Steinberg: Symphony No 1; Prelude symphonique; Fantaisie dramatique. Gothenburg SO/Neeme Jarvi (DG)
Maximilian Steinberg (1883-1946) was a favourite pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and the teacher of Shostakovich, who rebelled at the text-book learning proposed for him, and cast aside the restrictions his teacher was trying to impose. Steinberg's ready grasp of academic form is well displayed in his well-turned First Symphony of 1905-6. It does everything Rimsky would have expected of it, but not really anything more. The Prelude symphonique, written in 1908 in memory of Rimsky-Korsakov (who was also Steinberg's father-in-law) forsakes mere elegance for something more heart-searching. And the Fantaisie dramatique winds the tension up higher again. All three works are delivered with a gorgeous sheen by the Gothenburg orchestra under Jarvi.
- Michael Dervan
Piano Masters: Lili Kraus (Pearl)
The Hungarian pianist Lili Kraus (1903-86) is most celebrated for her playing of Mozart. She formed a long-term duo with violinist Szymon Goldberg - pre-Hitler leader of the Berlin Philharmonic - and they recorded Mozart and Beethoven together. In Mozart, certainly in the later recordings, Kraus is a meddlesome interpreter. Pearl's collection of recordings from the late 1930s shows a musician who is altogether tighter in rhythmic grip and less distracted by momentary point-making. In variations by Haydn and Beethoven, dances by Schubert and Bartok, and an Impromptu and Prelude by Chopin, she may be cast against type, but the playing shines with a directly-expressed intelligence. True, it may be a little less personal than her most famous Mozart, but that seems to me a perfectly fair trade.
- Michael Dervan
Handel: Harpsichord Works, Vol 1. Sophie Yates (Chaconne)
Sophie Yates's new collection of harpsichord music by Handel is labelled Volume One, so presumably it's the start of a complete survey. The chosen starting point is the 1733 collection of "suites," of which the first six have been accommodated on to a single disc. The arpeggiated swirls of the opening Prelude in B flat create a wonderfully seductive wash of sound, at times organ-like in its staying power. But when it comes to keyboard writing, Handel is no Bach, and there is always a risk of these suites sounding four-square and predictable. Yates has a bright, forward-urging energy, but not the range of articulation to invest the music with a strong sense of internal variety. With this delivery, the music needs to be taken in small doses, or only as a background.
- Michael Dervan