Classical

The latest CD releases reviewed

MUSSORGSKY/RAVEL: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION; BORODIN: SYMPHONY NO 2; POLOVTSIAN DANCES Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/ Simon Rattle EMI Classics 517 5822 *****

If you like Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibitionto incline towards effects that are primarily showy and brash, then Simon Rattle's new Berlin recording is probably not the one for you.

It's not that the music is never allowed to blaze. But Rattle takes what is the antithesis of the pressured, virtuoso approach, and, even in the heaviest climaxes, he strives to keep a sense of overall shape rather than simply drive the music flat out. Borodin's Second Symphony and Polovtsian Dances, exceptionally full-blooded but unsugared, are equally fine. www.emiclassics.com - MICHAEL DERVAN

JAMES TENNEY: MELODY, ERGODICITY AND INDETERMINACY The Barton Workshop mode 185 ****

James Tenney was an American experimentalist who died two years ago at the age of 72.

The earliest works on this disc, pieces for solo flute and clarinet written in the 1950s, hark back to the manners of the early 20th century.

Within a few years, in the early 1960s, Tenney was exploring the statistics of ergodicity in pieces written for computer ( Ergodos I & II), which can be played forwards, backwards, wholly, partially, separately, or overlaid - the disc offers the works individually as well as in combination with other instrumental pieces.

It's the purely instrumental works (which include two Seegersongsfrom 1999 and the Cagean Ergodos IIIof 1990 for two pianos) that make the strongest impression in this fascinating collection. www.uk.hmboutique.com - MICHAEL DERVAN

BEETHOVEN: PIANO SONATAS OP 2 Maurizio Pollini (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 6594*****

The three piano trios of Op 1 and three piano sonatas of Op 2 were clearly intended to open Beethoven's official catalogue by showing a composer with a sure command of his craft and something interesting and novel to say.

The three sonatas are highly contrasted in manner, with the final C major work showing Beethoven at his most self-consciously virtuosic.

Maurizio Pollini here pulls off the feat of capturing all the qualities of the writing, from ebullience to introversion, from the daemonic to the giddy, with a natural-seeming freedom that's free of artifice and effort.

The mature Pollini, more than two-and-a-half times the age of the Beethoven who wrote the works, is commandingly in sympathy with the music. www.deutschegrammophon.com - MICHAEL DERVAN

BULB Fidelio Trio NMC D147 ***

The four Irish piano trios recorded here are striking in their diversity of approach. Two introduce grains of sand in the pursuit of pearls - Donnacha Dennehy's Bulbthrough the use of spectrally governed microtones, Ed Bennett's for Marcel Dzamavia the utterly alien- seeming intrusions of electronics, which echo the blunt juxtapositions of Winnipeg artist Marcel Dzama's work.

Both pieces also share a certain indifference to the durability of their basic material. Deirdre Gribbins's How to Make the Water Soundis the kind of nature-inspired work its title suggests, and Kevin Volans's two-movement Piano Trio essays, with many minimalist echoes, is a reconciliation of sorts between percussive and more lyrical materials.

The Fidelio Trio's performances have the ring of authority. www.nmcrec.co.uk - MICHAEL DERVAN