CLASSICAL

The complete recordings of Stanislav Richter attract a five-star rating.

BARTÓK: 3 CONCERTOS

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra/ Pierre Boulez Deutsche

Grammophon 477 7440

****

Pierre Boulez wraps up his survey of Bartók's major orchestral works with three lesser-known concertos. The early Violin Concerto, written in the heat of love for violinist Stefi Geyer, is played with inward concentration by Gidon Kremer.

The Viola Concerto, at the lighter end of the composer's late style, is deftly handled by Yuri Bashmet. The Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion is vintage Bartók, though in its orchestral guise it rarely sounds so fully so as it does in this dynamic performance by Tamara Stefanovich and Pierre- Laurent Aimard (pianos), and Nigel Thomas and Neil Percy (percussion) - and that's in spite of a recording (the only one of the three made in London) that's occasionally a little cramped.

www.tinyurl.com/5b9s4r

MICHAEL DERVAN

BRUCKNER: MASS IN F MINOR

Ingela Bohlin, Ingeborg Danz, Hans-Jörg Mammel, Alfred Reiter, RIAS Kammerchor, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées/Philippe Herreweghe Harmonia Mundi

HMC 901976

***

Philippe Herreweghe recently explained the effect he's looking for in Bruckner: "To fill people's minds and bodies with what are,

in a sense, cathedrals in sound, constructed with great abstract blocks of sound and fraught emotion that carry the spirit beyond emotion to something like real freedom." Perhaps surprisingly, given his period instruments' credentials, Celibidache and Karajan are the conductors Herreweghe names with the credentials for Bruckner's music. In the great F minor Mass, Herreweghe himself is lean and taut, sharp and lucid. The bright light in his cathedral means that every detail can be picked out, but it's also a somewhat chilly day and you may hanker for more warmth.

www.tinyurl.com/6mchwb

MICHAEL DERVAN

COMPLETE EMI RECORDINGS

Sviatoslav Richter (piano)

EMI Classics 217 5112 (14 CDs)

*****

The great Ukrainian pianist Sviatoslav Richter recorded nearly 15 hours of music for EMI between 1961 and 1980, beginning with Schumann's Fantasy in C and ending with Schubert's Trout Quintet, partnered by the Borodin Quartet.

The repertoire includes eight Handel suites in jaw-dropping, revelatory performances, and tough concertos by Bartók (the Second), Prokofiev (the Fifth), and Berg (the Chamber Concerto with violinist Oleg Kagan, who's also a first-rate partner in sonatas by Mozart). The romantic concertos are by Grieg, Schumann, Brahms (the Second) and, another humdinger, this, Dvorak, with Carlos Kleiber. Three sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms's song-cycle Die schöne Magelonewith Fischer-Dieskau are further highlights in a set where the playing is granitic yet tender, mystical yet lucid.

www.emiclassics.com

MICHAEL DERVAN

MARKEVITCH: PARTITA;  LE PARADIS PERDU

Lucy Shelton, Sarah Walker, Jon Garrison, Netherlands Concert Choir, Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra/Christopher Lyndon-Gee

Naxos 8.570773

Kiev-born Igor Markevitch (1912-83) was launched as a teenage composer by Diaghilev and praised by the likes of Stravinsky and Milhaud in the 1930s. He gave up composition in 1941, and for the rest of his life pursued a successful career as a conductor.

The Marco Polo label's survey of his orchestral music is now to be issued on the cheaper Naxos label, but this first Naxos volume is of new material, recordings of the brittle 1931 Partita for piano (Martijn van den Hoek) and orchestra, and the 1934 oratorio Le Paradis Perdu, which creates an atmosphere of bizarre mystery, full of strange, unorthodox orchestral effects. The somewhat rough-edged performances are compelling.

www.naxosdirect.ie

MICHAEL DERVAN