CHOPIN: PIANO SONATA NO 2; SCHERZOS 1-4
Simon Trpceski
EMI Classics 375 5862
****

Simon Trpceski gave a dazzling account of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto at the National Concert Hall last week. The same kind of big-toned facility is well in evidence in his new all-Chopin CD from EMI. The scale is grand, the expression free, the tone sonorous, the manner exciting, even thrill-seeking. When the going is heavy, it's not always clear that Trpceski is fully in control of exactly where the musical accentuation falls. But the youthful spirit of enthusiasm and the sweep of the playing often carries all before it. www.emiclassics.com HAYDN: PIANO SONATAS NOs 50, 40, 46, 41, 52, 23, 43, 24, 32, 27
Marc-André Hamelin
Hyperion CD 67552 (2 CDs for the price of 1)
*****

Haydn wrote more keyboard sonatas than any of the other great Viennese classicists. But in spite of the advocacy of major pianists such as Alfred Brendel and Sviatoslav Richter, only a handful have ever attained any kind of popularity. The explanation possibly lies in the fact that the pleasures they offer are more clearly aimed at the performer than the listener. This can make it hard to articulate them in performance in a way that doesn't somehow seem to contradict their nature. Marc-André Hamelin doesn't eschew rhetorical touches in expression and ornamentation. But there is a directness of manner, allied to a fabulous fleetness of finger, that makes his exploration of 10 sonatas among the freshest you'll ever hear. And with two discs for the price of one, who could resist? www.hyperion-records.co.uk

RAVEL: QUARTET IN F; TOLDRÀ: VISTES AL MAR; TURINA; ORACIÓN DE TORERO
Cuarteto Casals
Harmonia Mundi HMI 897072
****

Spain's Cuarteto Casals open Ravel's Quartet in F as if floating the sound in with the delicacy of a light breath. The unforced ease of manner gives much of the music a soft inner glow that suits it to perfection, although there's no shirking when firmer expression is required. There's an attractive sense of newness, of wonder even, in the playing. The Ravel is used as a peg on which to hang two altogether less well-known Spanish works. The longer of the two, Eduard Toldrà's 1921 Vistes al mar (Views of the sea), with the Joan Maragall poems that inspired it read by Iván Sinyol, makes the slighter impression. Joaquin Turina's loosely structured Oración del torero (Bullfighter's prayer) is altogether richer in atmosphere, tinged in this performance with a sultry beauty. www.uk.hmboutique.com

DECCA RECORDINGS 1953-1967
L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/ Ernest Ansermet
Decca Original Masters 475 8140 (6 CDs)
****

Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969), an almost exact contemporary of Strav- insky, was one of the great composer's favourite musicians. It was Stravinsky who recommended him as principal conductor of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1915, three years before he founded the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, which he conducted until 1968. Ansermet, a professor of mathematics before he turned full-time to music, was most celebrated as a conductor of new music and of French repertoire - his list of premières included pieces by Stravinsky, Falla, Prokofiev, Satie, Honegger, Martinu, Britten, Walton and Lutoslawski. This new survey encompasses successful off-territory forays into Haydn, Beethoven, Weber and Mendelssohn, and a less persuasive one into Sibelius's Fourth Symphony. Highlights include Honegge's train-inspired Pacific 231 (dedicated to Ansermet) and "dramatic psalm" Le Roi David, and Dukas's La Péri, as well as a range of other French repertoire, from serious to light. The musical approach is rewardingly earthy and direct, in spite of playing that can sound a bit too rough at times. www.deccaclassics.com