Presto Editor's Choices,
Presto Editor's Choices - March 2018
It’s been a fantastic month for baroque vocal recordings (new albums from Roberta Invernizzi and the Norwegian treble Aksel Rykkvin, plus a recently-resurrected oratorio by Francesco Feo almost made the final cut), but Stéphane Degout’s recital of infernal Rameau and Gluck and Bejun Mehta’s superbly sung collection of Italian and German cantatas stand out as joint firsts-among-equals for me. I’ve also been transfixed by a collection of Brian Ferneyhough’s music on NMC, and discovered new things in Rachmaninov’s two best-known piano concertos thanks to rather unorthodox but invigorating interpretations from Yvgeny Sudbin…
This terrific road to hell is paved with more than mere good intentions: Degout is a born tragedien, stirring up pity and terror in every phrase and singing with the same sonorous authority and immediacy that made his Chorèbe on John Nelsons’s recent Les Troyens such a resounding triumph. Rameau and Gluck both sound startlingly modern in the hands of Pichon and his musicians, shot through with anticipations of Berlioz and even Wagner.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3
Yevgeny Sudbin (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo
Sudbin’s uncompromising, often acerbic take on two Romantic warhorses won’t please everyone (his phrasing borders on the brusque in places), but it throws up some fascinating perspectives. I’ve never been so aware of this music’s kinship with Prokofiev and Shostakovich, and in particular the percussive, almost neo-Classical elements in some of the solo writing: counterpoint is brought to the fore, and I could swear there’s even some ornamentation in places…
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Lindberg brings out the balletic elements in all four of the substantial works on this collection: the simmering menace of the West Side ‘gangs that dance’ (with apologies to Frasier Crane) is overlaid with an urbane grace that’s markedly different from Bernstein’s own rough-and-ready approach, and the final stretches of the Andante from the On the Waterfront suite shimmer like Ravel’s score for Daphnis et Chloé.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Ferneyhough: La Terre est un Homme
ensemble recherche, BBC Symphony Orchestra, EXAUDI, Martyn Brabbins, James Weeks
An uncanny allure permeates all four works here: the shifting, surrealist soundscape of La Terre est un Homme (first performed in 1979 and receiving its first commercial recording here) is as mesmerising as it is unsettling, whilst the dozen singers of EXAUDI acquit themselves magnificently in the forbidding but compelling Missa brevis from 1969, taking the assault-course of extended vocal techniques in their stride to create a tapestry of stark, strange beauty.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Through the Lens of Time
Francisco Fullana (violin), David Fung (piano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Carlos Izcaray
An imaginative recording debut from the young Spanish violinist, who brings infectious energy and freshness to Max Richter’s reworking of The Four Seasons, folksy, whimsical charm to Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style, and austere elegance to Isang Yun’s homage to Bach‘s Musical Offering. Definitely a name to watch - I’d love to hear him in the solo sonatas and partitas.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
The same spirit of after-hours camaraderie which pervades Argerich’s Lugano Festival recordings is part of what make this Prokofiev double-act such a joy, though credit also due to Babayan’s characterful arrangements (with playing this imaginative you barely miss the orchestral colours); the lesser-known works were welcome discoveries for me, particularly the lugubrious evocation of Hamlet’s father and the equally chilling idée fixe from Queen of Spades.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Mehta is in his considerable vocal prime on this beautifully-sung collection of Italian and German cantatas (plus three of Handel’s sacred arias in English); CPE Bach’s dissonant lament ‘Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte’ showcases the formidable ‘blade’ and colour in his middle voice, the coloratura of Vivaldi’s Pianti, sospiri… is scintillating, and Handel’s ‘I will magnify thee’ is sung with a poise and simplicity that border on the sublime. Some of the finest singing I’ve heard on disc this year.
Available Formats: SACD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Massenet: Werther (DVD)
Juan Diego Flórez (Werther), Anna Stéphany (Charlotte); Oper Zürich, Cornelius Meister, Tatiana Gurbaca
I’ve always been a glutton for this opera, but if Massenet’s full-fat melodrama usually turns your stomach then do try this lean, spare production from Zurich: Stéphany and Flórez (both bright and supple of timbre) are ideally matched vocally, and are intensely sympathetic and convincing in roles that often invite histrionic chewing of the scenery (not that there’s a great deal to chew in this case – Klaus Grünberg’s one-room set looks like it came from IKEA, but somehow it all works).
Available Format: DVD Video
Massenet: Werther (Blu-ray)
Juan Diego Flórez (Werther), Anna Stéphany (Charlotte); Oper Zürich, Cornelius Meister, Tatiana Gurbaca
Picture Formats NTSC 16:9, Full HD Sound Formats DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo Region Code 0 Running Time 137:36 Disc Format BD 25
Available Format: Blu-ray
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
