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ALWYN: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2. Derby Day Overture. Sonata all Toccata. Peter Donohoe (piano), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, James Judd (conductor). Naxos 8.557590. (59' 33").

If it was Rachmaninov's fifth piano concerto, pianists and concert promoters around the world would be falling over themselves to perform it. Yes, William Alwyn's Second Piano Concerto is that good, the opening movement bristling with excitement and a solo part capable of keeping keyboard virtuosos happy. The linked second movement contains a duet between piano and solo strings that comes from the world of Tchaikovsky, the finale's sheer volatility and rhythmic energy almost overflowing with overt piano brilliance. It came at a time when England was looking towards Vaughan Williams to follow in the lineage of Elgar, while titillated with the brazen quality of the young upstart, William Walton. Alwyn did not fit into this scenario, his personal style of composition being wedded to melody and the tonality of the previous century. Born in 1905, the requirement to earn a living on the death of his father terminating his musical education when 18, but so gifted that he returned to London's Royal Academy as a composition tutor three years later. In 1939 he dismissed almost all of his works before that time, and set out on a highly critical phase of his life. Equally active in films, the 60 scores in that genre brought financial stability allowing him to devote the latter part of his life to serious composition. The Second Concerto came in that second phase, the First, dating from 1930, being a charming pastoral score whose attribute is the lyrical writing. Indeed that would be worthy of the utmost admiration, though it falls short of the inventive musical qualities of the later work. A vivacious 'pop' classic overture, Derby Day, and the spiky 1942 Piano Sonata complete the release. Peter Donohoe's stunning playing returns us to that night many years ago when he took Moscow by storm in the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, the sheer dexterity and detail of his playing being quite remarkable, while the impact of the Bournemouth Symphony is superb. The recording quality is outstanding, the disc as a whole leaving me searching for adequate superlatives to commend it to you.

BAX: Tintagel. The Garden of Fand. The Happy Forest. The Tale the Pine Trees Knew. November Woods. Royal Scottish National Orchestra, David Lloyd-Jones (conductor). Naxos 8.557599. (74' 08").

No composer in the 20th century created sound pictures with such luminous colours. If you doubt that statement, go out and buy this disc where David Lloyd-Jones inspires the Scottish orchestra to create some of the great performances they have placed on disc. The best known is the rugged seascape of Tintagel on the Atlantic coast of England, a part of the world steeped in history. Debussy and Dukas do lurk in the background, but Bax worked with a much wider tonal range, the big dramatic moments painted in blazing colours. The Garden of Fand was equally popular at one time, the exotic exaltation as the music moves into a fantastic dance, that sense of elation continuing into The Happy Forest. Conflict stalks the highly charged and volatile Tale the Pine Trees Knew, a mood that we find in the Sibelius inspired November Woods. I am not about to dispense with Barbirolli's atmospheric recordings of Tintagel or The Garden of Fand, they were special and different in approach, Lloyd-Jones' readings more sharply etched and stand apart from other modern performances on disc. The RSNO brass brings tremendous strength, the weight of strings matching them blow by blow. The disc is compiled from the couplings to Naxos's Bax symphony series, the recordings up-front and high on impact without sacrificing those magical moments.

BECK: Six Sinfonias, Op.1. New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, Donald Armstrong (conductor). Naxos 8.554071. (58' 58").

It would be no exaggeration to claim that the sinfonias of Franz Beck were the role model upon which the era of Haydn and Mozart was fashioned, yet we know so little of the German-born composer. His life began in Mannheim in 1734, and he was certainly a pupil of Johann Stamitz, and thereafter his name pops up in many places across Europe as a violinist and composer. Certainly he spent much time in France before his death in Bordeaux in 1809, his symphonic music published in Paris in the 1750's and 60's, the Six Sinfonias dating, apparently, from 1758. Naxos awakened my interest in Beck some years ago with a super release of a group of sinfonias played by the Northern Chamber Orchestra. This new disc gives a very differing view of the composer, the NCO's playing having been full of affection and often tinged with good humour, while the New Zealand orchestra is razor-sharp with tempos always pushing the music along with urgency, dynamics taken to extremes. Turn to track 4, the opening of the second sinfonia to sample their style of playing, and if I miss the warmth of the NCO in such moments as the following Andante, this presentation may well come closer to the style Beck would have known. Thankfully both discs avoid that clipped style now much in vogue. In content these six sinfonias are very similar, so maybe it is a disc to play in parts rather than as a whole, but do try to get hold of the earlier disc, 8.553790, it is a little gem, and then hear this one.

