Brief notes

Our selection this month sees moments of solace, revelatory sax and some Satie

Lera Auerbach 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano etc Avita Duo Hänssler Classic HC21059 The Avita Duo really dig into Auerbach’s music, drawing out the myriad moods of these two cycles. Written in 1999, the colourful 24 Preludes and Fugues have a postprokofiev, post-shostakovich flavour. The Fragments of 2001 are spiky, brooding, and furious. (RF) ★★★★★

Bacewicz • Tansman Piano Quintets Julia Kociuban (piano); Messages Quartet DUX DUX1792 This is the second excellent recording of Bacewicz’s Piano Quintets to emerge in the past few years. The 1952 Quintet No. 1 is full of flair, while the 1965 Quintet No. 2 finds the Polish composer pushing far into dissonant territory. Vivid playing. (RF) ★★★★

Barisons Three Preludes; Symphony No. 2 Liepāja Symphony Orchestra SKANI LMIC132 There’s a lot to enjoy here, as the Latvian composer Pēteris Barisons (1904-47) ranges in style from a Mendelssohn-like lightness in the Three Preludes to the rich, redblooded Romanticism of the Second Symphony, which also features a splendidly ominous march in the last movement. ( JP) ★★★★

Castrucci 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 1 Gerald Elias (violin), Pamela Palmerjones (harpsichord), Noriko Kishi (cello) Centaur CRC 3932 3933 Castrucci was a student of Corelli, though his works nonetheless exhibit their own brand of drama. Elias makes an elegant advocate for the composer and has followed faithfully his markings for ornaments, bowings and articulations in the original 1718 Amsterdam edition. (CS) ★★★

Enescu Piano Quartet No. 1 etc Josu De Solaun (piano) et al Naxos 8.573616

Exquisitely crafted performances by a team of wellmatched players are captured in a luminous acoustic on this recording of chamber works. Undiscovered until 1965, the Piano Trio offers the chance for all the players to shine, while the Piano Quartet’s central Andante mesto is heartbreakingly beautiful. (CS) ★★★★★

Haydn Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross Kammerchor Stuttgart et al Carus 83.520 This recording of the choral version of Haydn’s Passiontide work – completed a while after the orchestral original – sees conductor Frieder Bernius take a restrained approach, with the emphasis for the most part less on drama and more on beauty of sound and precision of performance. ( JP) ★★★★

Mozart Bassoon Concerto etc Peter Whelan (bassoon) et al Linn Records CKD680 This genial and amiable disc is a joy to listen to. Peter Whelan does Mozart’s two surviving works for bassoon (the sonata and concerto) proud, ably partnered by Kristian Bezuidenhout and the Ensemble Marsyas, who also play the Serenade in C minor. (RF) ★★★★

Augusta Read Thomas Bell Illuminations Various Artists Nimbus NI 6427 There’s something wonderfully wild and restless about this collection of works. The opening piece is written for a carillon of 72 bells and bathes the listener in an aural haze of beauty and just a little delirium. Works for bells, strings and voices make for a disparate but impactful whole. (MB) ★★★

Satie Piano Works (Vol. 5) Noriko Okawa (piano) BIS BIS-2345 This is the fifth volume in Ogawa’s impressive survey of the French eccentric, but the least satisfying to date as a whole. That’s down to the music’s elusive nature, mostly drawn from Satie’s early mystical period. Best dipped into. (RF) ★★★

Fernando Velázquez Viento Johannes Moser (cello); Basque National Orchestra Pentatone PTC 5186 977 It’s great to see the Spanish composer spread his wings beyond the cinema screen. Here he brings his innate sense of drama to a cello concerto, cantata and symphonic poem. Cellist Moser is a crucial ally, but Velázquez holds his own in what is a riveting collection of works. (MB) ★★★★

20th-century Music for Unaccompanied Cello Works by Bloch, Cassadó, Britten et al Benjamin Whitcomb (cello) MSR Classics MS1798 Cellist Benjamin Whitcomb’s latest album has a pedestrian air about it – each note is carefully placed, but without that necessary spark of excitement. There’s the feeling that these admittedly difficult compositions are testing Whitcomb’s technical capabilities ever so slightly. (CS) ★★

