The latest releases reviewed.
HANDEL/GIBLEY: CELLO SONATAS Tatty Theo (cello), Carolyn Gibley (harpsichord) Avie AV 2118 ***
Handel wrote plenty of solo sonatas, but none for cello. Harpsichordist Carolyn Gibley has made up for the deficit through cello and harpsichord transcriptions of his recorder sonatas, performed here with Tatty Theo, her cellist colleague in the Brook Street Band. In doing this, of course, Gibley is only following the example of baroque composers in general - Handel among them - who happily recycled music from work to work as the occasion demanded. It's quite a shift from recorder to cello, even when keys have been changed for practical reasons. Theo's nimble account of the finale of Op 1 No 7 shows how well the adaptation can work, while the central Presto of Op 1 No 9 shows undeniable signs of strain. In general the transcriptions are stylishly and effectively presented. www.avierecords.com
ALNAES: PIANO CONCERTO OP 27; SINDING: PIANO CONCERTO OP 6 Piers Lane (piano), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Litton Hyperion CDA 67555 ***
The 42nd volume in Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto Series explores the Norwegian repertoire after Grieg. Christian Sinding (1856-1941) is still remembered for his Rustle of Spring (recorded by players as different as David Helfgott and Derek Bell), but Eyvind Alnaes (1872-1932), a career church musician, is altogether less well known. Sinding and Alnaes each left a single piano concerto, premiered in 1890 and 1914, respectively. Both works share a fondness for heavy-handed virtuoso writing and overwrought romantic tunes. Alnaes reaches momentarily into a post- romantic style in his orchestral writing, and also has some curious echoes of Grieg. But it's Sinding's concerto which makes the more cogent overall impression in Piers Lane's unfailingly fervent performances. www.hyperion-records.co.uk
WOLF: 62 SONGS Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Gerald Moore (piano) EMI Classics 380 0402 (2 CDs) *****
German soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who died last August aged 90, was renowned for her beauty of tone and musical intelligence, and she revelled in the wide-ranging expressive invitations of Hugo Wolf's songs. Schwarzkopf registered not just the detail of despair or exaltation, but every minutest tremor of emotion, the skipping of a heartbeat, the flush on a cheek, the moment of eagerness held in check. Her style was the opposite of artless in its effect. Nothing, it seems, was to be left to the imagination, though of course it was precisely the imagination on which her art depended. Gerald Moore was a perfect partner in musical guile, and her producer and husband, Walter Legge, had a perfectionism to match her own. These treasurable recordings, made between 1956 and 1965, come with full texts and translations. www.emiclassics.com
DRAGON SONGS Lang Lang (piano), China Philharmonic Orchestra/Long Yu Deutsche Grammophon 477 6229 ***
For most people, the last word in romantic piano concertos was probably said by Rachmaninov. But Chinese composer Xian Xinghai,
who died in 1945, two years after Rachmaninov, didn't live to hear material from his Yellow River cantata filtered by many hands and turned into a compact yet grandly oriental romantic concerto. It's now a perennial Chinese favourite, and here gets a hugely glamourised reading from Lang Lang in a recording that's equally glamourised. The piece is colourful, in a kitschy, distractable, cliche-a-minute, travelogue-ish style, with lots of high-velocity showmanship. Lang is in his element, and the disc also includes 10 traditionally inspired pieces, mostly arrangements, giving a flavour of Chinese solo piano music in the 20th century, sometimes in partnership with traditional instruments. www.deutschegrammophon.com MICHAEL DERVAN
