David Daniels: "Handel Arias" (Virgin Veritas)
If you think countertenors are wimps, and that we'll never hear Handel's castrato arias as they were meant to be sung, give David Daniels a spin at once, for - as the footie people say - the boy's a bit special. In fact he has a quite extraordinary voice; an effortless soprano at the top, a glowing copper lower register and, over the whole range, the kind of accelerating power that makes a nonsense of the term falsetto. Add an unfailingly tasteful approach to phrasing and ornament, a flair - for it was he who chose the 18 tracks on this CD, on which he is accompanied with delightful precision by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Roger Norrington - for putting together a programme, and the sultry Brad-Pitt-Sings-Handel cover photo, and - oh, just listen to his mesmerising account of Cara Sposa from Rinaldo, and you'll get the idea.
Arminta Wallace.
Maya Homburger and Barry Guy: "Ceremony" (ECM)
Baroque violinist Maya Homburger and composer/double bassist Barry Guy are now well known to Irish audiences and, since settling in Co Kilkenny, they have been enriching Irish musical life both separately and together in the fields of baroque and contemporary music. Their new CD offers just a smidgen of pure baroque, the prelude to Biber's first Mystery Sonata. It's an atmospheric scene-setter to five works by Guy; the connection is a certain mixture of meditativeness and freedom of rhetorical gesture that reaches across the centuries. Guy's solo improvisation (Still) and the extraordinary prolix colours and chords of multi-tracked baroque violin (Ceremony) are among the fruits of a disc where the spirit of the moment and the constraints of composition find themselves in concord rather than conflict.
Michael Dervan.
Tchaikovsky: "The Nutcracker" Kirov Orchestra/Valery Gergiev (Philips)
In one notable respect, this is a unique recording of Tchaikovsky's most popular ballet: with a performing time of just 81 minutes, Gergiev's new reading has been fitted on to a single CD. It's hardly surprising, then, that the approach is one to keep the music on its toes. The Kirov Orchestra is well up to the high stakes of the game; the recording captures their distinctive sound with character and colour. And if you like the idea of a Nutcracker that gives you the bracing feel of wind in your hair, Gergiev is definitely your man. Sampled sparingly, the novelty of his chilly winter ride has an immediate appeal but taking it from beginning to end, I found myself longing for a greater sense of indoor relaxation and warmth.
Michael Dervan.
