The latest releases reviewed
ROMANCEHan -Na Chang (cello), Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Antonio Pappano EMI Classics 382 3902 ****
The recordings of Korean cellist Han-Na Chang have most recently focused on Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Here she delves
back into the byways of the 19th century. She handles Lalo's D minor Concerto of 1877 with typical ardency. It's not as memorably tuneful a work as the famous Symphonie espagnole for violin,
but Chang and conductor Antonio Pappano respond vividly to its greater drama and its tautly sprung dances. Chang's forcefully projected, large-toned manner might seem at odds with the shorter and lighter pieces by Glazunov (Mélodie), Dvorak (Rondo in G minor), Saint-Saëns (Allegro appassionato), Tchaikovsky (the Andante cantabile) and Pablo Casals (El cant dels ocells, the only 20th-century intrusion). But her passionate engagement wins the day here, too. www.emiclassics.com Michael Dervan
MEDTNER: THE COMPLETE SKAZKI Hamish Milne (piano) Hyperion CDA 67491/2 (2 CDs) ****
The Russian pianist and composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) created a genre, originally using the German word märchen, then skazka in Russian, which is usually but quite accurately rendered in English as "fairy tale". In these ballade-like offerings he stood well away from the kind of explorations undertaken by the likes of Stravinsky and Prokofiev. His harmonic language is conservative, his manner reserved, even when
his content is not. The freshness in these pieces comes from his consistent delight in the intricate, multi-layered textures he weaves out of piano tone in unceasingly inventive ways. There is something almost endearingly gentlemanly about even his most aggressive and grotesque writing in Hamish Milne's carefully circumspect readings. www.hyperion-records.co.uk Michael Dervan
LISZT: PIANO CONCERTO NO 1; CHOPIN: PIANO CONCERTO NO 1 Yundi Li (piano), Philharmonia Orchestra/Andrew Davis Deutsche Grammophon 477 6402 ***
The obvious comparisons for Yundi Li in Chopin's First Piano Concerto are other previous winners of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Maurizio Pollini and Martha Argerich. Li gravitates more towards the volatility of the latter. He is often excitable, and has the technique to support his adventures. But the dreaminess of his reflective playing can sound more prosaic than poetically convincing. He's most in his element in the capricious finale.
He stirs up an impressive storm in Liszt's E flat major Concerto, the limitations being in phrasing which tends to be short-breathed. Li's is very much a young man's approach. The Philharmonia Orchestra under Andrew Davis veers between sensitivity and blowsiness. www.deutschegrammophon.com Michael Dervan
JENKINS: FIVE-PART CONSORTS Phantasm Avie AV 2120 *****
Laurence Dreyfus, the founder of the viol consort Phantasm, sees John Jenkins (1592-1678) as a relentless explorer, a man daring to venture into harmonic territory that would remain largely unexplored for centuries. He has learnt, says Dreyfus, "to transpose himself and his listeners to exotic locations without standing in wearying queues or undergoing tiresome security checks". Dreyfus's sleevenote provides an insider's colourful view of Jenkins's excursions, some of which are daring enough to take the floor from under your feet, musically speaking. The best way to know this music is to play it. Phantasm's lucidly balanced, cogently demonstrative performances have an intimacy that easily outclasses most public concert experiences of this complex yet ravishing music. www.avierecords.com Michael Dervan
