Reger: String Quartet in E flat Op 109; Clarinet Quintet. Vogler Quartet, Karl Leister (Nimbus)
This new recording, the Vogler Quartet's first for the Nimbus label, ranks as another fine addition to the expanding discography which is currently rehabilitating the reputation of Max Reger (1873-1916). This German composer's trademark chromaticism was something he chose to exert increasing control over in the later years of his short but highly prolific life. Nowhere is this more evident than in the autumnally reflective Clarinet Quintet (1915), a work which the composer, sadly, didn't live to hear performed. The E flat Quartet of six years earlier is impressive in its bigger-boned way, but it lacks the focussed inwardness which makes the quintet so special. The recording is more forward and bright than always seems to the music's best advantage.
Michael Dervan
Canta la Maddalena. Maria Cristina Kiehr (soprano), Concerto Soave/Jean-Marc Aymes (Harmonia Mundi)
The likes of Giovanni-Battista Agneletti, Bonifatio Gratiani, Domenico Mazzocchi, Ercole Bernabei and Benedetto Ferrari are not exactly vying to top anyone's list of greatest composers from the 17th century. However, texts which concentrate on lamentations at the foot of the cross might be expected to be a spur of special potency. With vocal tone of wonderful purity, artfully flexible phrasing and studious avoidance of the cheaply melodramatic, the Argentinian-born soprano Maria Cristina Kiehr certainly persuades one that they did. The partnership of Concerto Soave is as sensitive as you could wish, and, with instrumental pieces mixed in, this disc (which also features works by Frescobaldi, Kapsberger and Luigi and Michelango Rossi) is a most rewarding collection.
Michael Dervan
Morton Feldman. New Milllennium Ensemble (Koch International)
The first piece of Morton Feldman's that I ever laid eyes on was for piano. The marking was "Slow. Soft. Durations are free." The re-orientation required to play it was radical. The notes - or, rather, sounds - were there for their own sake. Every moment counted, and not only that, but every moment of every moment - the ushering into existence, the blooming, the dying fall. The detailed life and aura of sound under the microscope exerts a fascination of which Feldman was the greatest master. The players of New York's New Millennium Ensemble are clearly under its thrall. They really understand the Feldmannish magic of nudging a sound imperceptibly into existence. This haunting disc includes For Frank O'Hara, Bass Clarinet and Percussion, De Kooning and Instruments I.
Michael Dervan
