Latest CD releases reviewed

DIETRICH FISCHER-DIESKAU RECITES MELODRAMAS BY SCHUMANN, LISZT, STRAUSS, ULLMANN
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (reciter), Burkhard Kehring (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 5320 (2 CDs) ****

It's often said that in order to be able to sing a song well, you should first be able to communicate it persuasively as spoken text. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, one of the most recorded artists of the 20th century, could certainly sing, and here he shows how well he can also speak a text. Melodrama, a marriage in which speech and music interleave and overlap, is now a perfect medium for the retired, 80-year-old baritone. The major pieces here are Richard Strauss's Enoch Arden and the little-known Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke by Viktor Ullmann, Strauss adding rather more music to Alfred Lord Tennyson than Ullmann to Rainer Maria Rilke. However, it's actually the forward-looking Liszt of Der traurige Mönch and Lenore who seems most gripped by the potential of the medium. Recorded balance favours the voice, but Burkhard Kehring's characterful playing seems unaffected. www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan

CONLON NANCARROW PORTRAIT
Continuum/Cheryl Seltzer, Joel Sachs Naxos American Classics 8.559196 ****

US maverick composer Conlon Nancarrow (1912-97), spent most of his life in exile in Mexico. For nearly four decades he ignored live performers, and beginning from a pre-occupation with jazz and counterpoint wrote a series of studies of outrageous rhythmic intricacy for player piano; these can be had in a five-CD survey from Wergo. The music here focuses on either end of his career and includes his two pieces for small orchestra, the First String Quartet; pieces for piano (some in arrangements for piano duet); and the Toccata for violin and player piano. The extraordinary mixture of the purposeful and the desultory which marks out his music is well caught by New York's Continuum ensemble. www.naxos.com Michael Dervan

TCHAIKOVSKY: 18 PIECES OP 72; CHOPIN: NOCTURNE NO 20
Mikhail Pletnev (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 5378 ****

These pieces are unripe and unimportant, said Tchaikovsky about his 18 Pieces, Op 72: "I'm producing them for money." But Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev begs to disagree, declaring an all-embracing love for Tchaikovsky's work. His aim is to play not so much what's in the notes as "what's behind the notes, between the notes". He likens the pieces to a musical diary, and though few listeners beyond the totally Tchaikovsky-smitten will find all 18 entries of outstanding interest, it's very clear from Pletnev's playing that to him they are. He understands how to imbue the music'sfrequent circularity of manner with variety of shape without recourse to excessive teasing of the listener. In these poised and masterly performances, from a concert at the Tonhalle in Zurich last year, the music is as appealing if still as insubstantial as the lightest of desserts. www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan

BEETHOVEN: SONATA IN B FLAT OP 106 (HAMMERKLAVIER); SONATA IN C MINOR OP 111
Solomon (piano) EMI Classics Great Artists of the Century 476 8652 ****

The English pianist Solomon Cutner (1902-88), professionally known by his first name, was engaged on recording a Beethoven sonata cycle when his career was cut short by a stroke in 1956. He was a player whose frequent mildness of manner masked the resources of a prodigious virtuoso. These two sonatas here give a true flavour of his style. He may be a little too self-effacing for some listeners in the final C minor Sonata. But in the quick movements of the Hammerklavier there's never a shortage of technique, and in the great slow movement, there's never a shortage of time. www.emiclassics.com Michael Dervan