Latest releases reviewed

RUSSIAN SONGS
Ekaterina Sementchuk (mezzo soprano), Larissa Gergieva (piano)
 Harmonia Mundi HMN 911881
****

Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov dominate this debut Russian song recital disc by Belorussian mezzo soprano Ekaterina Sementchuk in Mundi's Nouveaux Musiciens series. She's one of those singers who sounds as if she has nothing to prove about herself, just matters to communicate about the music. The voice is as generous in tone as the performer is in spirit. It's not actually the amplitude or firmness which impress most, rather the unstrained sense of musical control. Sementchuk is as thorough, for instance, in conveying the fragility of Tchaikovsky's My genius, my angel, my friend as in yielding to the flamenco-like cries of Glazunov's Spanish Song. The selection, which is enhanced by the stylish pianism of Larissa Gergieva, also includes rarely-heard songs by Taneyev, Glière and Gretchaninov. Full texts and translations are provided.

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WOMEN AT THE PIANO 1
An Anthology of Historic Performances, 1926-1952
Naxos Historical 8.111120
****

The 22 pianists represented in this anthology range from the well-known (Marguerite Long, dedicatee of Ravel's G major Piano Concerto) and Myra Hess (one of the greatest English pianists of her time), to the long-forgotten (Marie Novello), and even manages to include two players (Moura Lympany and Ruth Slenczynska) who appeared in Ireland as recently as the late 1980s and early 1990s. Each pianist is represented by a single piece, and the choice of repertoire, reaching out to forgotten bon-bons and virtuoso showpieces, is as wide-ranging as the choice of artists. If you've ever doubted the quality of women's achievements at the keyboard, this disc will soon straighten you out on that front.

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MOZART: PIANO SONATAS AND FANTASIAS
Lars Vogt
EMI Classics 336 0802 (2 CDs)
***

Having sat through rather too many over-simplified Mozart performances at the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition, Lars Vogt's new pair of discs comes as a relief for the wealth of ideas they contain. Yet at the same time that very wealth throws up its own problems. Vogt's intention is to combine the insights of historical performance with the tonal resources of a modern Steinway. The outcome is a pianistic style of remarkable variety and finesse, but one which draws attention to itself at the expense of the music at almost every twist and turn. Predictably, the three sonatas (K330-3) of the first disc prove more problematic than the two fantasias among the selection of shorter pieces on the second disc. This is one of those issues that's as likely to infuriate as to fascinate. www.emiclassics.com

DVORAK: SYMPHONIES 7-9; CARNIVAL OVERTURE; SCHERZO CAPRICCIOSO
Philharmonia, London Philharmonic/Carlo Maria Giulini
EMI Classics Gemini 350 8592 (2 CDs)
****

Carlo Maria Giulini, the greatest Italian conductor since Toscanini, who died last June a month after his 91st birthday, recorded the bulk of this Dvorak compilation with the Philharmonia Orchestra at its peak in the early 1960s - only the Seventh Symphony was taped later, with the London Philharmonic in the mid-1970s. His approach is notable for its refined lyricism and typically thorough capture of detail - rustic exuberance and the visceral thrills of raw orchestral sonority are well down his list of priorities. The sound quality in the Seventh Symphony, recorded during the short-lived burst of interest in four-track surround sound during the 1970s, is more muted in character than the earlier recordings. www.emiclassics.com