Cage: "Sonatas And Interludes" Aleck Karis (prepared piano) (Bridge)
If John Cage had left us only his Sonatas And Interludes for prepared piano, he would still have earned a significant place in the history of music. An invention of 1940, the prepared piano, with bits of rubber, nuts and bolts placed between its strings, becomes a veritable oneman orchestra, the pitches sometimes askew, and the sounds often evoking the percussive world of an Indonesian gamelan. Before he got involved in the chance operations of the 1950s, Cage wrote some of the most individual and appealing music of the mid-century, and the Sonatas and Interludes have never lost their individual, quirky attraction. Aleck Karis's sober reading comes with a bonus CD of Cage reading his lecture, "Composition in Retrospect".
Michael Dervan
Nowowiejski: 9 Organ Symphonies. Rudolf Inning (MDG Gold, three discs). Dupre: Organ Music Vol 2. John Scott (Hyperion)
Anyone fearful of suffering withdrawal symptoms at the end of Dublin's organ recital season will find succour here. The name of Felix Nowowiejski (1877-1946) was new to me. A pupil of Max Bruch, he was known in his native Poland as "the Chopin of the organ", and regarded the nine symphonies of his Op 45 as his musical testament. They're varied in form, though even the shortest carries the appurtenances of a vast canvas, an effect reinforced by the spacious recording of Rudolf Innig on the huge Sauer organ of Bremen Cathedral. The two symphonies of Marcel Dupre sound not exactly terse, but restrained, economical, eventful, by comparison. On the organ of St Paul's Cathedral John Scott conveys their every gesture with rare immediacy.
Michael Dervan
Monteverdi: "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" (Deutsche Grammophon). Monteverdi: "L'Orfeo" (Naxos)
These two sets are situated at opposite ends of the early music spectrum. "Early" is certainly the word for the Poppea. Herbert Von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic's live 1963 mono recording is a curiosity; made just before research into "authentic" performance style began, it now sounds incredibly dated - in fact, it sometimes doesn't sound like Monteverdi at all. On the other hand it does possess a certain lush charm. The Naxos Orfeo is a brand-new set by a group of specialist soloists with the Cappella Musicale di San Petronio di Bologna; all "i"s are dotted and "t"s are crossed with impeccable stylishness, and the recording is open and bright - check out the opening trumpet fanfare - but somehow, it's all a little lacking in emotional impact.
Arminta Wallace
