Michael Dervanof four new relases.
TRUMPET CONCERTOS BY HUMMEL, HAYDN, TORELLI, NERUDA
Alison Balsom (trumpet), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
EMI Classics 216 2130
The high-wire trumpet virtuosity of the baroque era was not available in the 19th century, and the composers of great romantic concertos gave the trumpet a wide berth. Haydn's Concerto was written in 1796 and premièred in 1800. Hummel's was first heard in 1804, leaving trumpeters with a gap that extends to the 20th century.
Alison Balsom plays both works with the kind of ease and grace most trumpeters would die for. But, even on the modern instruments she plays, the much earlier concerto by Torelli sounds idiomatic and virtuosically impressive in ways the later works simply don't.
Balsom's fourth choice, by Bohemian Jan Neruda, is an adaptation of a work for hunting horn.
www.emiclassics.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
THE COMPLETE VOX, TURNABOUT AND VANGUARD SOLO RECORDINGS
Alfred Brendel (piano)
Brilliant Classics 93761 (35 CDs)
This bumper, bargain-priced Brendel set collects the bulk of the great Viennese pianist's recordings from the 1950s and 1960s, before he signed with Philips.
It includes his first complete traversal of Beethoven (on 17 CDs), chunks of Mozart, Schubert and Liszt, and smaller excursions into Schumann and Chopin, as well as pieces that are exotic for Brendel: Prokofiev's Fifth Piano Concerto, Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushkaand Balakirev's Islamey.
The recordings were made by shoestring labels and the orchestral playing can be rough and sometimes odd in balance. But Brendel's musicianship shines through in what is a real treasure trove, and many of the solo recordings, made at a time when Brendel favoured Bösendorfer pianos, are technically fine.
www.dreamlines.ie
MICHAEL DERVAN
À NOS AMOURS
Diabolicus/Dietrich Henschel Ambroisie AM 137
The French ensemble Diabolicus like to look sideways at programming. What better way, then, to approach Strauss waltzes than through chamber arrangements by Schoenberg and Berg, with a man best known as a singer to conduct?
The arrangements are both functional and affectionate, and Diabolicus's performances definitely convey the feeling of a group of musicians who are making music for pleasure. Pieces by Busoni (the Berceuse élégiaque, arranged by Erwin Stein), and Luigi Denza ( Funiculì-Funiculà, arranged by Schoenberg) are beautifully done. But the approach to the largest work here, Wagner's Siegfried Idyllin its original instrumentation for 13 instruments, is over-ambitious in its intimacy, resulting in a performance with too many flat spots.
www.naiveclassique.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
BAZZINI: VIRTUOSO WORKS FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO
Chloë Hanslip (violin), Caspar Frantz (piano)
Naxos 8.570800
***
Italian violin virtuoso composer Antonio Bazzini (1818-97) is now remembered in concert through just a single piece. The scintillating Ronde des lutins forms the climax of this 70-minute selection of music that's tuneful and light (for the listener, at any rate).
Chloë Hanslip has the necessary quickness of finger, reliable intonation and resourceful bowing arm. In these performances, where the emphasis is on spontaneity rather than high polish, she sounds fully attuned to the Bazzini's combination of spun sugar and fireworks.
Don't be surprised to find yourself responding like George Bernard Shaw, who once reported that a "harmless" piece by Bazzini "soothed me to such an extent that I have no very clear recollection of the details".
www.naxosdirect.ie
MICHAEL DERVAN
