This week's classical releases reviewed
L'Oiseau Lyre 478 1465 *****
Handel's organ concertos were a very public display of salesmanship and virtuosity. They were added attractions at performances of his oratorios in London ("the finest things I ever heard in my life," according to one listener) and opportunities for Handel to show his skills as a player and improviser. Ottavio Dantone takes the element of improvisation seriously. The Concerto in G minor that opens the disc, Op 4 No 3, is preceded by an 80-second flourish on Dantone's light-toned organ, and the violin and cello solos of the first movement are generously embellished as well. These are performances where Handel's ad libitum markings are fully seized on, and the result is a style of irresistibly joyous, spontaneous music-making. www.loiseaulyre.com MICHAEL DERVAN
Brilliant Classics 93907 (21 CDs) ****
The always rare and long-obsolete baryton is a viol with a second set of strings. Its metallic resonance colours the basic sound and can also be played by plucking. This infrequently used effect is as if a harpsichord or lute had suddenly materialised. Haydn had a barytonloving patron, and he wrote copiously for the instrument, mostly trios with viola and cello, but also in other combinations. It's fallen to the bargain label Brilliant Classics to offer the first compendious survey of what has to be one of the largest bodies of unknown music by a great composer. The baryton has a viol-like nasality, the texture is attractively grainy, and in the Esterházy Ensemble's performances the combination of generally lightweight style and dark colouring is consistently intriguing. www.classicalmusic.ie MICHAEL DERVAN
Avie AV 2171 ****
What's an oboe doing listed in the credits for a recording of Bach's Orchestral Suites? The answer provides the key to the nature of this new disc, which, rather than the familiar versions of the suites, offers reconstructions by Gonzalo X Ruiz for the size of orchestra Bach would have had at his disposal during his time at Köthen. So there are no trumpets or drums in Suites 3 and 4, and an oboe rather than a flute in the Second Suite, which is transposed down to A minor. The oboe works better than you might imagine, but the ceremonial effect of the trumpets and drums is at times sorely missed in the last two suites, even in performances as well sprung as these. www.avierecords.com MICHAEL DERVAN
Winter & Winter 910 150-2 ***
The late Mauricio Kagel took after his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges more than most composers. Kagel loved musical dreamworlds. His 1975 Kantrimiusik is subtitled "pastoral for voices and instruments"; say the title with a German accent and you get "country music". Kagel creates a mockumentary of what we now call world music, with dollops of radio sound effects (birdsong, the rustles and ripples of the countryside) and a swipe at ethnomusicological field recordings. He uses a trademark zany instrumentation (including tuba, banjo and guitar) with aplomb, and Ed Spanjaard shapes it with expertly-poised, straight-faced sophistication. The piece itself, though, just doesn't strike with the sharpness of the composer's best work. www.tinyurl.com/ctth2r MICHAEL DERVAN
