The Kyung-Wha Chung Edition (Decca, 10 mid-price discs) This is a thorough retrospective of Kyung-Wha Chung's Decca recordings through the 1970s to the mid1980s. For Decca, this much-loved musical ambassador from the East taped most of the major violin concertos (though not the Brahms) and the very particular charge of her concert performances is well captured by the microphone. Relaxed lyricism is not usually her forte, and, in her typically coiled-spring manner, the spontaneous releases of energy sometimes seem barely containable through the contact of bow on string. You'll find her in full flight in some of the earliest recordings here, impassioned in the Bruch G minor Concerto, sizzling in the Sibelius. The 20th century has always brought out the best in Chung. Her Stravinsky is sharply-etched, Bartok's Second forceful, the Berg, unusually, finding her altogether more inward and restrained.
By Michael Dervan
Lully: "Ballet Music for the Sun King" Arcadia Baroque Ensemble/Kevin Mallon (violin) (Naxos)
Italian-born Jean-Baptiste Lully, celebrated in history books for dying in 1687 of gangrene from a toe injury sustained while beating time with a sharp-pointed cane, was the most favoured composer of Louis XIV. The Canadian period-instruments Arcadia Baroque Ensemble, directed by Belfast violinist Kevin Mallon, have collected music - most of it not otherwise listed in the CD catalogue - which was inspired in the earlier years of Lully's career by his patron's passion for dance. The playing style is mostly light and reserved, in a manner more likely to calm than excite, although the players do occasionally let their hair down, notably in their imitation of that oddly-named string instrument, the trumpet marine. Of the two soprano soloists, Sharla Nafziger is to be preferred to the breathier Mary Enid Haines. Michael Dervan
Gounod: "Romeo et Juliette" (EMI)
At last: the dream team of Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu in the most romantic of all operas, and the one which shot the tenor half of the duo to fame in the first place. Gounod's setting of Shakespeare's tragedy is built around four superb love duets, one in each act, which provide Alagna and Gheorghiu with plenty of meltingly lovely moments; you'd need a heart of stone not to drop a discreet tear or two during the balcony scene, for instance. There's been a bit of muttering about the pair's determination to sing and record together regardless of the suitability of roles, but this set doesn't suffer noticeably, though if you want to quibble, you could point to a slight strain at the top of Alagna's range; Gheorghiu sounds, to me, as gorgeous as ever. e Van Dam as Frere Laurent, and some wonderful instrumental and choral stuff from the Toulouse Capitole Choir and Orchestra under the baton of Michel Plasson.
By Arminta Wallace
