Richard Strauss: Julia Varady (soprano), Dietrich-Fischer-Dieskau (conductor), Bamberger Symphoniker
Fearsome rages and improbable high notes, all gorgeously executed. This is no "greatest hits" selection - nothing from Der Rosenkavalier, in other words - but it's a terrific bite-sized introduction for anyone who has shied away from a composer often presented as daunting. A maddened Salome kissing the mouth of the decapitated Jokanaan; Ariadne's captivating love song; Danae's cheery Mozart impersonation; the Countess's final scene from Capriccio, with its debate as to whether words or music are more important; a microcosm, in fact, not just of the operas of Strauss, but of the concerns of opera itself.
- Arminta Wallace
Godowsky: Complete Studies on Chopin's Etudes. MarcAndre Hamelin (piano) (Hyperion)
What can you say? MarcAndre Hamelin has done it again. Godowsky's reworkings of Chopin studies are not only notoriously difficult but also of a contrapuntal intricacy that can seem simply unreasonable. The temptation for performers in the face of quite so many notes, layered in such a demanding fashion, is to play in a sort of lion-taming way, creating an impression of triumphant demonstrativeness. Hamelin's mastery enables him to transcend any such short-sightedness. He unravels these prolix exercises (many for the left hand alone, others combining two of Chopin's originals) with a depth of affection only possible because his virtuosity renders most of the difficulties invisible. Even if you think the enterprise musically questionable, you'll surely find the results mesmerisingly inventive.
- Michael Dervan
Bruckner: Symphony in F minor; Volksfest Finale to Symphony No 4. RSNO/Georg Tintner
This early piece, regarded by Bruckner as a student work, is probably the rarest of all his symphonies in the concert hall. The composer was dead nearly 30 years when it received its first performance in 1924. It wasn't published or recorded for nearly another half century, and it's of most interest now to listeners who want to hunt for hints of the mature Bruckner in what is essentially a graduation exercise. It's the Scherzo that shows most clearly the Bruckner we know; elsewhere the flashes of the later style sound more like influences on someone else's music than premonitions in something by Bruckner himself. The late Georg Tintner's performance with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is in his rewarding, straight-dealing style.
- Michael Dervan
Piffaro: A Flemish Feast - Flemish Renaissance Wind Music. (Archiv Produktion)
When the early music movement was in its infancy, the role of drums and tambourines, sweetly-tootling recorders, and penetrating shawms was much greater than it is now. The dance music which often gave these instruments their prominent roles doesn't feature at all as regularly in the early music world of today. So there's a certain nostalgia to be experienced from the "Flemish Feast", which continues the international journey being undertaken by Piffaro - they've already covered wind music from Renaissance Italy, France and Spain. And if some of the offerings in this colourful and high-spirited selection seem, well, a little less raucous than of yore, that's simply a measure of how much better in tune the old instruments are played these days.
- Michael Dervan
