Brahms: Hungarian Dances Budapest Festival Orchestra/Ivan Fischer (Philips)
This has to be the most unusual recording of Brahms's Hungarian Dances to appear in a long time. Some of the dances are presented in the familiar guise of orchestrations by Brahms himself, Dvorak and Parlow (the composer's original version was for piano duet). But, elsewhere, the conductor Ivan Fischer and others have been at work "to bring this music somewhat closer to its sources, while remaining in harmony with Brahms's intentions". The orchestrations add some solo gipsy fiddling, a cimbalom, and even a solo for tarogato (a Hungarian folk clarinet). The playing is flexibly smooth, genial without being oversweet. But in the end, I think I'd prefer the familiar versions - or a real gipsy band - to Fischer's intriguing half-way house.
- Michael Dervan
Maderna: Music for strings (Auvidis Montaigne)
Bruno Maderna (1920-73) was a child prodigy. As "Brunetto", he performed on the violin and conducted (the Orchestra of La Scala) at the age of seven. And conducting became an important activity later in life, when he was a major advocate of avant-garde activity - his mentor in this regard was Hermann Scherchen. The earliest work in the Arditti Quartet's excellent new collection dates from the mid-1940s and shows the strong influence of Bartok. The mirror-formed Quartet in two movements of 1955 finds Maderna in full serial flight, though by no means as angular or disjointed in style as some of his colleagues. The later works are even mellower, showing how, as with other Italian composers, the inclination towards lyricism came to take precedence over the matter of breaking new ground.
- Michael Dervan
Dinu Lipatti plays Bartok, Liszt, and Grieg (Urania)
For the quality of his playing, the recorded output of the Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti is pitifully small. He was a most exacting perfectionist in the recording studio and was only 33 when he finally succumbed to cancer in 1950. The major interest in Urania's new CD is the live recording of Bartok's Third Concerto, made in Baden-Baden in 1948. Among its most striking features is the gossamer lightness Lipatti brings to the first movement. His customary precision of articulation is achieved with an easy grace that makes for a performance that's utterly beguiling, in spite of less than polished orchestral playing and some intrusive whistles from the original source. A second live performance (Liszt's E flat Concerto from 1947) and a forward transfer of his studio recording of the Grieg complete this treasurable disc.
- Michael Dervan
Cecilia Bartoli: The Vivaldi Album (Decca)
Hey - is she singing The Four Seasons? Well, no, but two of the pieces on this sumptuous recording sound awfully familiar - as well they might, since they see Vivaldi recycling his own tunes from Spring and Winter, already top of the Euro pops by the 1730s. It was a favourite trick of opera composers, but we aren't used to thinking of Vivaldi as such; perhaps this glorious selection of neglected arias will fix that, and no better woman to sing them than Bartoli, all fireworks, flirtation and effortless technique. A handsome album, this, presented as a book on beautiful paper with lots of illustrations, including a photo of her stylish young accompanists, Il Giardino Armonico, looking uncannily like the Juventus football team with instrumental accessories - period, of course.
- Arminta Wallace
