Henri Dutilleux: "Metaboles"; Cello Concerto; "Mystere De l'Instant (Grande Formation)". Boris Pergamenschikow, BBC Philharmonic/Yan Pascal Tortelier (Chandos)
Here's another fine Chandos collection from the fastidious and sparing pen of one of France's elder statesmen of contemporary music, insightfully conducted by a Frenchman of comparable colouristic sensitivity. The musical concerns of Henri Dutilleux (born 1916) are with mystery and magic, time and memory, though the most immediately striking feature of his work is the intricate working and finely-grained focus of an unusually fertile instrumental imagination. This remains consistently rewarding through the metamorphosing variations of Metaboles, the Baudelaire-inspired, exotic sensuality of the cello concerto, Tout Un Monde Lointain, and the cimbalom-tinged, strings and percussion "snapshots" of Mystere De l'Instant.
By Michael Dervan
Warlock: "The Curlew"; "Capriol Suite"; Serenade; Songs. John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Nash Ensemble. (Hyperion)
This disc brings together the largest pieces by the English composer Peter Warlock (1894-1930), alter ego of the scholar and music-writer, Philip Heseltine. It also features Warlock at his very best - in the Capriol Suite (arrangements of dances from Arbeau's Orchesographie of 1588) and The Curlew, four inimitably haunting Yeats settings for tenor, flute, cor anglais and string quartet. Tenor John Mark Ainsley responds sensitively to the plaintive stillness and desolation that permeate The Curlew, and, under Martyn Brabbins's direction, Capriol is sharply-observed, tangy, and as fresh-sounding as I've ever heard it. Also included are nine songs for tenor and string quartet, and the Serenade For Strings, with its pale, English lilt.
By Michael Dervan
Renee Fleming: "Great Op- eratic Scenes" (Decca)
Another recital disc? Oh, no: don't make that mistake. Here is no selection of pretty arias, for the American soprano Renee Fleming has the rare ability to go instantly to the heart of the matter, so that when she sings Mozart, for example, you find yourself musing, not about the sumptuous timbre of her voice, but about love, death, life, eternity and all that jazz. There's plenty of food for thought here as - with equally sumptuous accompaniment from the LSO directed by her mentor Georg Solti - Fleming gives glorious voice to six of opera's most eloquent women, from the Countess in The Marriage Of Figaro, who talks herself out of despair, to Richard Strauss's Daphne, who gives up on language altogether and, with a blissful cry, metamorphoses into a tree.
By Arminta Wallace
