CLASSICAL

Schubert: "Impromptus" Mitsuko Uchida (piano). (Philips) Dial-a-track code: 1641

The Schubert of the impromptus is a dark-hearted creature in Mitsuko Uchida's new recording for Philips. She sets tempos that are on the slow side, but rarely easeful.

The A flat Impromptu from the second set is presented here as no pretty song; the theme of the B flat which follows aches with hesitancy and uncertainty. The propensity to search out the bleaker aspects of the music is clear from the start, in the unaccompanied lines and curt staccato of the opening C minor Impromptu. And even the ripping lines of the E flat major have marks of unusual restraint and introversion. Such highly individual playing makes for a deeply thought-provoking disc.

Mikhail Pletnev conducts Stravinsky (DG), Dial-a-track code: 1751

The Russian orchestra of the moment is Mikhail Pletnev's Russian National Orchestra, founded in 1990 as the first independent orchestra in Russia since 1917. Their first venture into Stravinsky on CD brings together the little-known, altogether un-Stravinskian Symphony in E flat, Op 1, with the 1945 Firebird Suite, the composer's final and favourite reworking of his early balletic success. The suite, about 10 minutes longer than the usually-played 1919 version, is given a sharply-etched reading by Pletnev, who seems anxious to stress the dance origins of the music. The traditionally-conceived, four-movement symphony is a real curiosity, reminding one bow quick Stravinsky would be in casting off other men's shoes.

Geminiani: Concerti Grossi Vol 1 (Naxos) Dial-a-track code: 1861

With nearly 78 minutes of music, the first volume in Naxos's new survey of Concerto Grossi by Geminiani is generously filled. Room has been found for all six works of his Op 2 and four from Op 3. This Italian pupil of

Corelli, who died in Dublin in 1762, was an important figure in the history of violin playing, and his music is robustly presented by the Slovak players of the Capella Istropolitana under Jaroslav Krecek. Although you won't find here the intensity of swell and sharp accent of fully-blown period performance style, limiting the success of some of the slow movements, in the fast movements the brio is often infectious, with string tone that's lean rather than lush.