Classical

The latest releases reviewed

LIVE FROM THE LUGANO FESTIVAL 2007
Martha Argerich and Friends
EMI Classics 518 3332 (3 CDs)
****
There's a lot of high-powered music-making in EMI's selection of performances from the Progetto Martha Argerich within the 2007 Lugano Festival. Argerich herself is both songful and frisky in Schumann's Scenes of Childhood. She's in sharp form in works for two pianos by Lutoslawski, Ravel, Schumann and Busoni-enriched Mozart, and mesmerisingly otherworldly in Bartók's First Violin Sonata (with Renaud Capuçon). Other pianists explore the less familiar repertoire, which includes a number of young composer rarities, a tame teenage Beethoven piano quartet, the sub-Brahmsian juggernaut that is Dohnányi's C minor Piano Quintet, and Glinka's Italianate Sextet, with frequent florid lines after the manner of John Field, from whom the composer had a few piano lessons. www.emiclassics.com MICHAEL DERVAN

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY No 3 (EROICA); 12 CONTRETÄNZE; DIE GESCHÖPFE DES PROMETHEUS (EXC)
Helsingborg SO/Andrew Manze
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807470
****
Violinist Andrew Manze, appointed principal conductor of Sweden's Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in 2006, has chosen an unusual Beethoven compilation for his recorded debut with the orchestra. Manze traces the theme of the finale of Beethoven's EroicaSymphony back through the ballet The Creatures of Prometheusto the set of 12 contredances in which it first appeared. Manze's approach in the great symphony is to be observant without overloading the music. The sweep is impressive, but, curiously, the first movement is not quite as successful as the later three. The dances are a sheer delight, like a familiar flavour that somehow stimulates unexpected parts of the tongue. www.harmoniaundi.com/uk/news.php MICHAEL DERVAN

CLEMENTI: PIANO SONATAS VOL 1
Howard Shelley (piano)
Hyperion CDA 67632 (2 CDs)
***
To say that the piano sonatas of Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) - teacher of John Field, piano manufacturer and music publisher -sound like Beethoven is not actually a compliment to the great composer's influence. Clementi was there first. All of the sonatas in the first volume of Howard Shelley's new Clementi survey predate any of Beethoven's 32. It's at times extraordinary how closely Beethoven would model himself on gestures from Clementi's slow movements. If you only know Clementi from those pieces which still appear in teaching anthologies, you're in for a pleasant surprise. Shelley's well-spoken accounts favour balance over the elements of storminess and unpredictability that other performers have found in this repertoire. www.hyperion-records.co.uk
MICHAEL DERVAN

D'AMORE
Garth Knox (viola d'amore), Agnès Vesterman (cello)
ECM New Series 476 6369
****In the 10 years since he left the Arditti Quartet, viola player Garth Knox has become an ardent advocate of the haloed sound of the viola d'amore, a six- or seven- stringed viola with a set of freely resonating sympathetic strings. This attractive showcase CD has early arrangements (Marais and Hume), the superbly idiomatic 1720 Prima Lezioneof Attilio Ariosti, and then leapfrogs over nearly two centuries to Knox's own Malor me bat(after a song, Misfortune batters me, attributed in the 16th century to Ockeghem), which blends elements of old, new and improvisation. Two Swiss composers, Roland Moser and Klaus Huber, provide other modern explorations of the viola d'amore's special resonances, and there's an altogether earthier world in Knox's own dance arrangements. www.ecmrecords.com
MICHAEL DERVAN