The latest CD releases reviewed
HEAVENLY HARMONIES
Stile Antico
Harmonia Mundi HMU 807463
*****
The members of the young British vocal ensemble Stile Antico have taken a high-contrast approach to programming their CD of "heavenly harmonies".
They alternate works by Thomas Tallis (nine short, straightforward, English psalm tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter, the third of which inspired Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia) and William Byrd (a selection of polyphonically elaborate, Latin motets written for recusant Catholic use). The performances, given without a conductor, are splendid - pure, solid, at times astonishingly full for a group that runs to barely more than a dozen voices. This is a spellbinding disc. www.uk.hmboutique.com
RAVEL: DAPHNIS ET CHLOÉ SUITE NO 2;
RAPSODIE ESPAGNOLE; STRAVINSKY: CHANT DU ROSSIGNOL; L'OISEAU DE FEU
SUITE
New York Philharmonic Orchestra/ Lorin
Maazel
DG Concerts 477 7175
****
More than 40 years ago, Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale and Firebird Suite were early successes in the recording career of Lorin Maazel. Maazel was a conducting prodigy in the US (he made his début at eight), and took Europe by storm when he was in his late 20s. These new recordings, taped at concerts in the New York Philharmonic's 2006-7 season, show that the conductor hasn't lost his touch. Maazel has always been
a superb technician, with more than a dash of showmanship, and he delights in the exotic colours and textures of two of Stravinsky's most vivid scores. The works by Ravel are also finely calculated, though by comparison, a little on the cool side. www.deutschegrammophon.com
DONATONI: ALGO IV; POLL; REFRAIN IV; ABOUT;
AL; SMALL II; ALGO
Stefano Cardi (guitar), Freon Ensemble
Stradivarius STR 33773
****
Playful and effervescent are words that constantly come to mind to describe this collection of late compositions by Italian composer Franco Donatoni (1927-2000). The sound of the guitar and other plucked instruments (mandolin, mandola, harpsichord, harp) runs throughout the disc, sometimes in combination, or coupled with characteristically light percussion - celesta, vibraphone, marimba.
What keeps this frequently off-centre music fresh is the unpredictability within its sense of organic proliferation. It's hard to imagine that Donatoni didn't have a twinkle in his eye when he composed, though the string players of the Freon Ensemble convey a less immediate sense of it than the ensemble's other musicians. www.uk.hmboutique.com
STRAVINSKY: PIANO MUSIC
Victor Sangiorgio
Naxos 8.570377
****
Victor Sangiorgio's selection of Stravinsky's piano music, first issued 15 years ago on the now-defunct Collins Classics label, sacrifices the obvious for the obscure. The Three Movements from Petrushka are absent, but in their place we get
the early Sonata in F sharp minor, a substantial work which presents the young Stravinsky as a burgeoning romantic, with Tchaikovsky and Glazunov as models. The other early works are the quirky Scherzo of 1902, and the Scriabinesque Four Études, Op 7. After that it's into more familiar Stravinskian brittleness and artifice - Piano-Rag-Music, Piano Sonata (1924), Serenade in A, Tango, Circus Polka. These are works in which Sangiorgio consistently seeks to downplay the intrinsic dryness. www.naxos.com
