The latest releases reviewed
FLUTE CONCERTOS BY DALBAVIE, JARRELL, PINTSCHER
Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio
France/Peter Eötvös, Pascal Rophé, Matthias
Pintscher
EMI Classics 501 2262
****
These three single-movement flute concertos were all
commissioned for and premiered by Emmanuel Pahud, principal
flautist of the Berlin Philharmonic. Marc-André Dalbavie's
2006 Flute Concerto is very much what you would call a blended
work; soloist and orchestra work hand in glove in spectrally
flavoured impressionistic mode. Michael Jarrell's 2007 . . . un
temps de silence . . . starts with a greater focus on stand-out
virtuosity before retreating into melodically stretched
introversion. Matthias Pintscher's ghostly, fluttery, echoey
Transir (2005-6), not a million miles removed from some of the
flute explorations of Salvatore Sciarrino, carries a stronger grip
than the other works. Pahud's performances sound impeccable.
www.emiclassics.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
SCHUBERT: SEHNSUCHT
Matthias Goerne (baritone), Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)
Harmonia Mundi
HMC 901988
*****
German baritone Matthias Goerne here launches his own
Schubert Edition with an album titled Longing. The edition promises
"an extensive selection of lieder accompanied by distinguished
pianists, with booklet notes by Christophe Ghristi". The titles of
the first three songs - Journey to Hades, Voluntary Oblivion and
Weeping - make clear the voyage he's embarking on for this first
CD. The singing is often that of a consolatory confidante, the
feelings all the more powerful for the restraint of their
expression. Leonskaja is both superbly independent and supportive,
her rounded tone darkly weighted in piercing performances, making
for a distinguished start to this new venture.
www.uk.hmboutique.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
BARTÓK: THE WOODEN PRINCE
Bournemouth SO/Marin Alsop
Naxos 8.570534
***
The Wooden Prince, a "dancing-play in one act," is the
Cinderella among Bartók's stage works. Its impressionistic
world lacks the wrenching pathos of the opera Bluebeard's Castle
and the sleazy menace of the pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin. The
Wooden Prince is a fairytale set in a forest, where a princess
falls in love with a prince's puppet before falling for the prince
himself. And, yes, there's a manipulative fairy at work in the
forest. Marin Alsop responds warmly to the lush orchestral
colouring, and finds plenty of evocative delicacy and sweetness in
the music. Bartók's forest does, however, seethe a little more
threateningly at times than Alsop allows in a performance which
concentrates on the broad brush strokes rather than sharper
definition.
www.naxos.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
BEETHOVEN: BAGATELLES OP 126; PIANO CONCERTO NO 1
Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/Piotr Anderszewski
(piano)
Virgin Classics 502 1112
****
This unusual coupling puts its best foot forward by placing
Beethoven's exploratory late Bagatelles before his early and
altogether more conventional First Piano Concerto. Piotr
Anderszewski long ago established himself as a player with a strong
individual streak, and his eagerness to seek out fresh perspectives
seems entirely apt in the bagatelles, where he matches
thought-provoking performances with thought-provoking music. He
also seeks out new slants in the concerto, both for the orchestra
and himself as soloist. The pianism is as unimpeachable as you
would expect, but the playing does at times sound rather more
interventionist than the music calls for - delightful but
distracting.
www.emiclassics.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
