Classical

Matthias Goerne, Eric Schneider: Schumann: Liederkreis Op 39; 12 Gedichte Op 35

German baritone Matthias Goerne, who's already recorded Schumann's Op 24 and Dichterliebe cycles with Ashkenazy, here excels himself in the Liederkreis, Op 39 and the songs of Op 35. Both date from 1840, the composer's annus mirabilis of song writing, and are part of the outpouring prompted by romantic ardour for his beloved Clara. Goerne brings a real sense of sighing wonder to these songs, frequently in a discourse that could well be taken as the musical expression of interior monologue. The tone is often veiled, the manner confessional, the emotional state that of an individual transported, wrapped in a reflective, hypnotic ecstasy. And he's equally effective when he snaps out of musing reverie. A real winner.

Michael Dervan

Cantus Colln, Concerto Palatino/Konrad Junghanel: Biber: Litaniae Sancto Josepho; Georg Muffat: Missa in labore requies (Harmonia Mundi)

Here's another celebration of the splendour of music-making in the Salzburg of the late 17th century. Although Biber is still most famous for his violin music (which, happily, Maya Homburger is bringing to the attention of Irish audiences), and Muffat for his organ works, the pieces on this CD are choral extravagances, sumptuous and ceremonial. They were designed for cathedral performance, yet their trademark is a hedonistic sumptuousness that's vocally lavish and instrumentally prolix, with brass writing of effortless brilliance. Junghanel interpolates instrumental items of matching grandeur, and the close recording is set in the reverberant acoustic of the Abbey of Melk.

Michael Dervan

Steffen Schleiermacher: Music at the Bauhaus

The Bauhaus connections of Stefan Wolpe, JM Hauer, Vladimir Vogel, George Antheil and HH Stuckenschmidt are not all close, yet as a collection, this piano programme really makes sense. Wolpe, Antheil and Stuckenschmidt share a 1920s' affinity for mechanisation of rough and angular hew, Wolpe showing the most developed achievement - particularly in his wildly pounding Stehende Musik. His is the major voice here. Vogel, a Russian-born German who spent most of his life in Switzerland, is heard in early, Scriabinesque mode. The real mystery man is Hauer, heavily burdened with theory and philosophy (he developed his own, 12-tone system independently of Schoenberg), whose ever-narrowing focus led him to patterning avowedly more mathematical than musical.

Michael Dervan