Norman Stinchcombe reviews the latest classical CD releases

Shostakovich Complete Symphonies: Soloists, London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus / Noseda (LSO Live 10 CDs & SACDs) ★★★★★
This must be the classical music bargain of the year. Ten discs, in both standard and high resolution formats, nearly twelve hours of music in a handsome box which includes a 190-page booklet with notes on all fifteen symphonies plus full texts and translations of those which include songs and choruses. It's currently retailing on Amazon at £35.60 which is less than the cost of three single discs. None of this would matter one iota if the performances were not first class  – they are. This set is a nine year collaboration between Gianandrea Noseda, the LSO's Principal Guest Conductor, but the live recordings show great consistency over that time span. The Italian conductor's deep knowledge of Shostakovich's music began when he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, in 1997. He learned to speak Russian and said that, "many of the older players I came to know in the Mariinsky had met Shostakovich in the 1970s – speaking to them gave me a strong impression of who he was as a person."  It was the mixture of Shostakovich's serious, often gloomy, public demeanour shot through with a wicked sense of humour and eye for caricature that impressed Noseda and it informs these recordings. Symphony No.1 crackles with madcap energy and effervescence with the LSO players revelling in the young composer's musical gambols, listen out for the passage which recalls the student Shostakovich's part-time job providing piano accompaniment for silent films. It's so vivid you can almost see the Keystone-cops style action. Shostakovich's symphonies demand an orchestra that provide weight, in both strings and brass, plus a wind section that can meet his demands of music pitched in their highest and lowest reaches. The no holds barred performance of No.4 in C minor, the symphony which roused the ire of Stalin, demonstrates the LSO's qualities and there's immense power in the two great wartime symphonies No.7 in C major 'Leningrad' - the LSO's brass mighty and resonant - and its bleak successor No.8 in C minor where Noseda's conducting brings out the impression of Shostakovich looking into the abyss. The performance of the latter work demonstrates what one might call Noseda's "objective" approach to the symphonies. His timing here is 65:08 positioned centrally between Kondrashin's relentlessly rushed (and scrappily played) 56:30 and Mark Wigglesworth's dilatory 80 minutes. If you're after extreme subjectivity, Noseda's not your man. There's excellent choral work from the London Philharmonic Choir and LSO Chorus on the rarely heard patriotic symphonies No.2 'To October' and No.3 'The First of May'  and in  Symphony No. 13 in B flat minor “Babi Yar” featuring poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko commemorating the death of 34,000 Jews who were slaughtered by the Nazis in 1941 and the soloist, Ukrainian bass Vitalij Kowaljow, sings with dignity and authority. Kowaljow also features, together with Russian soprano Elena Stikhina, in the final work in the set Symphony No.14, a setting of poems with death and mortality as their theme. Shostakovich uses a tiny chamber ensemble. It's the last work on the final disc and Noseda ensures an intimate and dark-hued meditative performance that's a fitting end to this set. Obviously no single survey of these symphonies can provide the last word in interpretation and there are readings of individual symphonies by Bernstein, Nelsons and, above all, Bernard Haitink, that I wouldn't want to live without. Certainly the recording quality of Haitink's late 1970s - early 1980s Decca recordings have never been bettered; Noseda's live close-miked Barbican recordings cannot match the spacious sound Decca captured in the Concertgebouw and Kingsway Hall. Given deletions - most of Haitink's discs are now unavailable - this Noseda / LSO set would be a commendable first choice for newcomers and, given its bargain price, an excellent supplement for seasoned collectors. The choral and songs symphonies in particular are outstanding.

Brahms: Berlin Philharmonic / Petrenko (Berlin Philharmoniker CD) ★★
There are, to begin with, two problems with this CD. The first is obtaining a copy, I found only one on sale in the UK and it's not stocked by any major retailer. It can be purchased directly from the Berliner Philharmoniker's website. The second is the price. From the label's website it costs £32 (including shipping) the lone UK copy is £27.70 (including postage). A bargain it's not. What about the performances of the two works, Brahms Symphony No.1 and the Tragic Overture ? A major plus is that Petrenko uses the same orchestral layout that Brahms would have expected with the fiddles divided left and right, making the antiphonal string passages explicit and allowing the Berliner's fine wind section to shine through. In the symphony Petrenko is an interventionist, speeding up, slowing down, holding back and seldom letting the music flow. The recording is also bass heavy and inclined to be boomy. The overture is a world apart; the sound is clearer and airier, the playing spirited and uninhibited, making for strong and trenchant reading. But even with smart presentation - a miniature hardback book and interesting essays - the cost rules this disc out when for less than £20 it's possible to buy a box set of Klemperer's 1950s complete Brahms symphonies, plus the violin concerto and the Deutsches Requiem on six remastered CDs.

