Bach: Solo Violin Sonata No 1; Partitas 1 & 2. Rachel Podger (baroque violin) (Channel Classics)
Satisfaction is far less easily guaranteed in Bach's solo violin works than in the suites for solo cello. Perhaps it's that violinists can't call on the haunting spiritual legacy with which Casals endowed the works for cello; nor does the possession of a baroque instrument and a mind full of period performance practice necessarily alter the odds much for violinists. Rachel Podger, leader of Trevor Pinnock's English Concert, has a welcome fearlessness which enables her to avoid some of the workarounds common in the music's more awkward moments. She can dance lightly and at speed through fast movements, and her concern for rhythmic integrity is wisely extended to slow movements, too. Clearly, a violinist to watch out for.
Michael Dervan
Alfred Cortot plays Schumann (Biddulph, 3 separate CDs)
Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) was no ordinary pianist. He introduced Gotterdammerung to Paris in 1902 (he had been assistant conductor at the Bayreuth Festival), and gave the French premieres of Parsifal, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Brahms's Requiem. A pianistic high priest of romanticism, his sympathetic identification with the inner world of Schumann yielded playing of unique poetic pliability. His rubato - stretching with unimaginable daring, yet finely balanced - remains as much a thing of wonder as his ability to float a line or deliver emphasis without force. Biddulph's selection of inter-war recordings includes the A minor Concerto, Kreisleriana, Carnaval, Dichterliebe (with Charles Panzera), the D minor Piano Trio (with Thibaud and Casals). Essential listening.
Michael Dervan
Bruch: Moses. Michael Volle (Moses), Robert Gambill (Aaron), Elizabeth Whitehouse (Angel), Bamberg Chorus & SO/Claus Peter Flor (Orfeo, 2 CDs)
Max Bruch led a long and productive life after the famous Violin Concerto he wrote in 1868 at the age of 30. His style had hardly changed when he composed his biblical oratorio, Moses, in 1894. Clearly, he had no intention of abandoning the spirit of Mendelssohn, even when the latter was almost half a century in the grave. The virtues of Moses are those of solidity, craft, rewardingly resonant chorus work. But a distinct lack of imagination makes for an abiding predictability. Orfeo's performance, with virtues to match the music's, enables one to understand why Brahms was prompted by Moses to thank God for preserving him from Bruch's "bad habit of mere note writing".
Michael Dervan