Latest CD releases reviewed

VIVALDI, THE FRENCH CONNECTION
La Serenissima/Adrian Chandler (violin) Avie AV 2178 *****

Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima, his early music ensemble, can be relied upon for fresh programming slants. Their new Vivaldi CD explores French connections in the composer’s output, connections which, however clear they are, still never leave one in doubt that Vivaldi is the author. Three of Chandler’s chosen concertos involve the Irish bassoonist Peter Whelan, whose heavily grained tone and sheer agility may seem like a contradiction in terms. But it’s a contradiction that adds greatly to the appeal of concertos involving an instrument Vivaldi wrote for with especial insight. With the other soloists – Chandler himself on violin, and Katy Bircher on flute – on fine form, this is a disc to leave you with a spring in your step. www.avierecords.com

MONTEVERDI: SCHERZI MUSICALI
Emanuela Galli (soprano), La Venexiana/Claudio Cavina Glossa GCD 920915 *****

This disc sets out to be a celebration of lightness in Monteverdi. The largest selection of music has been taken from the Scherzi musicali of 1632. But the idea of “light” music has been stretched considerably, so that the climax is the great Lamento d’Arianna, as piercing a piece as Monteverdi ever penned. The light- toned soprano Emanuela Galli sings with effortless-seeming flexibility, bending notes at will for expressive purpose, more in the manner of a chanteuse than anything else. The approach works a treat, and there’s a real frisson when she’s joined by the sultry cornett of Doron David Sherwin in Si dolc’è il tormento and Et è pur dunque vero. This is a collection that’s full of delights. www.glossamusic.com

FRENCH CHAMBER MUSIC FOR FLUTE, HARP AND STRINGS
Mirage Quintet Naxos 8.57044 ***

These five quintets for flute, harp and string trio are full of ghosts – the ghosts of the works Debussy and Ravel wrote for flute and harp in combination with strings. The apparitions are sometimes very clear (as in Pierné’s Variations libres et finale), sometimes altogether wispier. But the distinction of the two great Frenchmen is that they set patterns, from which later composers found it hard to escape. Marcel Tournier’s Suite, Op 34 and Florent Schmitt’s Suite en rocaille don’t find the same freedoms as Jean Françaix’s Quintet and Albert Roussel’s Sérénade, pieces which have a rhythmic life that marks them out in a collection where the strengths and weakness of the medium seem inextricably linked. www.naxosdirect.ie

MENDELSSOHN: STRING QUARTET IN E FLAT OP 12; STRING QUINTET IN A OP 18
Edith van Moergastel (viola), Matangi Quartet
Challenge Classics CC 72308 ***

The blazing light of Mendelssohn’s great early Octet has tended to blind music-lovers to the other chamber music of the composer’s teenage years. Although the two works here carry lower opus numbers than the Octet, they are in fact later pieces. The quintet is a particularly delectable work (the ever-critical composer revised it six years on, in 1832, before allowing it to be published), and the quartet is full of Mendelssohnian geniality. The Dutch Matangi Quartet play with taste and tact in quieter passages, but strain after effect when the music heats up, laying in to melodic lines with more emphasis than they can comfortably bear. The result is a pair of peculiarly polarised performances. www.challenge.nl