Are You Still Somewhere? Works by Lavinia Meijer, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Zbigniew Preisner et al Lavinia Meijer (harp) et al Sony 19439946062 The album’s title implies loss and loneliness and, yes, much of it does have a feel of sitting in an empty room staring bleakly into space. Aside from brief moments from the likes of Preisner and Sakamoto, most of the material is by Lavinia Meijer herself, who is joined at the end by Iggy Pop. (JP) ★★★

A Celebration of Life in Death Works by Cavalli, Tunder et al Anna Prohaska (soprano) et al Alpha Classics ALPHA745 A Dies Irae is an apt place for Prohaska to begin her musically wide-ranging exploration of ‘life in death’, and the gloom is leavened by lightness elsewhere. There are early musical delights, but the ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Hallelujah’ covers are marmite tracks. (RF) ★V★

English Music for Viola and Piano Works by Dunhill, Edmunds et al Sarah-jane Bradley (viola), John Lenehan (piano) Dutton Epoch CDLX 7390 The pieces featured here were composed 1939-57 and mostly dedicated to the generation of British viola players who came after the better-known Tertis, Primrose et al. The quality of the works is surprisingly good, considering how swiftly they were forgotten, and the partnership of Bradley and Lenehan is classy indeed. (CS) ★★★★

Esther Abrami Works by Tchaikovsky, Alexis Ffrench et al Esther Abrami (violin) et al Sony Classical 19439933802 Abrami’s self-titled debut album is a pleasing patchwork of pieces, from familiar items in new arrangements to works by highprofile newcomers. Radio airplay is surely guaranteed for this playlist, the gloss of which is almost blinding. Some lovely moments. (MB) ★★★

Paris 1900 – The Art of the Oboe Works by Saint-saëns et al Alexandre Gattet (oboe), Laurent Wagschal (piano) Indesens INDE155 Gattet and Wagschal take us by the hand through a selection of turn-of-the-century French works. Theirs is a comforting presence, and while the programme is somewhat transportive in its meditative, pastel shades, you can have too much of a good thing. (MB) ★★★

Renewal? Choral works by Paul Smith, Walton, Cage et al Voces8, Apollo5 Voces8 Records VCM 135 Consisting of familiar Walton and Harris plus new pieces by Donna Mckevitt and Voces8 co-founder Paul Smith, this superbly devised programme leads us through a world of reflection and melancholy, though ends with a glimmer of light. A disc for the present time, immaculately sung. ( JP) ★★★★★

The Saxophone Craze Works by Wiedoeft, Gershwin et al Jonathan Radford (saxophone), Ashley Fripp (piano) Champs Hill CHRCD166 I’m not sure I’ve ever appreciated how lovely the saxophone can sound until hearing this. Radford shines a light on an early champion of the instrument, Rudy Wiedoeft, in this colourful selection of arrangements. Warmth, character and joy abound. (MB) ★★★★★

Solus et una Works by JS Bach & Brahms Amit Peled (cello) CTM Classics CTM005 The title for this solo album translates as ‘alone and together’, a nod to the great number of cellists who turned to Bach as a means of solace during the pandemic. Perhaps a lighter touch might be preferable in places, but Peled consistently achieves a pleasing depth of tone. The Brahms Andante cello choir arrangement is as warm and rich as a heated blanket. (CS) ★★★★

This Sceptered Isle Works by Wood, Holst, Vaughan Williams and Elgar Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Recursive Classics RC5946217 Admittedly, much of the playing here tends towards the rough and ready – the tuning in moments of the Enigma Variations, in particular, has a mind of its own – but the rarely recorded Mannin Veen by Haydn Wood is nonetheless a very welcome discovery. (JP) ★★ Reviewers: Michael Beek (MB), Rebecca Franks (RF), Jeremy Pound ( JP), Charlotte Smith (CS)