The latest CD releases reviewed

BERIO: PIANO MUSIC
Andrea Lucchesini, Valentina Pagni Lucchesini Avie AV 2104 ****

Andrea Lucchesini's survey of the piano music of Luciano Berio (1925-2003) omits the early Petite Suite of 1947, and begins with the composer's longest solo piano work, the Sonata of 2001. This 23-minute piece, yet to be performed in Ireland, is dominated by a ruminative character, the sound mostly floating (even when shot through with moments of brilliance), the texturing and colouring highly sensual in effect. There's an intriguingly off-centre character, as in most of the pieces here, and the composer's keen ear allows him to flicker in and out of the harmonic worlds of past and present. Along with the Cinque Variazioni (1953), Sequenza IV (1966), Rounds (1967), and the set of Six Encores (miniatures written between 1964 and 1990), there are two further snippets for two pianos, Touch and Canzonetta, gifts for Lucchesini's wedding in 1991. www.avierecords.com

PROKOFIEV: SYMPHONIES 1 & 7; THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES SUITE; TCHAIKOVSKY: NUTCRACKER SUITE
Philharmonia Orchestra/Nikolai Malko Classics for Pleasure 382 2292 *****

These recordings, made in 1955, were EMI's inital foray into the world of stereo, and were first commercially issued on reel-to-reel tape, before the general availability of stereo LPs. Simple microphone techniques ensured natural- sounding balances, and the easy clarity of Nikolai Malko's approach remains highly impressive. His Nutcracker Suite is a delight, and he finds Prokofiev's elusive Seventh Symphony (a commission from the Children's Division of the Russian State Radio for "a simple symphony, for young listeners") at once simple and profound. Malko handles the Classical Symphony with a light touch, and this collection also offers a sampling of Prokofiev's sharper- edge style through the suite from his surrealistic opera, The Love for Three Oranges (minus the La Fuite movement). www.emiclassics.com

BRAHMS: SONATAS OP 120; TRIO IN A MINOR 114
Lawrence Power (viola), Tim Hugh (cello), Simon Crawford- Philips (piano)
Hyperion CDA ****

It might seem perverse to present the two sonatas and the trio that the Meiningen Orchestra's clarinettist, Richard Mühlfeld, inspired from Brahms in the early 1890s in the versions the composer prepared for viola. The sonatas, admittedly, are a core part of the viola repertoire - in fact, they actually put the very idea of a viola sonata on the map. But performances of the trio with viola are very rare indeed. Although it often sounds tonally bulkier than the clarinet, it can curve phrases in a way the clarinet can't, and contrariwise it strains in areas where the clarinet doesn't. Lawrence Power, the viola player of the moment, commands an imaginative agility and nobility that make the instrument seem well nigh perfect here. And his partners match him all the way. www.hyperion-records.co.uk

SCELSI: FOUR PIECES ON ONLY ONE NOTE; UAXUCTUM; LA NASCITA DEL VERBO
Concentus Vocalis, Wiener Kammerchor, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/Peter Rundel, Johannes Kalitzke Mode mode 176 ***

In a world where almost anything goes in musical composition, there are still surprises around, not all of them recent. Giacinto Scelsi's Four Pieces on Only One Note for small orchestra date from 1959, and are still startlingly original in concept and delivery. Uaxuctum of 1966 (subtitled The Legend of the Mayan city which they themselves destroyed for religious reasons) uses chorus, ondes Martenot and an exotically constituted ensemble to draw the listener into a world that's a protracted primeval convulsion. The cantata La nascita del verbo (1946-48) shares some incantatory qualities with the later pieces, as well as grand gestures of counter- point in an ambience of mid-20th- century dissonance. Performances from the 2005 Wien Modern Festival are more than serviceable. www.uk.hmboutique.com