Latest releases reviewed
HAYDN: KEYBOARD CONCERTOS
Andreas Staier (fortepiano), Freiburger Barockorchester/Gottfried von der Goltz
Harmonia Mundi HMC 901854
****
Haydn's best-known keyboard concerto, the one in D, Hob XVIII: 11, has rather drifted out of the repertoire of symphony orchestras. True, it's not up to the level of the best of Haydn's symphonies, string quartets, or even piano sonatas. But it's got an attractive gypsy-style finale, and it's still got a healthy life on disc. Andreas Staier, playing a copy of a 1785 Walter fortepiano, here couples it with another attractive solo concerto, the Concerto in G for keyboard and strings, and a lighter, more diffuse Concerto in F for keyboard, violin and strings. Staier is a dynamic soloist, and some listeners may find his cadenzas a shade over-the-top. But his playing has an invigorating rhythmic spring, and he has an enviable knack for making passagework sound musically purposeful.
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HUMMEL: STRING QUARTETS OP 30
Delmé Quartet
Helios CDH 55166
****
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), a prodigy to rival Mozart (whose favourite pupil he is said to have become), had at various times the musical world at his feet. He succeeded to Haydn's duties at the Esterházy court, became grand-ducal Kapellmeister at Weimar, improvised at Beethoven's funeral (as the composer had wished), and was the original dedicatee of Schubert's last three piano sonatas. His three string quartets were published in 1804, by which time the six quartets of Beethoven's Op. 18 were in print, and Haydn had abandoned his final quartet. Hummel's Op. 30 actually bears comparison with the older composers. He may not reveal their depth of character or argumentative and structural skills. But the dialogue is lucid, the invention free - sometimes surprising, too - and this reissue of the Delmé's 1991 recordings presents the works in a most favourable light.
www.hyperion-records.co.uk
RACHMANINOV: PAGANINI RHAPSODY; CORELLI VARIATIONS; CHOPIN VARIATIONS Nikolai Lugansky (piano), City of Birmingham SO/Sakari Oramo
Warner Classics 2564 60613-2
****
This is an unusual but highly logical coupling of Rachmaninov's three sets of variations, the Paganini Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, plus the Corelli and Chopin variations for piano solo. Lugansky is anything but sentimental in the rhapsody, and plays with such a sense of poise that you could almost imagine him managing the achievement without sweat or struggle. The hand-in-glove collaboration between soloist and conductor in this technically finicky work is of a tight fit you're unlikely to encounter in the concert hall. In his own way, in the solo works, Lugansky shows himself nearly as cool and sharp a technician - clinician? - as Kissin. He's also master of the drily thunderous, stalking bass line, and of a kind of contrapuntal stranding that works like a magnifying glass on Rachmaninov's characteristically intricate textures. www.warnerclassics.com
SAARIAHO: CINQ REFLETS; NYMPHEA REFLECTION; OLTRA MAR
Pia Freund (soprano), Gabriel Suovanen (baritone), Tapiola Chamber Choir, Finnish Radio SO/Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Ondine ODE 1049-2
****
Kaija Saariaho's otherworldly first opera, L'Amour de loin, reflectively distilling concerns of exile, love and death, was the hit of the Salzburg Festival in 2000. Cinq reflets de L'Amour de loin, a haunting re-working of parts of the opera, here makes its CD début with Pia Freund and Gabriel Souvanen as the separated lovers. Saariaho is one of the leading impressionists of the day, and makes much use of electronics. Her Nymphea Reflection is, if you like, a technological contraction, a purely orchestral recasting of a work originally for string quartet and electronics. The earliest piece here, the choral and orchestral Oltra mar (1998-99), is effectively a sonorous study in atmospheric swirls for the opera that was to come. www.harmoniamundi.com
