Britten the performer (BBC Legends)
Britten the performer worked side-by-side with Britten the composer at the heart of the Aldeburgh Festival. It's the achievement of the performer - both pianist and conductor - which is celebrated in five new discs from BBC Legends. There's a distinctive "aliveness" about his music-making; free-spirited, spontaneous, but without overtones of personal idiosyncrasy. As with recorded concerts of Casals you can almost sense the communication that makes everything sound participative rather than reproductive. Great names associated with the festival are here, Richter, Elly Ameling in Mozart, Rostropovich in Tchaikovsky, and surprises, too, Arrau sharing the keyboard in Brahms's Liebeslieder Waltzes. Sample the Tchaikovsky String Serenade or Mahler's Fourth Symphony and you're likely to have your view of Britten's musicianship greatly deepened. Treasurable stuff.
By Michael Dervan
Mozart: String Quartets in D K575, in F K590. Quatuor Mosaiques (Auvidis Astree)
The technical armoury of the 20th-century cellist does not really sit too well with the music of the 18th century. Which may well explain why Mozart's last two quartets, commissioned by the cello-playing Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, so rarely satisfy in modern performance. It's not unusual to hear the distinctive cello prominence become the very feature which drives the music out of the expressive world of its creator. The period-instruments', Quatour Mosaiques, due to make their Irish debut at the West Cork Festival this year, elegantly bypass the problem. Cellist Christophe Coin's contributions are sinewy, pointed, without expressive flab. Overall the effect is of airy textures and newly-touching poignancy.
By Michael Dervan
Brian Ferneyhough: Solo works. Elision (Etcetera)
The Englishman Brian Ferneyhough, a leading exponent of "new complexity" now 56, has always been more celebrated abroad than at home. He has held posts in Germany and California and this major new addition to his discography is by an Australian ensemble recorded on a Dutch label. Ferneyhough's is a music that revels in the transgression of perceived borders - the limits of what's actually playable by performers, the nature of what can conceptually be received by listeners. His minutely-detailed demands daunt the most resourceful of specialised players, and, even within new music circles, he's often seen as a sort of bogey-man.
The "lighter" works here are Time and Motion Study I for bass clarinet, and Bone Alphabet for percussion. There are also works for guitar (Kurze Schatten II), flute (Unity Capsule), and cello and electronics (Time and Motion Study II).
By Michael Dervan