BRITTEN: Folk Song Arrangements. King Herod and the Cock. The Twelve Apostles. Philip Langridge (tenor), Thomas Allen (baritone), BBC Singers, Wenhaston Boys' Choir, Northern Sinfonia, Steuart Bedford, Simon Joly (conductors). Naxos 8.557222. (66' 11").

When reviewing the two discs that contained the first five volumes in Benjamin Britten's Folk Song Arrangements issued last March, I regretted Naxos had not included the 'Eight Folk Songs' included in the original release on the ill-fated Collins label. Thankfully they are now restored in this third and final volume, and though I cannot quite understand the logic of issuing it separately, we must be thankful for small mercies. Though I had reviewed the original Collins discs, I had overlooked the fact that it also included the songs in all of the different accompaniments that Britten made so as to make the series fully comprehensive. So excuse my not listing everything in the heading, as it becomes complex. Suffice it to say that you will want this disc to complement the earlier ones (8.557220-21). Then you will have everything, including together with the two shown in the heading not included in the published group. Britten's added orchestral participation makes The Bonny Earl O'Moray a particularly potent song and equally points the humour in The Plough Boy. The list of performers in itself is almost a guarantee of outstanding performances, and so it proves to be, Langridge suitably lightweight, with Allen the more rounded voice. Soloists are well forward so that we do not miss a word. I repeat my words from the review of the first two volumes - this is obligatory to a Britten collection.

GIULIANI: Sonata Eroica, Op. 150. Variations on 'Nume perdonami, se in tale istante' from Generali's 'I Baccanali di Roma', Op. 102. Three Potpourris Op. 26, 28 & 31. Fughetta, Op. 113. Six Variations on 'I bin a Kohlbauern Bub', Op.49. Marco Tamayo (guitar). Naxos 8.555850. (75' 34").

Some of Naxos's series are becoming so elongated you tend to forget they exist. It was May 2002 when they launched the cycle of Giuliani's guitar works, and only now, three years later do we have the second volume. Well there is a saying that everything good is worth waiting for, and on that basis I give a big welcome to this excellently performed release. Mauro Giuliani moved from his native Italy in 1806 to settle in Vienna, and it was there that he established himself as a leading performer and teacher of the classical guitar. At times a little short of melodic inspiration, he was more than happy to exploit the fashionable Fantasies, Variations and Potpourris on well-known themes, particularly those from popular operas. That part of his output was the focus of the first volume and continues here, making for highly pleasing listening. The three Potpourris, including a few Mozart and Rossini melodies that you will recognise, are a shameless display of pyrotechnics that would tax the most incredibly gifted player. Marco Tamayo deals with these challenges as if they don’t exist, his left hand flying noiselessly around the strings, while his right hand produces wonderfully delineated feats of dexterity. Try track 3 - the second Potpourri - to sample his brilliance, Tamayo breathing vivid life into each track. Recorded in Naxos's traditional guitar acoustic that is dry when compared with other companies, the disc is a 'must have' for guitar enthusiasts, and highly desirable for those less inclined.

KIM: Violin Concerto. Dialogues. Cornet. Cecylia Arzewski (violin), William Wolfram (piano), Robert Kim (narrator), RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Scott Yoo (conductor). Naxos 8.559226. (57' 16").

