The latest releases reviewed
17TH-CENTURY MUSIC FROM ITALY AND SLOVAKIA Teatro Lirico/Stephen Stubbs ECM New Series 476 3101 *****
Stephen Stubbs's new ensemble Teatro Lirico - Milos Valent (violin and viola), Maxine Eilander (Spanish and Italian harps), Erin Headley (viola da gamba and lirone), with Stubbs himself on baroque guitar and chitarrone - here blur the lines between old and new, composed and improvised. Some of the names will be unfamiliar (Carlo Farina, Giovanni Battista Granta, Giovanni Paolo Foscarini, Johann Caspar Horn), but the sensuality of the presentation is in Stubbs's familiar style. Corelli and variations on the Folia (including two extended improvisations on the Folia bass) create a thread through this enchanting disc. But the performance is the thing. As Stubbs says, "The more simple the material . . . the more we can fill in the colours and articulations and make it come alive". - Michael Dervan
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CHOPIN: WALTZES; FANTASY IN F MINOR Alfred Cortot (piano) Naxos Historical *****
Alfred Cortot was many things: an early conductor of Wagner in France (he had worked as assistant conductor at Bayreuth), one of the first men to record Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, an editor of extraordinarily detailed, highly personal editions of classics of the piano repertoire, and an influential educator. But if Cortot left nothing other than his legacy of Chopin recordings, his mark on the musical life of the 20th century would have been an important one. As a pianist he was notorious for his wrong notes (you'll find some in evidence here). But the poetry of his piano playing was exceptional and his mastery of rubato uniquely magical, even in an era of high romanticism when that art was more highly prized than it is today. This disc restores to circulation his 1934 London recordings of 14 Chopin Waltzes, with some duplicated in earlier and later recordings to provide fascinating, instructive comparisons. - Michael Dervan
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BRAHMS: CLARINET SONATAS; SCHUMANN: ROMANCES OP 94; FANTASY PIECES OP 73 Todd Levy (clarinet), Elena Abend (piano) Avie AV 2098 ****
Most performers find themselves essaying moments of heroic mode in Brahms's F minor Clarinet Sonata. Toddy Levy, principal clarinettist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and his Venezuelan pianist Elena Abend, opt for a much more reflective and mellow approach. If you expect Brahms to match cliches of Teutonic burliness, the inwardness of these players' music-making may come as something of a surprise. But they pay close attention to passing detail as well as the bigger picture, and their unusually restrained approach is highly effective. The two sets of pieces by Schumann don't respond quite as well to their relaxed style. - Michael Dervan
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MOZART: THE SYMPHONIES Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Erich Leinsdorf Deutsche Grammophon Original Masters 477 5847 (7 CDs) ***
Remarkable as it may seem, Erich Leinsdorf, a man associated with the opera house and large-scale symphonic repertoire, was actually the first person to record a complete Mozart symphony cycle, The conductor's autobiography devotes just a single sentence to the Westminster label project for the bicentenary celebrations of 1956, making the point that "the tendency to splice had not yet taken hold of the producer's fancy". The performances are in rude-health, matter-of-fact Mozartian mode, taking the line that these pieces are mostly in need of no special pleading. The sound is tight (only Nos 1-21 are in stereo), with strings dominating the balances, and Leinsdorf choosing to emphasise drive and rhythmic energy rather than expressive detail. The set, very much a historical curiosity, sticks to the canonic 41 symphonies as numbered in the 19th century, finding space for some that are spurious and leavingout many more that are not. - Michael Dervan
