Classical

Schubert: Death and the Maiden Quartet; Schumann: Piano Quintet. Sviatoslav Richter (piano), Borodin Quartet (Teldec)

Sviatoslav Richter was a Schumann interpreter without peer. It seems apt, then, that his final recording should be of Schumann's Piano Quintet, taken from live performances in France in 1994. It's apt, too, that it should be with his long-time collaborators, the Borodin Quartet. Richter handles the music with a grip of steel - not a comment about his tone, but rather the exacting rigour of his rhythm and the bracing sharpness of his articulation. The Borodins (captured before the latest changes of personnel) are with him all the way, and they have an austerity of their own which suits the grave expanses of Schubert's great Death And The Maiden Quartet.

Michael Dervan

Poulenc: Orchestral music, concertos (Decca, 3 CDs). Poulenc: Songs for voice and piano (Decca, 4 CDs)

It's the impudent Poulenc who's to the fore in the orchestral discs, now brought together at mid-price to celebrate the centenary of the composer's birth. Charles Dutoit, with French and British orchestras, is a sharp guide. His soloists are first-rate (they include Pascal Roge and Peter Hurford), and the Concerto for two pianos, inspired by the sounds of the Indonesian gamelan, is as fine as I've heard. Song-writing stirred deeper responses, working on miniatures triggering concentration rather than the sometimes casual cliches of the bigger works. Decca's mid-price collection is anchored by the presence of the ever-excellent Roge at the keyboard. The songs are divided with varying success between baritones Francois Le Roux and Gilles Cachemaille, sopranos Felicity Lott and Catherine Dubosc, and mezzo Urszula Kryger.

Michael Dervan

Blacher: Alla Marcia; Dance Scenes; Chiarina. LPO, Berlin RSO/Noam Sheriff (Largo). Blacher: "Der Grossinquisitor" Dresden PO/Herbert Kegel (Berlin Classics)

The German composer Boris Blacher (1903-75), born in China to Estonian parents, was hardly set to prosper in Hitler's Germany. He liked things French and Russian, his style was playful, and he was fond of jazz. Already ousted from a teaching post, he had to go to ground in 1943 when a Jewish grandfather was discovered. The earliest works on these two discs, a tangled march, and dances from an aborted ballet, didn't actually get heard until 1979 (in Dublin!); the later ballet, Chiarina, is much more Stravinskian. The 1942 oratorio, Der Grossinquisitor, after Dostoyevsky, is untypically earnest (the composer was in understandable crisis). The vocal beauty and tact of the Leipzig Radio chorus under Kegel is deeply impressive.

Michael Dervan