Born in California in 1920, Earl Kim was educated by those dedicated to serialism, then turned it to his own use in the mixture of tonality and atonality many American composers developed in the mid-20th century. His works show a composer fastidious in his choice of colours, but one that must have often been ruled by the heart. The Violin Concerto was commissioned by Itzhak Perlman in 1979 and subsequently recorded by him on a short-lived EMI release. Those explosive passages in the score's second part must have pleased his virtuoso instincts, though I wonder what he made of the essentially quiet opening, the orchestral accompaniment often shimmering in a Takemitsu mode. The listener needs to make little effort to come to terms with the musical language, Cecylia Arzewski, capturing its many changing moods with a wide ranging tonal quality and a keen appreciation of the dynamics. The conducting of Scott Yoo, who has already recorded Kim on the New World label, provides admirable support and he is obviously dedicated to the composer. I was less taken by Dialogues for piano and orchestra, but most impressed by Cornet, a series of poems of love and war by Rainer Maria Rilke. Kim pictures the text in those sensual terms that remind me so much of William Walton's film music, Kim here working totally in tonality. The playing of the RTE orchestra is very good, capturing those fascinating textures with the surety that little known music requires. Microphones placed just a touch too close to the soloist in the violin concerto, but otherwise admirable engineering.

PEROTIN: Beata viscera. Viderunt omnes. Sederunt principes. LEONIN: Viderunt omnes. ANON: Vitus abit littera. Tonus Peregrinus, Antony Pitts (director). Naxos 8.557340. (70' 02").

The late 12th and early 13th centuries appear to have been resplendent in the works composed for use in Paris's Notre-Dame Cathedral, but to link Perotin's name with this music, is at best contentious. No incontestable written proof that Perotin ever worked at the church exists, and those scores attributed to him are often slight in their confirmation. What is less contentious, from contemporaneous reports, is the belief that he was responsible for developing choral writing, and may well have been the first person to write for four distinct voices. Possibly a pupil of Leonin, he appears to have been responsible for the revision and re-notation of his mentor's great score, Magnus liber organi. But we could continue pontificating on such matters, and I am sure the accompanying booklet - which I have not seen - will not agree with such concerns, so let us skip that and move to the music. For Early Music buffs it is essential, we lesser mortals will simply enjoy its peace and beauty, the lack of melodic impetus casting a spell over you, very much in the style of today's minimalist composers. Opening with a beautifully sung soprano solo, Beata viscera, the reverberation of the venue creates an ethereal quality, though that attribute has its downside, blurring detail when voices intertwine in the four part settings of Perotin's Viderunt omnes (track 24). It is a pity as the most extensive work, Sederunt principes (track 31) is for four voices, a quibble that disappears in music for two voices. Tonus Peregrinus's intonation is in the centre of every note, and the general style is in line with our most recent scholarship on that era. A major undertaking by a remarkably gifted choral group that deserves success.

SEEGER: Suite for Wind Quintet and Piano. Violin Sonata. Ricercari. Chinaman, Laundryman. Nine Preludes - Nos. 1 & 9. Etude in Mixed Accents. Diaphonic Suite Nos. 1 & 2. Three Songs. Continuum. Naxos 8.559197. (56' 28").

Ruth Crawford Seeger was born in 1901, the pupil and second wife of Charles Seeger, one of the founding fathers in the field of musical education in the States, and a leading figure in the move towards the use of ethnic cultures in classical music. She too followed those lines, but was more active in the field of composition under her maiden name, Ruth Crawford, her style following the trends of the time. She gathered together and arranged many books of American folk songs, her own compositions being largely in the field of chamber music and song. She died at the rather early age of 52, most of her best-known works dating from the 1930's. Her output was largely atonal, but she adapted this to form melody. It is no use pretending the result is music that asks you to love it, but displays an adventurous mind that was not worried about ruffling a few traditionalist feathers. The disc opens with the Suite for Wind Quintet and Piano, one of her most approachable scores, the juxtaposition between the lyric sounds of woodwind and the percussive keyboard well exploited. Then jump to the technically explosive piano score, Study in Mixed Accents, and with these two you will have entered Seeger's world in a relatively untroubled fashion. The three movements of the Violin Sonata, where the piano is often the major protagonist, are challenging for both listener and performers, and throughout the release we have dedicated performances from Continuum with reliable sound.

SCHUMANN: Theme and Variations on the name 'Abegg', Op. 1. Eight Novelletten, Op.21. Fantasiestucke, Op. 111. Kotara Fukuma (piano). Naxos 8.557688. (63' 20").

