Classical/Opera

Emil von Sauer: The Complete Commercial Recordings (Marston, 3 CDs)

Emil von Sauer (1862-1942) is often cited as the most significant pupil of Liszt to have left recordings. Marston's new set is the first to collect together all his commercial discs, some surviving only in single copies. In spirit, Sauer is the antithesis of showman. Indeed, the sobriety of his 1938 recordings of Liszt's two concertos has always provoked a divided response. The reserve in his approach is clearly not a matter of old age as the primacy of finely-moulded musical detail and the avoidance of flashiness are found also in the earliest discs from 1923. Highly-resourced in virtuosity, the work of this gentle-spirited practitioner of "the art that conceals art", challenges received notions of romantic pianism.

By Michael Dervan

Andrea Bocelli: "Viaggio Italiano" (Philips)

No matter how hard I try, I'm never going to be Andrea Bocelli's biggest fan - and I did try hard with this one, despite the patent nonsense of the concept; a "tribute to Italian emigration in the world", which is a sad attempt to turn a collection of MOR tenor repertoire into something meaningful. Bocelli has been blessed with a light, tuneful voice which can at times - as in Nessun Dorma and Una Furtiva Lagrima - sound quite beautiful, but he has some desperately annoying habits, such as a permanent sob and a chesty vibrato, and his top notes, though less harsh on this early recording than on more recent releases, are still extremely suspect.

By Arminta Wallace

Kagel: Works for wind and organ (Koch Schwann Aulos). Kagel: Solo pieces for accordion and piano (Winter & Winter)

Mauricio Kagel is one of the most unsettling presences in contemporary music. He's a leading light in the realm of independent (ie non-operatic) music theatre whose absurdist tendencies and fertile imagination have often taken him well outside the confines of normal musical discourse. Witness the painful, almost choking struggles of Atem (Breath) for trombone (Vinko Globokar), the taped everyday sounds that invade Phantasie for organ (Friedemann Herz) or the new, disturbing electronic transformations of Improvisation Ajoutee. The accordion works played by Teodoro Anzellotti come from organ originals. Like the piano works (Luk Vaes) on W&W's beautifully-presented CD, they show uppelholz has observed, how Kagel delights in using unambiguous means to produce ambiguous results.

By Michael Dervan