The latest releases reviewed
MOZART: SERENADE IN B FLAT K361; BERG: CHAMBER CONCERTO Mitsuko Uchida (piano), Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Ensemble Intercontemporain/Pierre Boulez Decca 478 0316 ****
This is a doubly unusual coupling. Despite having their use of wind instruments in common, these two works are not regularly paired on disc. And Pierre Boulez conducting the music of Mozart is a real novelty. The pairing works well. Boulez is, as you would expect, a lucid guide through the complications of the Berg, a work of 20th-century romantic calculation in which Uchida and Tetzlaff are suitably fired-up soloists. The Mozart is altogether more laid back, but Boulez has a real gráfor the unique coloration and textures of this most remarkable of serenades, although the performance is not without some unusual effects, of staccato at one extreme and smoothness of blend at the other. www.deccaclassics.com MICHAEL DERVAN
PERGOLESI: MESSA ROMANA; ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI: MESSA PER IL SANTO NATALA Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini Naïve OP 30461 *****
Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano approach these two little-known 18th-century Italian masses with gusto. They bring an often electric quality to the mass, commissioned from Pergolesi to mark the choice of St Emygdius as one of the patrons of Naples following the earthquake in the city in 1731. A more vocally forceful performance of this often extrovert work would be hard to imagine. Alessandro Scarlatti's Messa per il Santissimo Nataleis a more elaborately wrought and calmer piece, a Christmas Mass written in 1707 when the composer was the maestro di cappella of the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The performance, gentler in its swells and surges, is equally fine. www.naiveclassique.com MICHAEL DERVAN
MOZART: PIANO TRIOS 1 Kungsbacka Piano Trio Naxos 8.750518 ***
The Kungsbacka Piano Trio (named after the town in Sweden where they gave their first concert) take a neat and well-mannered approach to Mozart in the first instalment of their survey of the composer's piano trios. They offer the Trio in G, K496, and two works in B flat, the Divertimento, K254, and the Trio, K502. Their tempos are lively. Their pianist, Simon Crawford-Phillips, is nimble, and the violinist and cellist, Malin Broman and Jesper Svedberg, are prepared to defer to him, as is right and proper in pieces where the piano has such a dominant role. But, well, something doesn't quite work. It's as if they can't get under the surface. And though, moment by moment, everything seems to go as it should, the outcome is rather too genteel. www.naxosdirect.ie MICHAEL DERVAN
COMPLETE EMI RECORDINGS Mstislav Rostropovich (cello) EMI Classics 217 5972 (26 CDs, 2 DVDs) *****
This set is a real winner. Not only does it feature Rostropovich's studio recordings for EMI but also the entire contents of the "Russian Years" set of "my most important Russian recordings" issued for the cellist's 70th birthday. Nowhere else is Rostropovich's sterling advocacy of new music so thoroughly represented. Actual first performances caught by microphone run to Prokofiev's Cello Sonata (with Sviatoslav Richter in 1950), Shostakovich's Second Cello Concerto and Britten's Cello Symphony, as well as numerous works by lesser luminaries. This utterly unmissable set also includes a pair of DVDs of Bach's solo cello suites, and an almost hour-long 2002 audio documentary in which the great cellist talked about his life and work with Jon Tolansky. www.emiclassics.com MICHAEL DERVAN