Forming part of Naxos's Laureate Series we have the 23-year-old Japanese winner of the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2003, Kotara Fukuma. Presently a student in Paris, he already has a number of awards, his fledgling career built through much of Europe before his Cleveland success took him to play in many parts of the States. He has chosen a programme of Schumann that takes him head-on with recordings made by some of the great pianists of our time. Establishing his technical credentials in the variations on the name Abegg, his fingers rippling though the fast variations with an evenness and lucidity that comes from hours of hard work. Indeed when you listen to hundreds of today's young pianists they display a technique that only belonged to great virtuosos only a few decades ago. Fukuma's approach to Schumann avoids the 'phrasing' that has become accepted as good style, and concentrates on the printed page, dynamics never shaded with unspecified subtleties, and that commitment to a factual realisation continues through a forceful realisation of the Novelletten. Though he excludes the fanciful and dreamy quality we often find in Schumann, he can be tender, as you will find in the second of the group (track 3). General I enjoy his approach to the shorter ones, the fourth being particularly attractive. Maybe the tight rhythmic reading of the fifth is rather severe, the Eighth more responsive to that approach. I would now like to hear him in 20th century music where his style of playing would reap rewards. The recording is bright and beautifully delineated.

GURIDI: Danzas viejas. Cantos populares. Ocho apuntes pa piano. Vasconia carrillon. Leyenda. En el chacoli. Victoria Aja (piano). Naxos 8.557633. (60' 02").

Naxos has recently been introducing us to the delights of the Spanish-born Jesus Guridi, a pupil of d'Indy in Paris, who returned home to enjoy a major performing and composing career. He had developed in France a taste for exotic orchestral colours that were to be his hallmark, though from the evidence of this disc he was far more conservative when writing for piano. Mainly cameos, they abound in pleasant melodies, some are quite light-hearted and almost devoid of outgoing virtuosity. As I commented in earlier reviews, Guridi was not the most profound composer of his era, but his piano scores are full of uncomplicated delights, some of the tracks lasting for less than a minute. Victoria Aja never seeks to inflate the music, her playing neat and cleanly delineated, and when she is required to get her fingers around a lot of notes in En el chacoli, we find a most technically accomplished pianist. Not the greatest Naxos piano sound we have heard, but likeable. Get to know Guridi's orchestral works first, the release I reviewed in April on 8.557631 being a first acquisition, then move to this disc.

TALMA: The Ambient Air. Lament. 7 Episodes. Variations on 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Conversations. Soundshots. Full Circle. Ambache Chamber Orchestra & Ensemble, Diana Ambache (conductor). Naxos 8.559236. (64' 08").

Though a key figure in the evolution of women composers and musicians in the States during the first half of the 20th century, the large output of the French-American, Louise Talma, is presently represented in the CD catalogue by just two discs. Her place in history will be pigeonholed in the era of neo-classicism that followed in the footsteps of Stravinsky. The present disc mainly covers scores written in the latter part of her life - Talma's death coming in her ninetieth year in 1996 - the writing elegant but belonging to those listeners who have became totally attuned to the neo-classical school of writing. Textures are transparent, the music mainly slow moving and overcast in sadness, but occasionally lit, as in the 7 Episodes, with rays of bright and colourful instrumental lights. The American tenor, Paul Sperry, recreates his commission Variations on 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, the rather quirky music reflecting Wallace Stevens' words. By contrast, the seven Soundshots, taken from a much larger group of graphic pieces are instantly attractive, and should be your entry point into the disc. The one large-scale work comes at the end, Full Circle scored for a modest chamber ensemble, the piece musically ending where it began. Throughout the playing is satisfying with engineering of equal quality.

DRUSCHETZKY: Concerto for 8 timpani. Partita in C for 6 timpani. PHILIDOR: March for timpani. FISCHER: Symphony with obbligato for 8 timpani. MOLTER: Sinfonia No. 99. GRAUPNER: Sinfonia. Alexander Peter (timpani/conductor), Dresden Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. Naxos 8.557610. (79' 30").

