Latest CD releases reviewed
CHARPENTIER: TE DEUM; GRAND OFFICE DES MORTS
Les Arts Florissants/William Christie Virgin Classics 545 7332 *****
The turnaround in the fortunes of the music of French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier (ca 1643-1704) has been remarkable over the last three decades or so. William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have been to the forefront of the revival, and their latest disc couples what has to be the composer's best-known music, the celebratory, ceremonial Te Deum (the Prelude to which is the Eurovision signature tune) and a more inward Grand Office des morts, music of an often affecting, tender gravity, which has been speculatively assembled from a number of individual works by John S Powell. Christie and his excellent team are in characteristically fine form in what you might well regard as their home territory. www.virginclassics.com Michael Dervan
EMMA JOHNSON: THE MOZART ALBUM
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Emma Johnson (basset clarinet), ConTempo Quartet UCJ 987 3571 **
Emma Johnson began her recording year over 20 years ago, when she was still in her teens. So presumably she knew what she was about in the dual role of director and soloist in this new recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto. The recording is of the kind where a giant soloist is pitted against a pygmy orchestra, and with the attitudinising of Johnson's highly personal approach there are many moments where Mozart seems to get left behind. The brisk tempo for the first movement of the Clarinet Quintet will raise some eyebrows, though in general there's a stronger sense of engagement between Johnson and the members of the ConTempo Quartet than with the RPO in the concerto. The three closing arrangements - two arias and the Ave verum -are mere makeweights. www.universalclassics.com Michael Dervan
BRAHMS: VIOLIN CONCERTO; SIBELIUS: VIOLIN CONCERTO
Ginette Neveu (violin), Philharmonia Orchestra/Issay Dobrowen, Walter Susskind EMI Classics 467 8302 ****
Ginette Neveu was France's star young violinist of the mid 20th century. At the age of 16 she beat David Oistrakh into second place in the Wieniawski Competition of 1935. But her career was cut tragically short - she died in an air crash in 1949. Neveu's playing mixed fire and finesse, and a fabulous elasticity in spinning out a melodic line. EMI's new transfer of these treasurable classic recordings from 1945 and 1946 is impressively smooth, though that smoothness is sometimes achieved at the expense of consistency of tone and clarity. www.emiclassics.com Michael Dervan
DECCA RECORDINGS 1937-1971
Clifford Curzon (piano), various orchestras and conductors Decca Original Masters 475 6786 (6 CDs) ****
This set, the third and largest Decca Original Masters collection of English pianist CliffordCurzon, begins at the beginning, with his first commercial recording, showing virtuoso credentials in Liszt's orchestration of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy. The conductor is Henry Wood of Proms fame, an early enthusiast for Curzon's playing. Although in later life Curzon was probably most closely associated with Mozart, this set shows his impeccable musical pedigree in demanding romantic repertoire (concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Rachmaninov, Brahms - both - and a solo Liszt recital), plus a handful of smaller Schubert pieces and Beethoven's Eroica Variations. There's also his earliest Mozart recording (the Concerto in A, K488, with Boyd Neel from 1945), and his sole commercial collaboration with members of the Amadeus Quartet in Mozart's two piano quartets, from 1952. Curzon's thoughtful manner was as perceptive as it was unassuming. One can only regret that he became disillusioned with recording, and avoided the studio in the last decade of his life. www.deccaclassics.com Michael Dervan
