The latest releases reviewed

BETRACHTE, MEINE SEELE
Thomas Quasthoff (bass baritone), Staatsopernchor Dresden, Staatskapelle Dresden/Sebastian Weigle Deutsche Grammophon 477 6230 ***

Around two years ago German bass baritone Thomas Quasthoff brought out a disc of Bach cantatas in which everything gelled to perfection. He now has a new disc of arias from oratorio, from Bach and Handel to Haydn and Mendelssohn, with a bonus track of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot thrown in for good measure - the declaration on the back is "Music is my religion". It's a mixed kind of disc in more ways than one, and, for instance, the English language of Handel's The trumpet shall sound never sits quite comfortably. In Bach, things sit a lot better, but it's actually the excerpts from Mendelssohn's Elias and Paulus that sound best of all, and that goes for the Staatskapelle Dresden under Sebastian Weigle, too. www.deutschegrammophon.com

REGER: SYMPHONIC FANTASIA AND FUGUE OP 57; SEVEN ORGAN PIECES OP 145
Edgar Krapp (organ) Naxos 8.557891 ****

If you ever want to imagine a zealot at the organ, hair flying from his head and crazy music racing from his fingers, you could do worse than sample the opening of Max Reger's Op 57, a seething, surging Symphonic Fantasia and Fugue. Reger was 28 when he wrote it in 1901, and the ardent chromaticism of his peculiarly dense writing remains a heady challenge to performer and listener alike. Edgar Krapp negotiates its difficulties with authority and the grandeur of the Eisenbarth organ of Passau Cathedral is well caught. The late pieces of Op 145 are much sparer and mostly more sombre; even the one celebrating Christmas was clouded over by the war that raged during the set's composition in 1915 and 1916 - and Reger himself was dead before the nationalistic folly of his concluding Siegesfeier (Victory Celebration) was decisively known. www.naxos.com

MOZART: COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS
Maria João Pires Deutsche Grammophon Collectors Edition 477 5200 (6 CDs) ****

This is Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires's second recording of the Mozart piano sonatas, made in 1989 and 1990, and now appearing for the first time at mid-price. Pires approaches Mozart with a finely graded reserve. She mostly favours a delivery of crystalline clarity, but also allows moments of velvety touch. The style is small in scale, and grand statements are studiously avoided. Pires prefers to convey the music's messages with an unimposing authority that's clearly intended to draw the listener in. In staying within her carefully defined limits she misses out on some moments of drama and expressive turbulence. But that seems only a small price to pay for such otherwise consistently rewarding musical observation. www.deutschegrammophon.com