From the day timpani were invented they have fascinated composers, their role in military music creating marching rhythms and a rallying call to the troops. As years progressed symphonic composers relied on them to originate dramatic moments, and with the modern ability to instantly change pitch, their importance has continued to grow. Back in the 17th and 18th century a number of concertos were composed, but their inability to change note quickly found soloists playing multiple timpani to remove this deficiency. The present disc offers a selection of such works, Ludwig Fischer's Symphony with 8 timpani - the first known timpani 'concerto - being my favourite. The opening Moderato (track 5) is a particularly effective piece of writing, with a virtuoso cadenza included in the finale. Johann Molter's score uses the drums in a prominent rather than solo role, the mood continuing in the work by Johann Christoph Graupner, the timpani here linked with the virile part for brass. With so many bulky instruments around them physical dexterity is called for, particularly in the two showpiece works by Georg Druschetzky, an 18th century composer and virtuoso timpanist, who dreamed up complex passages to amuse the onlooker. Alexander Peter plays drums typical to those used in the 18th century with considerable expertise, and also directs the Dresden orchestra, though he was so busy it must have been left to look after itself. Engineers have captured a realistic sound, which is more difficult than you may think with solo timpani, the soloist kept well to the fore

RIISAGER: Qarrtsiluni, Op.36. Manerenen, Op. 57. Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Bo Holten (conductor). Dacapo 8.226022. (55' 49").

I suppose this will be my discovery of the year, the music to the ballet, Qarrtsiluni, bringing vivacity, surprising orchestral colours and powerful rhythms to form a totally engaging opening to the disc. From Danish parents, Knudage Riisager was born in Estonia in 1897, his studies geared to a job in the Danish Civil Service where he enjoyed a distinguished career. When he was 24 he had taken 'time out' at the end of his University studies and went to Paris where he met and worked on composition techniques with Roussel and Le Flem. From therein he managed to combine his Civil Service responsibilities with a growing reputation as a composer, striking up a most productive relationship with the ballet at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. He was to write a significant number of scores for the company, Qarrtsiluni, dating from 1942, being a story that was easily paralleled with a nation waiting for liberation from the Nazi occupation. It lasts for little more than eight minutes, and is a short work compared with Manerenen (Moon Reindeer) a ballet first performed in 1957 and which here extends to almost fifty minutes. Riisager has space to work on a much larger musical canvas, exploring a variety of moods in a general mood directly descended from Nielsen and coloured by his French mentors. Always tonal, and concentrating on melody and immediately attractive, the Aarhus Symphony revel in the catchy dance rhythms, the work's undoubted brilliance captured in a very assured performance. The sound quality could not be improved upon. Fervently commended.

VERDI: Otello. Giovanni Martinelli (Otello), Elizabeth Rethberg (Desdemona), Lawrence Tibbett (Iago), Nicholas Massue (Cassio), Thelma Votipka (Emila), Nicola Moscona (Lodovico), George Cehanovsky (Montano), Orchestra and Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Ettore Panizza (conductor). Naxos Historical 8.111018-19 (2CDs). (149' 51").

Giovanni Martinelli was one of the great Otellos, this 1938 'live' recording from the Metropolitan Opera supporting those who would go so far as describing him as the greatest protagonist on disc. The unforced heroic voice becomes wonderfully lyrical in his early scenes with Desdemona, making the death scene even more deeply moving. In the orchestra pit he had Ettore Panizza who drove the music forward with tempos that could whip up excitement at the appropriate points, while the chorus at the opening was in superb form, the orchestra perfectly picturing the windswept scene. The German-born Elizabeth Rethberg came to the Met in 1922 and was one of the leading singers there for twenty years, her Desdemona sounding somewhat matronly by the time this performance took place. The powerful voice of Lawrence Tibbett makes an Iago that you do not toy with, though his portrayal was compromised by a wide vibrato, particularly at the extremities of his voice. Yet bring Martinelli and Tibbett together in the second act and the sparks fly in a way few discs have captured. The recording was made at the time when broadcasts were variable, and sadly over the years those original discs have deteriorated to the point where surface noise at the opening of the third and fourth acts is almost as loud as the music, the Willow Song being badly blighted. There was really little those transfer geniuses at Naxos could do with the quality, but the issue really is a 'must have' for Martinelli fans.

