Ensemble Inter Contemporain/Pierre Boulez: "Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire; Herzgewuchse; Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte" (DG)

The arguments will never cease about the balance to be struck between speaking and singing in Schoenberg's technique of Sprechgesang. In the fantastical Pierrot Lunaire, soprano Christine Schafer draws melodic contours that approximate more to pitched speech than song and engages the ear with a soft-spoken intimacy that is beautifully matched by the close-knit playing of the Ensemble InterContemporain. The extraordinary, treacherous extensions of the short Maeterlinck setting, Herzgewachse, hold no fears for her, and baritone David Pittman Jennings is a commandingly dark reciter in the longer Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte. As presiding spirit, Pierre Boulez captures the essence of Schoenberg with exceptional sympathy and affection. Michael Dervan

BBCPO/Yan Pascal Tor telier: "Messiaen: Turan galila-symphonie" (Chandos)

Yan Pascal Tortelier has long shown special gifts in the repertoire of his native France. He lacks nothing in the sensuality or tonal indulgence appropriate to Messiaen's gigantic, joyful love-song. Seen by Messiaen as the central part of a Tristan trilogy (the other parts being Harawi and Cinq rechants), Turangalila inhabits a unique world, alternating juggernaut pulsation with pools of quiet meditation, in an orchestral setting coloured by the soaring, sweet electronic voice of the ondes Martenot (Valerie HartmannClaverie), the commanding chordal thunder of a solo piano (Howard Shelley) and an exotic battery of percussion.

The effect should be transfixing, as indeed it is here. Michael Dervan

Szymanowski: "King Roger" (Naxos, 2 CDs)

Based on a homoerotic novel written by the composer in 1918 and given its first performance in Warsaw in 1926, King Roger deals with the conflict between Dionysus and Apollo, the orgiastic and the serene in Greek art, as personified in the characters of the Shepherd and the eponymous King. Doesn't it sound dull? Don't kid yourself - there isn't a dull moment in this gripping performance by an all-Polish cast as Szymanowki's extraordinary score is brought to mesmeric life by Karol Stryja and the Polish State Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra. There is, in particular, some superb singing from the central trio; tenor Wieslaw Ochman as the subversive Shepherd, soprano Barbara Zagorzanka as the ecstatic queen Roxana and baritone Andrej Hiolski as the troubled, but ultimately triumphant Roger. Arminta Wallace