The latest releases reviewed.

Beethoven called him the greatest of living composers. But it's Beethoven's own achievements which surely guaranteed that Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842) would be relegated to the status of an also-ran. He deserves better. The three opera overtures recorded here, from Lodoïska (1791), Médée (1797) and Faniska (1806), have both a ruggedness and sophistication which show clearly why an earlier generation of conductors paid serious attention to Cherubini's work. The later Symphony in D (1815) is rather tamer and backward-looking. Piero Bellugi's conducting comes across as soundly versed in the style, and the playing of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, though not always fine in detail, is more than serviceable. www.naxos.com MICHAEL DERVAN

BRAHMS: STRING QUARTETS; PIANO QUINTET Leon Fleisher (piano), Emerson Quartet Deutsche Grammophon 477 6458 ****

Americans the Emerson Quartet follow their 2005 set of Mendelssohn with a survey of the three quartets by Brahms. The playing is as technically top-notch as fans of the group have come to expect, and the touch is often unexpectedly light: rich but not heavy. The expressive weight of the music asserts itself without undue forcing, and internal clarity is given a higher priority than is usual in these particular works. The Piano Quintet with Leon Fleisher (playing with two hands after his long confinement to one through injury) is also a lot less stressed-sounding and more conversational than usual, and none the worse for it. The artifice of the recorded balance includes some strange overhangs of reverberation. www.deutschegrammophon.com MICHAEL DERVAN

VEER - IAN WILSON STRING QUARTETS Callino Quartet Riverrun RVRCD 77 ****

Ian Wilson is the Irish composer who seems most ready to engage with the string quartet. This new disc includes his Fourth (Veer), Fifth ( . . . wander, darkling), and Sixth (In fretta, in vento), as well as the later Lyric Suite of "Seven Elegiac Pieces". The most impressive work here, and the one with the longest unbroken span, is the 18-minute Fifth, a piece that is often sonically pinched and emotionally anguished - it was written during one of the most difficult times in the composer's life. The lashing first movement of the Edvard Munch-inspired Fourth is like its expressive inversion. The Sixth and the elegies are more diffuse and seem by comparison rather less effective, even in the Callino Quartet's excellent performances. www.rvrcd.co.uk MICHAEL DERVAN

HANDEL: IL TRIONFO DEL TEMPO E DEL DISINGANNO Natalie Dessay, Ann Hallenberg, Sonia Prina, Pavol Preslik, Le Concert d'Astrée/Emmanuelle Haïm Virgin Classics 363 4282 (2 CDs) ****

Handel's first oratorio, The Triumph of Time and Enlightenment, written in Rome in 1707, is a series of allegorical exchanges between Beauty, Pleasure, Time and Enlightenment. The work plunders earlier music by Handel and others (and was itself plundered in turn) and is of a far more dramatic nature than the subject matter might suggest. Haïm and her singers provide a taut and sharply etched account of a score that finds a young composer testing himself to the limit, and winning. Only the tenor Pavol Preslik is at times disappointing. If you liked Cecilia Bartoli's Opera Proibita album, you're part of the target market for this. www.virginclassics.com MICHAEL DERVAN