Rameau: Overtures. Les Talens Lyriques/Christophe Rousset (L'Oiseau Lyre)
Dial-a-track code: 1971
The idea of a CD collection of Rameau overtures is a new one and, in the period instrument performances here, a most successful one. Rameau was all of so when, in 1733, he first turned to composition for the dramatic stage.
The range and depth of his achievement are accurately reflected through pieces following on from the formulaie Lullian overture to startling adventures in programme depletion, which proved insurmountably challenging to some of his contemporaries. Try his presentation of the distillation of the elements out of chaos in the Prologue to Zais, or the sculptor's chisel at work in Pigmalion for a quick sample of the delights of this new disc.
Sarah Brightman: "timeless" (eastwest) Dial-a-track code: 2081
Sarah Brightman yearns to be a great soprano, and this CD mixes amiable Europop offerings with selections from the diva's dozen, with predictably mixed results. Great when she's wafting ethereally around the upper octaves of a pop song - but give her the introduction to, say, O mio babbino caro, and she cranks into a plummy "I'm-with-the-big-girls-now" gear which, irresistibly, conjures up images of Kate Bush singing Carmen. Why would someone with a graceful poppy voice want to tiptoe, with the painstaking carefulness of a student singer, through the Allelujah from Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate? Perhaps it's just an excuse to sing knee-trembling duets with the tenor Jose Cura, whose Mercedes of a voice effortlessly puts "popera" phenomenon Andrea Bocelli in the shade on Show Me How To Love You.
Sibelius: Lemminkainen Suite & other pieces. Gothenburg SO/Neeme Jarvi (DG) Dial-a-track code: 2191
With one exception, the well-known Swan Of Tuonela which is part of the
Lemminkainen Suite, the music here is not regular concert fare. Both the suite and the symphonic fantasy, Pohjola's Daughter, took their inspiration from the dark and bloody tales of Finnish mythology.
The remaining symphonic poem, Night Ride And Sunrise, shows Sibelius at his most strongly proto-minimalist.
Opulent playing (and recording) and the conductor's fullness of response (he wants to keep you in touch with every strand in the orchestral texture) make for performances of vivid warmth which are lacking only something of the music's essential austerity.
