The latest releases reviewed.
FRANK MARTIN: LE VIN HERBÉ Sandrine Piau (soprano), Steve Davislim (tenor), Jutta Böhnert (soprano), RIAS Kammerchor, Scharoun Ensemble/Daniel Reuss Harmonia Mundi HMC 901935.36 (2 CDs) *****
Frank Martin's Le vin herbé (1942) takes Tristan and Isolde into the world of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande and beyond. The manner is restrained, the vocal and instrumental forces small in number, and the lighting of the various scenes remains, as it were, muted. But the response to the words (from Joseph Bédier) is precise, and the combination of text and music is atmospheric and suggestive. The effect is magical, entrancing. Communication of the most piercing of messages is achieved with the minimum of means. Daniel Reuss and his performers treat this work of remarkable understatement as if it is infinitely treasurable. www.uk.hmboutique.com MICHAEL DERVAN
BEETHOVEN: PIANO SONATAS OPP 26, 27 & 28 András Schiff (piano) ECM New Series 476 5875 ***
This fourth instalment of András Schiff's survey of Beethoven's piano sonatas, recorded in concert in Zurich, brings together four works that still astonish both for the range of their formal innovations as well as their sheer expressive variety. In Beethoven, Schiff is proving to be a player sometimes reluctant to leave well enough alone, exaggerating an accent here, a staccato there, now stretching out a melodic line, now getting a little frisky in a funeral march. If this was music meant to provoke, then he has surely succeeded. Sometimes, however, his ideas, or rather his attempt to intensify Beethoven's, can be experienced as too obvious a filter colouring the musical material. www.ecmrecords.com MICHAEL DERVAN
LIVE FROM THE LUGANO FESTIVAL 2006 Martha Argerich and Friends EMI Classics 389 2412 (3 CDs) ****
This selection of concert recordings from the Progetto Martha Argerich at last year's Lugano Festival strays far and wide. Sergei Taneyev's 1911 Piano Quintet, memorably tackled on disc by Mikhail Pletnev and friends, gets a rather too diffuse airing, but the crazy, freewheeling fusion of Friedrich Gulda's Concerto for cello (Gautier Capuçon) and wind orchestra fares much better. Capuçon and his violinist brother Renaud feature strongly, including impassioned accounts of Schumann's D minor Piano Trio (with Nicholas Angelich), and Piano Quartet (with Lida Chen and Argerich herself). Argerich also does the honours for the strangest performance here, in which Sergei Nakariakov woos Schumann's Fantasy Pieces, Op 73, on flugelhorn. www.emiclassics.com MICHAEL DERVAN
TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 OVERTURE; CAPRICCIO ITALIEN; BEETHOVEN: WELLINGTON'S VICTORYUniversity of Minnesota Brass Band, Minneapolis SO, London SO/ Antal Dorati Decca Original Masters 475 8508 *****
These recordings used period- appropriate military weapons as spectacular sound effects to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and Beethoven's so-called Battle Symphony, with the bells of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller memorial Carillon also adding to the clangour of the overture. The documentation goes into great detail about how the special effects were achieved by Mercury back in 1958 and 1960, respectively, and there are also recorded commentaries on the enterprise by Deems Taylor. The sounds will still shake the floorboards and bring an excited response from the neighbours. Antal Dorati's brash conducting matches the spirit of the enterprise, which has hardly lost its edge with the passing of the years. www.deccaclassics.com MICHAEL DERVAN