Bach, 'Well-Tempered Clavier Book II': Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Pentatone 2 CDs) ★★
Cards on the table, I prefer to hear Bach played on the harpsichord and find Trevor Pinnock's performances of both books of Bach's 'Well-Tempered Clavier' (Deutsche Grammophon), a towering masterpiece of solo keyboard composition, hard to beat. His readings are like a conduit from the spirit of Bach's genius to the listener with the maximum of hard interpretative thought and the minimum of intrusive ego and point-making. They are the polar opposite of Aimard's, where one is aware of the French pianist first and the composer lagging in second place. Aimard is a brilliant interpreter of 20th century music - his Messiaen, Ligeti and Ives are most rewarding - but I found little to encourage extended listening here. The clarity and dissection of lines is impressive in a surgical fashion but too often, as in the A major Fugue, the music's flow is disturbed rather like a tour guide who won't let one admire a vista but keeps pointing to minutiae saying, "Now just look at this..." There may be a point in playing the Prelude in C-Sharp Minor so slowly but it's not obvious. The sound too is quirky with the perspective changing from piece to another. For these works on the modern grand Angela Hewitt's 2008 survey (Hyperion), beautifully played, perceptive and unfussy in the one to go for.

Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice: Soloists, Les Arts Florissants / Agnew (Harmonia Mundi 2 CDs) ★★★
Les Arts Florissants will celebrate 50 years of music-making in 2029 and in that time has built a justifiably high reputation in baroque and early classical works. Paul Agnew was a tenor with them and has graduated to conducting the ensemble. Gluck's opera on the Orpheus myth comes in Italian and French versions with the titular role played by a tenor, counter-tenor or mezzo-soprano. Agnew has chosen the 1774 French version with Belgian tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen in the title role. For those with an aversion to counter-tenors, Van Mechelen is a lyric tenor with a sweet-toned voice who has sung in Mozart operas (Tamino and Ferrando) but specializes in historically informed performances. In this version he gets an extra aria at the end of Act 1 which chance to show off his high notes, both elegant and accurate. Portuguese soprano Ana Vieira Leite conveys the drama of Eurydice's plight rather than just singing mellifluously, although she does that too. French soprano Julie Roset is a sprightly presence as Amor. This 1774 version includes a fair amount of extra ballet music, twenty five minutes of it plus a chorus extolling the triumph of love, at the end which adds little in the way of dramatic relevance.

Ireland, Piano Works: Rebeca Omordia (Resonus Classics CD) ★★★★
I first became aware of John Ireland through a teenage enthusiasm for occult fiction including that of Arthur Machen the Welsh author and mystic. Ireland's orchestral tone-poem 'Mai-Dun' ('Great Hill' in Celtic) was inspired by Maiden Castle, an iron age fort in Dorset, which also featured in Machen's novel 'The Hill of Dreams'. I mention this because the idea of the mystical and magical being present just under the surface of the English landscape permeates Ireland's output including some of the works on this beautifully played and recorded disc of his piano music by Rebeca Omordia. The last part of Ireland's triptych 'Decorations' is called 'The Scarlet Ceremonies' - the title taken from Machen's novel 'The White People' - has Omordia creating terrific tension with the pulsating right hand while the left hand sound like a summoning up of strange forces, and she gives us a coruscating double glissando to climax this amazing miniature. The first section 'The Island Spell’ is equally effective, perhaps Ireland had Shakespeare's 'Tempest' in mind, and Omordia's playing weaves a spell of Ravelian impressionism. Omordia is also impressive in Ireland's suite, named after the Roman's name for Guernsey, 'Sarnia: An Island Sequence' with the first movement 'Le Catioroc' shimmering with mystery suggesting the Neolithic dolmen's local reputation as a meeting place for witches. Ireland's three-movement Piano Sonata in E minor is the major work on this disc and Omordia's playing confirms its stature. It's heart, the solemn elegiac slow movement - he started work on it as the carnage of World War 1 was coming to an end - is very moving and Omordia observes Ireland's 'Non troppo lento' direction ensuring that it never drags while the sonata's concluding movement is fiery and joyful. Two Pieces For Piano (1921), Two Pieces For Piano (1925) and 'Columbine' complete this excellent disc recorded in the airy acoustic of Potton Hall.

