latest uprisings

Beethoven: 9th Symphony (Music & Arts)
****
The last two recordings of Beethoven’s ninth almost cost me the will to live. Both were on period instruments and both perverse to a fault. Many faults. Philippe Herrweghe’s on Pentatone was a plodathon. Emmanuel Krivine’s on Naïve sounded as if the gut was being taken from live cats. Forget I mentioned them.

Korngold: String Quartets 1-3 (Chandos)
****
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born old and burdened with intolerable expectations. His father, a Viennese newspaper critic, middled him with Mozart’s name and groomed him as a child prodigy. His first ballet was commissioned by Gustav Mahler. Between the two wars Korngold had the biggest operatic hit of the age, Die Tote Stadt. Yet, for all his gifts, Korngold never sounded entirely himself. There was always something nostalgic and referential about his music.

The pianist and Dilettante member GéNIA is a rare beast: a genuine and startling talent who's picked up numerous prizes and accolades, and a genuine innovator with an appetite for the new and unconventional. That's led her to some surprising places, from Cargo in East London to the Southbank Centre, and to unexpected collaborators including dance music producers like Trevor Goodchilde and Medasyn. And all the while she's madly busy on other projects, including developing a spanking new website.

A few weeks back, we headed down to the offices of Dilettante member NMC Recordings to talk to the label's founder, Colin Matthews, about their Music Map project.

Beethoven: Complete Piano Concertos (Harmonia Mundi)
****
Where does one start the Beethoven concertos. I go looking for the silence at the start of the G-major, one of the most intense, rapt entries in the whole of western music. The pianist sets the tone, daring conductor and author to come in even softer. It’s an idyllic moment, the idea that we can win argument by quiet reason rather than the usual bluster of human conversation.

Solomon (Audite)
*****
This record can damage your health. The cover shows a man lighting a cigarette with a bullet-case steel lighter. The man’s name is Solomon Cutner. Not long after this picture was taken, he suffered a stroke and lost the use of his right arm. One of the most distinctive pianists of his day, he never played again. He was a persistent smoker. The cover constitutes a severe health warning. The contents demonstrate the cost of the great loss of an unique talent.

Brodsky Quartet: Rhythm and Texture (Orchid Classics)
****
It’s so good to have the Brodskys back on record. In a field full of fine quartets, the Glasgow-based group have always had an edge. Whether it was playing with Sting and Björk before anyone imagined pop musicians might hanker for classical fibre, or whether it was getting in a stylist to shape their stage performance, the Brodskys were way ahead of the game and usually on top of it.

Trio Tzane: Gaitani (Naïve)
*****

In the 21st century melting pot that is Nicolas Sarkozy’s Paris, three young women come together to sing and exchange ancestral traditions. Xanthalou Dakovanou is Greek, with Tashkent connections, a medical doctor and homeopath. Gül Hacer Toruk is Turkish, raised in France with eastward yearnings. Sandrine Monzelun is a French ethnomusicologist, expert in Bulgarian chant.

Chopin: The Mazurka Diary (Berlin Classics)
****
After hearing Maria Joao Pires stun the Royal Albert Hall with Nocturnes in a late night BBC Prom last week, I was prepared to believe that there was no surer route to the heart of Chopin. But great art admits many varieties and some of the current crop of bicentennial recordings are illuminating and creative.

Wagner: Lieder, preludes and overtures (DG)
****
Franz Welser-Möst takes over next month at the Vienna Opera, a new-broom music director at an institution living off its distant past. This live recording with the Cleveland Orchestra is a token of what Vienna can expect: crisp, clean notes and a dynamic balance micromanaged for maximum emotional effect.