The latest releases reviewed.

NOËL Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo soprano), Bengt Forsberg (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 5725 ***

Anne Sofie von Otter's Christmas selection should contain a surprise or two for nearly everyone. In this collection of gently celebratory music she begins in her native Sweden (Gustaf Nordqvuist, Ivar Widéen, and Agathe Backer Grøndahl) and ranges as far as France (Chaminade and Gounod), England (Quilter and Head), Germany (Bach, Reger and Cornelius) and Cuba (Nin). The loveliest vocal item of all is closer to her home, Grieg's Julens vuggesang (Christmas Cradle Song) - it makes an indelible imprint. There are solo piano items, too, from Bengt Forsberg, including Percy Grainger's florid Bach treatment, Blithe Bells, as well as better-known and more respectful arrangements by Busoni and Myra Hess. A Christmas collection with a difference. www.deutschegrammophon.com
Michael Dervan

ROSLAVETS: CHAMBER SYMPHONY; IN THE HOURS OF THE NEW MOON BBC Scottish SO/Ilan Volkov Hyperion CDA 67484 ****

Who was the natural heir to Scriabin? Well, the surging trumpets and hovering trills of Nikolai Roslavets's student symphonic poem, In the Hours of the New Moon, gives him a certain claim, although it also reveals moments of passing kinship to Stravinsky's contemporary Firebird ballet. Roslavets later embraced Futurism and became one of the more progressive Soviet composers of the 1920s before falling into official disfavour. The clear influence on his Chamber Symphony of 1935 is Schoenberg, though there are also moments of unambiguous Russian tone. Roslavets, however, doesn't have anything of Schoenberg's concision, and his slow movement alone stretches to nearly 20 minutes. Ilan Volkov conducts strongly argued performances of these works by a composer who, until recently, seemed destined to slip thoroughly out of sight. www.hyperion-records.co.uk Michael Dervan

KAGEL: SZENARIO; DUODRAMEN; LITURGIEN Margaret Chalker (soprano), Roland Hermann (baritone), Martyn Hill (tenor), Romain Bischoff (baritone), Wout Oosterkamp (bass), Gulbenkian Chorus Lisbon, Saarbrücken RSO/ Mauricio Kagel Naxos 8.570179 ***

Szenario is Mauricio Kagel's 1982 music for Buñuel and Dali's 1928 surrealist film, Un chien andalou. It's scored for tape and strings, and within its sustained, oppressively ominous atmosphere he even finds room for ghostly echoes of the music Buñuel himself offered for the silent film, Wagner's Tristan and Argentinian tangos. Duodramen (1998) is a kind of modern, mock-operatic implementation of the idea behind Walter Savage Landor's Imaginary Conversations, with even more fanciful pairings, including Indira Gandhi and Casanova, Marie Antoinette and Erich von Stroheim. Liturgien (1990), a cantata inspired by a visit to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, is a dense, polyglot collage which explores the nature of sacred music. With the composer conducting, the performances are first-rate. The omission of texts and translations, however, is unforgivable. www.naxos.com Michael Dervan

MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS IN G K453; IN C K467Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/ Maurizio Pollini (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 5795 ****

Maurizio Pollini hasn't tackled Mozart on disc since the mid-1970s, and he breaks new ground in these concert recordings by directing the Vienna Philharmonic from the keyboard. Pollini's finely chiselled Mozart is mostly the opposite of effusive in emotional tone. Casually sampled, the style might seem on the neutral side, but even a quick sample of the finale of K453, where the brio is almost explosive, would give the lie to that impression. Poise and proportion are the key concerns, and that applies to the orchestra, too, where Pollini is careful to give the wind-writing the prominence it deserves. Pollini, of course, is famous for his advocacy of the kind of 20th-century repertoire that most virtuosos avoid. That aspect of his make-up is reflected here in the use of fascinating cadenzas by Salvatore Sciarrino in the Concerto in C, K467. www.deutschegrammophon.com Michael Dervan