The latest CD releases reviewed

VIVALDI: CONCERTOS FOR VIOLA D'AMORE
Europa Galante/Fabio Biondi (viola d'amore) Virgin Classics 395 1462 *****

The viola d'amore, a six-stringed viola with a set of freely-resonating sympathetic strings, is a rare bird in the musical world. Vivaldi treated it generously, writing six solo concertos for it, and a further two where it is partnered by other instruments. In these recordings of all eight works, Fabio Biondi gives the impression that the viola d'amore is actually lighter on its toes than the regular viola (try the swirls of the finale of the Concerto in D minor, RV394). Yet he manages the extra agility without sacrificing the darker shadings that can so enrich the tone of that instrument. The most striking effect here is the way it holds its own in the company of wind instruments in the Concerto in F, RV97. www.virginclassics.com

BEETHOVEN: VIOLIN CONCERTO; KREUTZER SONATA
Vadim Repin (violin), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Riccardo Muti, Martha Argerich (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 6596 (2 CDs for the price of 1) ***

Russian violinist Vadim Repin unusually couples his first recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Kreutzer Sonata, a pairing that strays a couple of minutes over the capacity of a single CD and is here offered on two for the price of one. The concerto is in the steady, heavy mould. Riccardo Muti's conducting sets a mood of gravitas, and Repin matches it with a sinewy-toned nobility. The Kreutzer Sonata with Martha Argerich doesn't go quite as well. The straightness of the violin playing is regularly unsettled by the attention-seeking detail of Argerich's always pianistically fascinating contribution. www.deutschegrammophon.com

GLORIA COATES: SYMPHONY NO 15; CANTATA DA REQUIEM; TRANSITIONS
Vienna Radio SO/Michael Boder, Teri Dunn (soprano), Taliske Players, Ars Nova Ensemble Nuremberg/Werner Heider Naxos American Classics 8559371 ***

Music-lovers already familiar with the sometimes unbearable tensions of the sliding masses of Gloria Coates's sound world will be intrigued by the Homage to Mozart subtitle of her Fifteenth Symphony (2004-05), where the central movement clothes Mozart with Coatesian overlay. Transitions of 1984, which was successfully upsized from chamber to symphony orchestra and became the Fourth Symphony in 1990, has embedded Purcell in its opening movement. The second World War-inspired Cantata da Requiem of 1972 is the least persuasive piece in this collection of live recordings - the heartfelt bluntness here seems just too naive. www.naxos.com

PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED LIVE AND RADIO PERFORMANCES, 1968-2001
Alfred Brendel (piano) Philips 475 8322 (2 CDs) ****

Philips here present more of Alfred Brendel's personal selections from performances captured by BBC microphones and held in the corporation's archive. The only pre-digital recording, of Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise, was an unusual venture for Brendel, and his approach occasionally sounds dryishly correct. The other rare inclusions (two Busoni Elegies) fit him like a glove. And who can argue with Brendel that these recordings of Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses and Beethoven's Sonata in A, Op 101, are more faithful to his musical intentions than his studio versions, or that the included 2001 Beethoven Diabelli Variations is now his favourite? As ever, the live recordings convey more accurately Brendel's sound in concert than his studio recordings ever did. www.deccaclassics.com