From the archives
Steph Power dusts off this month’s set of reissued and archival live recordings
January round-up
In 2013, François-xavier Roth and Les Siècles released the first ever recording of Debussy’s then recently discovered Première Suite d’orchestre alongside the celebrated La mer. Vibrant, immediate and full of character, this remastering polishes an already pristine account of the two works in all their textural diversity. The period instruments leap from the speakers with a wonderful combination of sweep and precision under Roth’s supple command, renewing, ten years on, the excitement of the discovery of the early suite and the light it sheds on – and far beyond – its mature sibling. (Harmonia Mundi HMM905369) ★★★★★
At the height of her operatic powers, Natalie Dessay won accolades for her portrayal of Delibes’ tragic eponymous heroine, Lakmé. The reissue of her 1997 recording with Choeur et Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse under conductor Michel Plasson is a welcome opportunity to hear her afresh in a role she invested with dramatic substance as well as exquisite coloratura.
The foreboding is palpable in her ravishing ‘Bell Song’, while Delphine Haidan and Gregory Kunde prove agile partners in a charming ‘Flower Duet’ and illfated romance respectively. (Erato 9029627909) ★★★★
Film composer Alex Heffes is known for his collaboration with artists across continents. His inaugural solo album Face to Face (2012) comprised improvised duets featuring himself on keyboards alongside six artists recorded in six different locations from Kampala to the Bronx via Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Ten years on, Heffes has remastered the album in sparkling spatial audio with added material including insect and bird sounds. It’s a relaxed, soulful listen, bookended by subtle pianokora duets with Tunde Jegede.
The selection also includes Matthew Barley’s resonant cello alongside Kawesa and Yasmin Levy’s impassioned vocals, Regina Spektor’s intricate soft textures and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s post-minimal atmospherics. (Platoon Music PLAT14823) ★★★★
One of the most influential of performance-practice radicals, Roger Norrington retired from conducting in 2021. His exploratory feeling yet highly enjoyable forays into Nielsen’s Symphonies Nos 2 and 4 offer a sense of what might have been had he set sights more frequently on the great Dane. The sound is a little lightweight – and Norrington doesn’t quite capture the range or intensity of Nielsen’s oppositional tussles. But longtime collaborators the Stuttgart RSO are tautly lithe, and there’s much to admire in the wryly witty
Second, and especially the exciting, monumental Fourth. (SWR Classic SWR19120CD) ★★★
Twenty years separate these extraordinary live recordings of Shostakovich’s Symphonies
Nos 4 and 11, conducted by his close associate Gennady Rozhdestvensky (1931-2018). Inspiring hair-raising performances from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic, raw immediacy is balanced by a structural command in which tiny chamber details and mass force are delivered with equal clarity. The Fourth’s sprawling outer movements are here a marvel of clashing, blackly dancing resolve – while the 11th rises to an overwhelming conclusion in its powerful portrayal of the brutally suppressed 1905 revolution. (ICA Classics ICAC 5169) ★★★★★