCERTO; ROMANCES Maxim Vengerov, London Symphony Orchestra/Mstislav Rostropovich EMI Classics 336 4032 **

The big question about Maxim Vengerov's new recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto is the same one that faced audiences on his tour with the Irish Chamber Orchestra last month. Is his extraordinarily distended, 27-minute account of the first movement musically plausible? For my money, in spite of the beautifully turned playing, it's no more convincing on disc than it was in concert, and the work sounds seriously unbalanced. This performance, I suspect, is one for the fans. Vengerov's approach to the two Romances is also spacious. But here there's no lumbering, and he also steers clear of the excessive sweetness that's often found in performances of these bonbons. www.emiclassics.com Michael Dervan

TIPPETT: PIANO SONATAS 1-3 Peter Donohoe Naxos 8.557611 ***

The composition of Michael Tippett's four piano sonatas spanned nearly half a century. The First (1936-38) pre-dates the powerful, landmark oratorio, A Child of Our Time, the Second (1962) is from the time of the Concerto for Orchestra, the Third (1972-73) falls between the Second and Third Symphonies; the Fourth (1983-84) is too long for a single-CD compilation. The sonatas are not much played these days, so it is good in this centenary year to have these new performances from Peter Donohoe, recorded with unusual clarity, where both the energetic thrust and flightiness of the music are equally well served. The relatively conservative-sounding First makes a stronger impression than either the abrasively-gritty Second or the more fantastically free-ranging Third. www.naxos.com Michael Dervan