Busoni: Piano Concerto. Marc-Andre Hamelin, CBSO/Mark Elder (Hyperion)
The 1904 Piano Concerto by Ferruccio Busoni is an odd work by any yardstick. Over 70 minutes long, and with a choral finale, it has struck some commentators as more choral symphony than concerto. Busoni's mixed German/Italian parentage was reflected in the tensions of his music, and the concerto marks the culmination of a period in the composer's life which, in Ronald Stevenson's words, was "characterised by a mastery of prodigality". MarcAndre Hamelin is well equipped to deal with the work's formidable demands; the achievement of his reading is that it reveals the work in its full strangeness. With stalwart support from the CBSO under Mark Elder, the rugged uniqueness of Busoni's voice speaks out with renewed freshness.
- Michael Dervan
Teodoro Anzellotti (accordion): push pull (hat[now]ART)
The accordion, like any bellows-driven instrument, doesn't really have to breathe. Which is what makes Salvatore Sciarrino's Vagabonde blu, which opens this collection of largely 1990s accordion music, so remarkable. Sciarrino presents a trembling, heavy-breathing instrument, subject to interjections from unexpected pitch regions. Rolf Riehm's push pull attempts to polarise the efforts of two hands dependent on a single breathing mechanism. Korean Younghi Pagh-Paan's NE MA-UM (My Heart) seeks out means to "liquefy" the accordion's sound world. Vinko Globokar's Dialog uber Luft (Dialogue about air) introduces vocal as well as musical drama. Toshio Hosokawa's Melodia (the oldest piece, from 1978) stills time with its carefully-blended restraint. A finely-played and fascinating collection.
- Michael Dervan
Saint-Saens: Music for Violin (Hyperion). SaintSaens: Music for Cello (Hyperion)
Saint-Saens, born into the era of Bellini and Donizetti, lived into the age of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. He maintained his poise throughout and, at the end of his days, was both revered for his craftsmanship and regarded as something of a fossil. The sonatas here remain, even at their most impassioned, neat and balanced. French violinist Philippe Graffin, partnered by Pascal Devoyon, is not in quite the consistently fine form of his SaintSaens concertos disc which launched Hyperion's new Romantic Violin Concerto series. His manner is more in sympathy with the music than the often high-pressure approach of the Swedish cellists Mats Lidstrom and Bengt Forsberg, whose playing tends to draw attention to what was missing from Saint-Saens' musical make-up.
- Michael Dervan
