Latest releases reviewed

ADÈS: PIANO QUINTET; SCHUBERT: TROUT QUINTET Thomas Adès (piano), Arditti Quartet, members of the Belcea Quartet, Corin Long (double bass) EMI Classics 557 6652 ****

Thomas Adès's fascinating 2001 Piano Quintet has something of the aura of a dream about it. The present and the past, the familiar and the unfamiliar, merge and peel apart, and the narrative coheres through that logic of the night which is at once inescapable and impenetrable. Think of it as creating a post-Ligetian world in which the machines don't play by the rules any more. Adès is a very fine pianist, and he's partnered with a delicate, often ghostly touch by the Arditti Quartet. He also offers sculpted playing in Schubert's Trout Quintet with members of the Belcea Quartet and double bassist Corin Long. The string playing is strongly characterised, too, though there are moments when the leader's fast vibrato sounds a little bleaty.

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Michael Dervan

BARTÓK: PIANO CONCERTOS Krystian Zimerman, Leif Ove Andsnes, Hélène Grimaud, Chicago Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras/Pierre Boulez Deutsche Grammophon 477 5330 ****

This is real luxury casting: Pierre Boulez, 80 this year, conducting the three piano concertos that Bartók wrote between 1926 and 1945 with three different soloists and three different orchestras. There are interesting surprises in the approaches. Krystian Zimerman finds elements of grace and playfulness in the First Concerto that have remained hidden to - or unwanted by - most performers. Hélène Grimaud probes the Third, the lightest of the three, to find a substance which aligns it more fully with the earlier two. And Leif Ove Andsnes is a tower of strength in the Second, the toughest of nuts from the soloist's point of view. Boulez is his usual observant self, and the recordings, though not consistent in balance, convey a high level of detail.

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Michael Dervan

BOULEZ: LE MARTEAU SANS MAÎTRE; DÉRIVE 1; DÉRIVE 2 Hilary Summers (mezzo soprano), Ensemble Intercontemporain/Pierre Boulez Deutsche Grammophon 20/21 477 5327 ****

On the basis of the highly individual sound world of Le marteau sans maître (1955), Pierre Boulez would never have been branded an enfant terrible. But he had already written the rebarbative Structures I for two pianos and engaged in enough provocative pronouncements to invite the description. Half a century on, Le marteau, particularly its use of flute, guitar, vibraphone and xylorimba, can be freely appreciated for its sensual allure and the concerns of 1950s constructivism left in the background. The two more recent works, Dérive 1 (1984) for six instruments and Dérive 2 (1988-2002) for 11, reaffirm Boulez's position as a hypnotically deft tapestry weaver. With a special gift for effervescence, he's as indulgent of the senses as of the intellect, and he's also, of course, a superb interpreter of his own music.

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Michael Dervan

LES INTROUVABLES DE DAVID OISTRAKH David Oistrakh (violin) EMI Classics 586 8412 (4 CDs) ****

This set from French EMI is culled from the 1950s, with the exception of David Oistrakh's final studio recording, his 1972 version of a work dedicated to him, Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto, with the composer's son, Maxim, conducting the New Philharmonia. The only other Russian work is Taneyev's Suite in A minor, a silk purse in the hands of Oistrakh with the Philharmonia under Nikolai Malko. The recorded balance in five sonatas sometimes presents violin and piano as giant and pygmy, with Franck and Szymanowski faring much better than Mozart or Beethoven (the pianists are Lev Oborin and Vladimir Yampolsky). Yet the set is attractive, with Oistrakh mostly on peak form,. It also includes the Beethoven concerto (with the Stockholm Festival Orchestra under Sixten Ehrling), Lalo's Symphonie espagnole (with the Philharmonia under Jean Martinon), and Mozart's Concerto in G (with Oistrakh himself directing the Philharmonia).

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Michael Dervan

ROSSINI: LE COMTE ORY Soloists: Florez, Bonfadelli, Todorovitch, Miles. Orchestrea del Teatro Communale di Bologna. Conductor: Jesus Lopez- Corbos Deutsche Grammophon 00289 477 50220 ****

Le Comte Ory is one of Rossini's last operas before his early retirement at the age of 37, and remains one of his most sparkling creations, even though it contains material lifted from an earlier work (Il Viaggio a Reims). Its strength lies more in its ensembles rather than individual arias; it requires tight conducting and a well-balanced cast to bring out the sophisticated and sometimes sly wit in the score. Juan Diego Florez, as the Comte Ory, sings the part with fabulous technique and a fine sense of the performing, while Stefania Bonfadelli, as Countess Adele, is well up to the technical demands of the part if somewhat lacking in spontaneity. The conductor drives the action along with a fine sense of fizz; all in all, a most enjoyable set.

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Colman Morrissey