Leos Janacek, 'The Makropulos Affair'; 'The Diary of One Who Disappeared': Soloists, BBC Singers, Chorus & Orchestra of Sadlers Wells Opera / Mackerras (Somm 2CDs) ★★★★
Somm's extensive survey of off-air recordings from the BBC have unearthed some gems, buffed up to a shine by remastering wizard Lani Spahr, and this is one of their best releases. Sir Charles Mackerras' name will always be linked with the operas of Leos Janacek whose works he fervently proselytized and popularized in opera houses around the world. The studio recordings he made with the Vienna Philharmonic on Decca are the ones by which others are judged. He was a 21-year-old British Council scholar when went to Czechoslovakia to study with the conductor Václav Talich. While learning Czech he encountered Janacek's operas and so began his lifelong exploration of the composer's music. 'The Diary of One Who Disappeared' is a BBC studio recording is from 1956 while 'The Makropulos Affair' is a 1964 live recording of a Sadlers Wells Opera production both are in English which made them more accessible to British audiences and were part of the growing interest in the Czech master's operas. Listening to these clear and bright mono recordings was a delight, I was amazed at how good the performances were without a hint of parochialism. There's top class singing too. Mackerras's countrywoman Australian soprano Marie Collier is a star turn as the death-defying 337-year-old Emilia Marty in  'The Makropulos Affair', and she's backed by a strong supporting cast. The song cycle 'The Diary of One Who Disappeared' is a substantial bonus, sung by the English tenor Richard Lewis and American contralto Maureen Forrester accompanied by pianist Ernest Lush and women's voices from the BBC Singers. Mackerras gets the most from all his players and anyone interested in Janacek's vocal works will find much to enjoy. Somm's high standards slip in the CD of  the Symphony in G minor (1937), Violin Concerto (1938) and Cello Concerto (1945) by English composer E.J. Moeran: BBC Symphony Orchestra / Boult (Somm CD)★★ These are not from the BBC's own transcriptions but derive from private ones made by Moeran's friend Lionel Hill.Despite Spahr's best efforts they are not up to the same standard. Moeran's Symphony is a work of real stature, energetic, bracing and (clearly under the influence of Sibelius) epic in scope. Sir Adrian Boult conducted a masterful performance in 1975 with the New Philharmonia in sparkling analogue stereo for the Lyrita label. That performance makes this live one from 1949, with a below-par BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Albert Hall, totally redundant. The 1946 recording of the Violin concerto sounds better and the soloist is Albert Sammons, whose career was cut tragically short by Parkinson's Disease. His style, less vibrato and more portamento, suits the work's dreamy rhapsodic character inspired by the Irish landscape where Moeran lived. Moeran insisted on Sammons as his preferred soloist, telling him, "You are the only one to play it", and you can hear why. The Cello Concerto is not on the physical CD but included in the set as a digital download, and is sensitively performed by Moeran’s wife Peers Coetmore who inspired the work.

Schubert, Hummel: Donohoe, I Musicanti / Bosch (Somm CD) ★★★★
There are plenty of fine recordings, historic and modern, of Schubert's evergreen 'Trout' Quintet but there's always room for another, especially one played with such vivacity as this. The recording quality is exemplary too with the church acoustic of St George’s Headstone, Harrow, warm and resonant but not too swimmy. Peter Donohoe is a fine  soloist, he's never been one to dawdle or linger, drawing attention to himself, and so Schubert's magical melodies are allowed to flow naturally. The second movement Andante is just that, not the quasi-Adagio some performers make it and the 'Trout' theme trips along merrily. Donhoe's playing blends well with the elegant and lively I Musicanti, the group directed from the double bass by Leon Bosch, with cellist Richard Harwood taking his turn in the fourth movement's variations with aplomb. Hats off to Schubert who composed this immortal work when he was 22 - amazing. The disc is shared with a substantial rarity, the first recording of the  Hummel's Piano Quintet in C, Op.114a, an arrangement by the composer of his Septet No.2, Op.114 “Military”, which was discovered by Leon Bosch. Hummel, Mozart's former star pupil and a renowned piano virtuoso, was no genius like his master but a craftsman, always creating something satisfying for players and listeners alike. The highlights here are a jolly knees-up of a scherzo and a finale which really is Vivace as Donohoe and the string players race to the finishing line for an invigorating close.