SCHUBERT: Standchen. BIXIO: Desiderio. Dir nur gehort mein Herz. Mamma. Se vuoi goder la vita. BRAHMS: Wiegenlied. DE CURTIS: Maria, tu sei per me la vita. BUZZI-PECCIA: Lolita. CACCINI: Amarilli. MOZART: Don Giovanni, Act 1 - Dalla sua pace. Act 2 - Il mio tesoro. DE CRESCENZO: Notte d’amore. TOSTI: Aprile. DI CHIARA: La spagnola. YRADIER: La paloma. DONAUDY: O del mio amato ben. PIETRI: Maristella - Io conosco un giardino. GIORDANO: Fedora, Act 1 - Amor ti vieta. VERDI: La Traviata, Act 1 - Ah si! da un anno … Un di felice. Act 3 - Oh! mia Violetta … Parigi, o cara. Il Trovatore, Act 3 - Di quella pira. Act 4 - Se m’ami ancor … Ai nostri monti PUCCINI: Manon Lescaut, Act 3 - Che avvien? … No! Pazzo son. Beniamino Gigli (tenor), Cleo Elmo (mezzo), Giuseppe Noto (baritone), Orchestras, Dino Olivieri / Lawrance Collingwood / Luigi Ricci / Umberto Berrettoni (conductors). Naxos Historical 8.110271. (77' 27").

As we have passed through this series chronicling Beniamino Gigli's recording career, you begin to realise how long it took him to learn his trade. He was already in his late forties by the time this group of discs was made between 1938 - 1940, and was now fully in charge of his voice, masking those shortcomings heard earlier in the series, and managing to control the dither in the bottom part of his register. The tone had become honeyed, though he still manages a heroic Di quella pira from Trovatore, background words of approval remaining at the end of the disc. His very Italian approach to Mozart will not be to everyone's taste, and his German in the Brahms song has a schoolboy quality. He now sounds less awkward and selfconcious singing Neopolitan songs, Aprile an absolute gem in this genre, and La spagola is performed with obvious relish. The disc presents the tracks in strict recording order, which makes his singing of the 'pop' song, Mama, even more incongrous after the sublime little area from Fedora. The orchestral sound is more than respectable, Naxos engineers making yet another restoration masterpiece.

BEETHOVEN: Thirty-three Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli in C major, Op. 120. Bagatelles, Op.126. Rondo a capriccio in G major, Op.129, 'Rage over a lost penny'. Artur Schnabel (piano). Naxos Historical 8.110765. (78' 27").

I think this eleventh volume of Beethoven completes the cycle that Artur Schnabel recorded in the 1930's and which was to set a benchmark against which all others would be judged. Maybe at times he indulged in excesses of tempi and dynamics, but he taught following generations that there is much to discover if you delve below the printed page. There are many illuminating moments in the 'Diabelli' Variations, though as a whole I think we have had more interesting recordings in recent times, and without modern ability of editing there are many smudges in his perfotmance. He does take the slower variations at very spacious tempos, bringing an overwhelming sadness to the 20th variation. The final variation I found an anticlimax, as if Schnabel had come to the end of a busy day. There has been wear on the original 78's from which this disc is derived, particularly in the 16th variation, but generally the sound is more than acceptable. The Bagatelles are nicely lyrical and often very tender, Rage over a lost penny sounding too rushed for comfort. An adjunct to the remarkable Sonata series.

BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat, Op. 19. SCHUBERT: Twelve Waltzes, D 145, Nos. 2 & 6. Thirty-six Waltzes, D 365, Nos. 26, 32 & 34. Sixteen German Dances, D783, Nos. 6 & 7. Landler, D.734, No.1. RACHMANINOV: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19. William Kapell (piano), Edmund Kurtz (cello), NBC Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Golschmann (conductor). Naxos Historical 8.110767. (65' 15").

