CD reviews

In each issue of Fine Music the 2MBS-FM review team examine a range of classical CDs.

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Rating
*****	Hugo Wolf Twenty-four Lieder Ian Bostridge (Tenor) Antonio Pappano (Piano) EMI Classics 3 42256 2 This recital of Wolf Lieder caught me rather by surprise. Brought up as I was to regard these lovely and elusive songs as almost the exclusive province of the female voice, the prospect of listening to a tenor essaying them –especially this most sensitive of tenors – was intriguing...
*****	ELGAR Sea Pictures, op 37 and The Music Makers, op 69 Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; Simon Wright, conductor Naxos 8.557710 Dame Clara Butt, a young unknown singer in 1899, premiered Elgar’s Sea Pictures dressed as a mermaid and, according to Elgar, ‘sang very well’. She went on to become a household name and recorded the work in 1927 with Sir Hamilton Harty conducting. This song cycle also became one of the best-known of the vocal works of Elgar, who had achieved recognition the previous year with his so-called Enigma Variations...
*****	Lang Lang – Dragon Songs Deutsche Grammophon 477 6229 Chinese piano sensation Lang Lang, with a busy performing career that spans the globe and an international profile, has not forgotten his cultural roots. In his latest project Lang Lang returns to his Eastern origins with Dragon Songs, playing melodies from China. The major work featured is the popular Yellow River Piano Concerto, which Lang Lang describes as being between Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Second in style...
****	Allegri Miserere Palestrina Missa Papae Marcelli The Tallis Scholars directed by Peter Phillips A new recording of music written for the Sistine Chapel Gimmell CDGIM 041 Listening to this CD represents one of those moments when there is no choice but to abandon the lexicon and simply soar on the celestial sounds created by this exceptional a capella ensemble directed by Peter Phillips...
*****	The Art of Valery Gergiev maestro Decca 475 8064 2 CD set Here is a wonderful 2-CD set from Decca, The Art of Valery Gergiev, showcasing the artistry of arguably the world’s finest living conductor, who visited our shores in late September last year for memorable concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic. As one might expect, the repertoire, with the exception of Berlioz and Verdi, is Russian: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Glinka, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Stravinsky...
****	Hummel: Fantasies Madoka Inui, piano Naxos 8.557836 Dismissing some of Hummel’s work as banal and condemning him to division two in the league ladder of composers has been too easy. These Fantasies, composed between the ages of 27 and 55, are mostly delightful...
*****	Heifetz: It ain’t necessarily so Legendary classic and jazz studio takes DG 477 6269 (2CDs) Mono This 2-CD set gathers together the American Decca sessions recorded between 1944 and 1946. Heifetz was enormously famous at this time and had recently returned from a tour where he had played for Allied troops in Italy and North Africa. Decca were keen to record Heifetz and these sessions remain the only ones for the label, as the violinist went back to RCA after the war...