Latest CD releases reviewed

COMPLETE RECORDINGS VOL 4
Ignaz Friedman (piano) Naxos Historical 8.110736
****

Ignaz Friedman, born in Cracow in 1882, a composer as well as a pianist, was a performer with an outsize musical personality to match the extravagance of his pianistic technique. His 1930 recordings project nine of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words with an assertive and artfully-shaped solidity of line that effectively disperses the perfume of the salon that you might expect to find lingering over them. Sample these, and Mendelssohn may never sound the same again. His no-holds-barred approach in Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody is edge-of-the-seat stuff, though in Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata the free approach of his townsman, violinist Bronislaw Huberman, renowned for his "unbridled individualism", will not be to all tastes. www.naxos.com

Michael Dervan

TANGO SENSATIONS
Per Arne Glorvigen (bandoneon), Alban Berg Quartet EMI Classics 557 7782
*** 

These live recordings, taped at the Mozartsaal of Vienna's Konzerthaus in May of last year, give most space to Astor Piazzolla, four of the Tango Sensations he wrote for himself and the Kronos Quartet plus the Tristeza de un doble A. Pre-Piazzolla masters of the tango are represented in bandoneon solos by Eduardo Arolas (El Marne), Juan Carlos Cobián (Mi refugio) and Julio de Caro (La rayuela). And there's also a five-movement suite, Adieu Satie, through which Austrian composer Kurt Schwertsik draws quirky links to another composer who knew what it was to work in the atmosphere of a club. The solos and the Schwertsik come off more successfully than the Piazzolla, for which the composer's own more pungent recordings can be strongly recommended. www.emiclassics.com

Michael Dervan

HUMMEL: TE DEUM; MISSA SOLEMNIS IN C
TOWER Voices New Zealand, New Zealand SO/Uwe Grodd Naxos 8.557193
****

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778- 1837), pupil of Mozart, one of Haydn's successors at the Esterházy court, and original dedicatee of Schubert's last three piano sonatas, is nowadays best remembered for a single work, his Trumpet Concerto. Like Haydn he wrote masses for the Esterházys, and the one recorded here was composed for the wedding of Princess Leopoldina in 1806. The use of soloists (Patricia Wright, soprano, Zan McKendree-Wright, alto, Patrick Power, tenor, David Griffiths, bass) is limited - conductor Uwe Grodd gives them the Benedictus as well as Hummel's original allocation of the Sanctus. As in the accompanying Te Deum, the style is brightly festive, wearing its debts to Haydn openly. Although Hummel doesn't match the inventiveness of the older composer, one can readily see why Haydn was impressed with his achievements. www.naxos.com

Michael Dervan

THE AMERICANS
Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon 474 940-2 (6 CDs)
****

Leonard Bernstein, the first American-born conductor to take charge of the New York Philharmonic, was an iconic figure in American music. His passionate nature and communicative concerns found one of their best outlets in the work of his American colleagues. He effectively took ownership of their music, sometimes even to the point of meddling with the text. This set, part of a major retrospective, collects the American repertoire he recorded, mostly live, for Deutsche Grammophon with the New York, Los Angeles and Israel Philharmonics - two discs of Copland (both populist and austere), one of Ives (both major and minor), plus pieces by Harris, Schuman, Del Tredici, Rorem, Foss (a Song of Songs never before released), Gershwin, Barber and Bloch. The delivery shows all the skills of an orator reaching out and grabbing your attention at all costs. No matter what you ultimately make of the message, you're likely to be transfixed as you receive it.  www.dgclassics.com

Michael Dervan

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES
Vienna Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein Deutsche Grammophon 474 924-2 (5 CDs)
***

Bernstein's Vienna Philharmonic Beet-hoven symphony cycle was recorded live in the Musikverein in the late 1970s, when the conductor's career in Europe had taken off and his musical love affair with the Viennese orchestra was in full swing. The music-making is romantic in inclination, though it's a lot more controlled than Bernstein's reputation for shadow-boxing on the podium might lead you to expect. The most significant tradeoffs are in immediacy of impact as against more subtle shading, and the highlighting of individual lines at moments when the main musical interest is to be found in contrapuntal tension. Moment-by-moment impressions prove stronger than the rewards of these performances as a whole. www.dgclassics.com

Michael Dervan