William Kapell was by common consensus the most brilliant home-grown pianist America produced during the first half of the 20th century, his career tragically cut short at the age of 31 when killed in a plane crash returning from his 1953 tour of Australia. Unlike many other outstanding pianists from the States at that time, his education had been entirely in his homeland, his phenomenal technique becoming recognised when he won the Philadelphia Orchestra's Youth Competition when he was 19. In his hands difficulties simply evaporated, the clarity of his nimble fingers in the fast passages of the Beethoven concerto placing him in a class apart from his contemporaries. This ability may have tempted him to use fast tempos, and in some circles it will be seen as rather empty virtuosity, others will view it as a sparkling realisation of a youthful composition. It certainly has a wonderful transparency, Golschmann joining in the feeling of exhilaration, with neat and well-balanced playing from the NBC. The sound quality for 1946 was very good and far better than in the Schubert pieces from 1952. Here I do feel the performances hardly ever get much below the printed page and he equally suffers from a dry and unflattering sound in the Rachmaninov. I am not sure if Kurtz's dithery tone comes from an excess of vibrato or a recording problem, but the whole account lacks the strength we enjoy in most of the modern recorded performances.

CHINESE MUSIC MEETS WESTERN EARS

Each month I will be reviewing two discs from the large catalogue of Chinese music that is available wherever you find Naxos and Marco Polo discs. In the Western world you may have to place an order with your retailer.

SHANDE: The 'Long March' Symphony, Op. 16. Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Yu Long (conductor). Marco Polo 8.223579. (73' 50").

Composed in 1962 to commemorate the 'Long March' undertaken by Chinese Workers' and the Peasants' Red Army as they regrouped in 1934, an action that opened up the prospect of the Chinese Revolution, Ding Shande's epic score reflects the heroism of the march. Born in 1911, his younger years were spent as a concert pianist and teacher, but at the age of 36 he decided to seek education in composition, moving to Paris where he was taught by Honegger and Nadia Boulenger. On his return he combined University posts with composing, and has since generated a major catalogue of works. His music obviously owes a debt to Russian composers, and in the background we hear Khachaturian and Kabalevsky, though strangely his symphony is devoid of any French input. Though espousing Western orchestral composition techniques, there remains as the basic ingredient his Chinese education, folk-line tunes recurring throughout. Structurally it is very flexible, each movement built as a combination of pictures as you would expect in a film score. A detailed scenario is created, the third movement, Storming and Capture of the Luting Bridge, having much in common with The Battle on the Ice from Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. Shande indulges in much use of percussion to hammer out the rhythms, and the fact that he can write in subtle colours also comes in the movement, Crossing Snowy Mountains and Grasslands. Yu Long is the composer's grandson and well versed in the story, the Slovak orchestra responding with obvious enthusiasm, the big dramatic moments given ample impact. Good sound in a recording seemingly made in 1994.

SINGHAI: 'The Yellow River' Piano Concerto. TRAD: Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon. Happy Loso. Red Lilies Crimson & Bright. Three Variations on an Ancient Chinese Melody. TON: Seven Short pieces on Themes of Inner-Mongolian Folk Songs. CHOCHIANG/MINGXIN: Four Dances from 'The Mermaid' Ballet Suite. Yin Chengzong (piano), Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Leaper (conductor). Marco Polo 8.223412. (58' 00").

The Yellow River is the best known Piano Concerto in China, its origins coming from Xin Singhai's patriotic cantata of the same name. Like so much that happened in the period following the Second World War, the concerto was put together by a committee resulting in its many stylistic qualities, most having their roots in Russia. The obvious objective was to arrive at a big and virtuoso piano part - something in the style of Rachmaninov - an aim reached in a rather simplistic way. It has received numerous recordings, this version featuring Yin Chengzong, the Chinese pianist who in 1962 sprang to fame as second prize-winner in Moscow's Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. He is a fine technician and knows how to handle an outgoing concerto with Adrian Leaper and the Czech Orchestra providing very good support. Yet I would recommend the disc for the piano solos that follow. Listen to Happy Loso (track 6), for music of sheer pleasure, and if the Seven Sort Pieces owe a debt to Prokofiev, and The Mermaid could have come from the Russia, they too are most attractive. Throughout this section Chengzong provides nicely shaped performances, the original 1991 recording of commendable quality.