Classical

Latest CD releases reviewed

Luc Bergé and ensemble Fuga Libera FUG 550 ***

This disc, masterminded by Belgian horn player Luc Bergé, sets out to celebrate horn playing as it might have been encountered in Belgium at either end of the 19th century. The Grand Octuor by Martin-Joseph Mengal dates from around 1820 and is for six natural horns and two trombones. Léon Dubois's Octet is for two quartets of chromatic horns and was written between 1885 and 1895. In both pieces texture and colour are paramount. Mengal's work is speckled with the pinched sound of the hand-stopped notes. Dubois revels in the deeper glow and chromatic possibilities of the later instruments. Neither composer exactly sets the house on fire for musical inventiveness, but the sound worlds of these works do have a unique appeal. www.fuga libera.com MICHAEL DERVAN

A NEW HEAVEN
The Sixteen/Harry Christophers Universal Classics & Jazz 179 5732 ***

Harry Christophers and his choir, The Sixteen, have a long track record in early music. The repertoire they tackle here is rather later. A New Heaven is a survey of Anglican church music from the late 19th century (Stainer's I saw the Lord and Stanford's Beati quorum via) through works by Parry, Balfour Gardiner, Wood, Bairstow, Bainton and Howells to pieces by composers still living (two settings of The Lord is my Shepherd, one by John Rutter, the other, made famous in The Vicar of Dibley, by Howard Goodall). What's remarkable is the stylistic consistency of the repertoire through the decades. It's achieved through a restricted harmonic and rhythmic palette, and a penchant for heavy glowing, as of sunlight streaming through dark stained glass. www.tinyurl.com/3qjtwo MICHAEL DERVAN