This week's classical CDs reviewed

MONTEVERDI/ TEATRO D'AMORE

L'Arpeggiata/Christina Pluhar/ Virgin Classics 236 1402★★★★
The cornett, a woodwind instrument with a brass-style mouthpiece, is celebrated for its ability to mimic the human voice. In Ohimé, chi'io cado on this new Monteverdi CD, the cornetto's resemblance to the trumpet is exploited, in a way that seeks to blend the worlds of baroque music and jazz, even down to the swing of the continuos accompaniment. It will either fill you with delight or drive you to distraction. The excellence of the performances are beyond question (the singers include soprano Nuria Rial and counter tenor Philippe Jaroussky) on an elaborately textured (though not always jazzy) disc, which, at times, seems to want to locate period performance as fully in the 21st century as in the 17th-century of the music itself. www.emiclassics.com

MICHAEL DERVAN

PÄRT: IN PRINCIPIO

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Estonian National SO, Tallinn CO/Tõnu Kaljuste ECM New Series 476 6990★★★

This CD represents the new face of Arvo Pärt. The Estonian composer has in recent years re-embraced the world of the orchestra after having sidelined it for many years. The techniques are familiar but the effects are varied. Stately fanfares with brass and timpani co-exist with rocketing string parts in the choralorchestral In principio. There are rocking patterns in Cecilia, vergine
romana that bring to mind the sounds of Philip Glass. The dolorous seeping spread of the
purely orchestral La Sindone (The Shroud) rises to a climactic blaze, followed by a quiet afterthought. The strings-only Für Lennart in memoriam (commissioned by Estonian president Lennart Meri for his own burial service) explores more familiar haunting territory. www.ecmrecords.com

MICHAEL DERVAN

PAGANINI: CAPRICES OP 1

Tanja Becker-Bender (violin) Hyperion CDA 67763★★★

For nigh on two centuries now, the name of Nicolò Paganini has been a byword for implausible virtuosity on the violin. Contemporaries so in awe of Paganini's technical achievements speculated that he was in league with the Devil. His 24 Capricesare an Everest in the repertoire for solo violin, and many a violinistic back has been twisted and shin-scuffed in the process of trying to get on top of them. German violinist Tanja Becker- Bauer shows a mostly firm grasp of the technical issues involved. Her account is solid and sure. But it's not imaginative in the ways it needs to be to convince one that these are exercises in musical expression as well as violinistic technique. www.tinyurl.com/5jub7c

MICHAEL DERVAN

DEBUSSY

IMAGES Arrau, Michelangeli, Doyen, Gaillard, Gieseking, Meyer, Paderewski, Rubinstein, Viñes Ysaÿe Records IM 01****

What a fascinating disc! The six pieces of Debussy's Images I and II are offered, with intentional duplications (six performances of Reflets dans l'eau, four of Poissons d'or) in recordings made between 1926 and 1949 by nine pianists

The oldest is a blunt-sounding Paderewski (the first to record a Debussy piano solo, in 1912), born two years before the composer; the youngest is a svelte Michelangeli, born two years after his death. The selection includes the first complete Images I (by the insightfully respectful Jean Doyen in 1943) and Poissons d'or as delivered by its dedicatee, Ricardo Viñes, in 1930. The transfers prefer surface noise to heavy filtering, and the generous documentation includes provocative assessments by composer Betsy Jolas. www.ysayerecords.com

MICHAEL DERVAN