The latest releases reviewed.
SCHMELZER: SONATAE A VIOLINO SOLO, Hélène Schmitt (violin), Jan Krigovsky (cello), Stephan Rath (chitarrone), Jörg-Andreas Bötticher (claviorganum), Alpha 109, *****
The New Grove Dictionary sees Heinrich Schmelzer (ca 1620-1680) as the "leading Austrian composer of instrumental before Biber". Given the quality of Biber's Mystery Sonatas, this is no mean compliment. Schmelzer's music shares a rhapsodic, virtuosic character with Biber's, and also the latter's fondness for the effects-driven re-tunings of the violin known as scordatura. French violinist Hélène Schmitt delivers Schmelzer's music with a strong sense of individual rhetoric, and the recording, a co-production with the German broadcaster, Deutschlandfunk, is immediate and sensual. The disc also includes short pieces by Schmelzer's contemporaries, Wolfgang Ebner and Giovanni Pittoni. uk.hmboutique.com
MICHAEL DERVAN
Ruth Ziesak (soprano), Marianna Pizzolato (mezzo soprano), Herbert Lippert (tenor), Ildar Abdrazakov (bass), Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/ Riccardo Muti
EMI Classics 394 3162
Riccardo Muti espouses the music of Luigi Cherubini with a fervour that makes one wonder why his masses are not heard more often. He manages to present the composer in the most favourable light, with a well-grounded gravitas and a convincing grandeur. His delivery holds together well on both micro and macro scales, and he makes it easy to understand why no less a figure than Beethoven himself was an admirer. The two short fill ups
to the 1818 Missa Solemnis in E intriguingly seem to marry Palestrina style with 19th-century sensibility.
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MICHAEL DERVAN
GOLIJOV: OCEANA; TENEBRAE; THREE SONGS, Luciana Souza (vocals), Dawn Upshaw (soprano), Gwinnett Young Singers, Atlanta SO & Chorus/Robert Spano, Kronos String Quartet, Deutsche Grammophon 477 6426, ***
Osvaldo Golijov's music has an ear-tickling finish and, in the three works here, he is excellently served by performers and recording engineers alike. The open-throated Latin-American effervescence of the guitar and percussion-rich Oceana, the mesmerising, cushioned tone of the Kronos Quartet in Tenebrae, and the orchestral wizardry behind the beautiful voice of Dawn Upshaw in Three Songswill surely win Golijov many new friends. The pieces are a melting-pot of influences ("inner voices", the composer says), though none is free of effects, often crafted with the utmost in instrumental refinement, which seem to trespass over the line into kitsch.
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MICHAEL DERVAN
