All the best and worst new classical releases reviewed
THE DEVIL'S TRILL - SONATAS BY GIUSEPPE TARTINI Linn CKD 292*****
The Palladians ensemble do most everything in their power to identify Tartini's best-known piece, the Devil's TrillSonata, as a standout work. The nickname stems from the third movement, where Tartini attempted to emulate the violin playing of the devil as he encountered it in a dream. The players bring a kind of tragic grandeur to the first movement, too, seeking out and relishing the anguish in moments of clashing dissonance. Tartini's Didone abbandonata is another fine programmatic sonata, as rich in pathos as its title would suggest. The disc also includes a Pastoral Sonata, a slow movement from a Violin Sonata in E minor played without continuo, and a Grave from a Viol Concerto, as well as a sonata by Veracini, who exerted a key influence on Tartini. www.linn records. com MICHAEL DERVAN
PIANO MUSIC OF SALONEN, STUCKY, LUTOSLAWSKI Gloria Cheng (piano) Telarc CD-80712*****
It looks like a grouping of disparate characters. But Kansas-born Steven Stucky and Helsinki-born Esa-Pekka Salonen are united in their admiration for the work of the Polish composer Lutoslawski. Stucky's Album Leavesand Three Little Variations for Davidare ruminative, playful, wry. Salonen's pieces ( Yta II, Three Preludesand Dichotomie) generate energy out of intricate mechanisms, sometimes spewing filigree with fascinating abandon, and occasionally engaging in excesses that remind one of the world of the player piano. Gloria Cheng takes all of the challenges in her stride, and also provides a first recording of Lutoslawski's early Piano Sonata, written when the composer was 21 (but only published posthumously), which shows a leaning towards the worlds of Debussy and Ravel. www.telarc.com MICHAEL DERVAN
SAINT-SAËNS: ORGAN MUSIC Andrew-John Smith (organ) Hyperion CDA 67713****
Saint-Saëns may have written the world's most famous work for organ and orchestra, his Organ Symphony of 1886. But just one of his many solo organ pieces, the Fantaisie in E flat of 1857 (his first published organ work), has held its place in the repertoire. Andrew-John Smith's judicious selection of works, played on the gorgeous-sounding Cavaillé-Coll organ of La Madeleine in Paris (where Saint-Saëns worked for nearly 20 years), is a restorative gesture on behalf of a man Smith sees as "a most misunderstood composer," a classicist in the romantic 19th century, a conservative in the world of Schoenberg and Stravinsky (Saint-Saëns lived until 1921). Smith's sympathetic approach will surely win new friends for this fastidious, often restrained music. www.tinyurl.com/5jub7c MICHAEL DERVAN
BACH & HANDEL ARIAS Kathleen Ferrier (contralto), London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Adrian Boult, Cantata Singers, Jacques Orchestra/Reginald Jacques Naxos 8.111295 ****
Spiritual fervour seemed to be the natural domain for the dark richness and unassailable sincerity of Kathleen Ferrier. Ferrier, who died in 1953 at the age of 41, had a short but productive recording career, from which Naxos has here selected four arias from Bach passions and the B minor Mass, and a further four from Handel oratorios (all conducted by Adrian Boult). The disc includes one complete work, Bach's Cantata No 11, Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen(sung in English as Praise Our God), conducted by Reginald Jacques in a style that will have modern-day style purists raising their eyes to heaven. Ferrier's own contributions are of the style which transcends all notions of style. www.naxos.com MICHAEL DERVAN
