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MUSSORGSKY (arr. Stokowski) : Pictures at an Exhibition. A Night on a Bald Mountain. Khovanshchina - Entra'acte, Act 4. Boris Godunov - Symphonic Synthesis. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Jose Serebrier (conductor). Naxos 8.557645. (76' 45"'). 

Stokowski added primary colours to Ravel's familiar orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, recreating the whole picture rather than indulging in a simple orchestration of the original piano score. That may seem too simplistic a view, but it really is the result. Take for instance the use of cor anglais for the main theme of The Old Castle, and you feel it is far more appropriate than Ravel's saxophone, while the use of woodwind rather than trumpets in Goldenburg and Schmuyle actually adds bite to the conversation of the two Jews. Of course this great master of sound makes a massive final Great Gate of Kiev, though I don't hear the organ part in this performance. A Night on a Bald Mountain featured in Walt Disney's film Fantasia, and I have less clear-cut feelings about this, particularly the references to Wagner, and I much prefer the composer's original version. The Khovanshchina excerpt is gorgeous, and for those who prefer the orchestra to voices will find that the Boris Godunov synthesis is most impressive. Jose Serebrier, who was for many years the assistant to Stokowski at the American Symphony Orchestra, knows these works better than any and he delivers the goods, the Bournemouth orchestra revelling in the virtuosity on offer, the recording engineers adding icing to the cake. It is available in SACD surround-sound (6.110101) and DVD-A (5.110101), at the time of review I have heard neither.

ROSSINI: La Cenerentola. Joyce DiDonato (Angelina), Jose Manuel Zapata (Don Ramiro), Paolo Bordogna (Dandini), Bruno Pratico (Don Magnifico), Patrizia Cigna (Clorinda), Martina Borst (Tisbe), Luca Pisaroni (Alidoro), Prague Chamber Choir, SWR Radio Orchestra, Kaiserslautern, Alberto Zedda (conductor). Naxos 8.660191-92 (2CDs). (154' 38").

Taken from a 'live' performance, this is a highly enjoyable performance of Rossini's gentle comedy on the Cinderella story, the Prince (Don Ramiro) falling in love with Angelina (Cinderella), the badly treated stepsister of Clorinda and Tisbe. The announcement that the Prince will select the most beautiful woman at the ball as his bride sets the two girls into a whirl of joy as one of them is bound to be selected. In true opera fashion, the Prince exchanges clothes with his attendant (Dandini) so as to be unknown, and when visiting Don Magnifico's house falls in love with the downtrodden Angelina. The two girls, who believe the attendant to be the Prince, flirt outrageously with him, while Angelina is happy to have found true love with his attendant. Of course all works out in favour of Angelina, 'Cinderella' forgiving her sisters and father for all the wrongs. The cast sound exactly right for their roles, though with Rossini giving the part of Angelina to a mezzo she invariably sounds 'older' than her sisters, Joyce DiDonato handling the passages of coloratura with consummate ease, her final scene an electrifying display of virtuosity. Bruno Pratico is superb in the role of the cantankerous old Don Magnifico; Jose Manuel Zapata a light lyric tenor of considerable elegance and perfect for Don Ramiro, with the two sisters as shrewish as needed in the hands of Patrizia Cigna and Martina Borst, with Paolo Bordogna a stylish Dandini. But the star of the performance is Alberto Zedda whose conducting drives the piece forward with an urgency that extracts every morsel of humour in the big ensemble moments. The orchestra are suitably light textured, and after a sparkling overture, settle for the part of underpinning the performance. Stage noises are absent, but I do wish applause had been removed, as the time saved on the second disc would just have obviated the annoying need to split the Act 1 finale over two discs. Balance between all involved is well managed, and though the opera has enjoyed some star-studded casts on disc, this one is among the most enjoyable.

STRAVINSKY: Le Sacre du Printemps. The Nightingale. Olga Trífonova (soprano), Robert Tear (tenor), Pippa Longworth (soprano), Paul Whelan (bass-baritone), London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Robert Craft (conductor). Naxos 8.557501. (76' 26").

In terms of sheer impact there is no other recording of The Rite of Spring to match this one. We know from the various recordings conducted by the composer that he continually changed his approach to the score, and none of them actually met his directions in the score. So the fact that Robert Craft worked with him during the last years of his career cannot signify that we are here any closer to the way Stravinsky wished it to be performed. What is evident from the outset is the sheer brutality of Craft's approach, with dynamics taken to extremes and tempos thrust mercilessly forward. The brass and percussion largely dominate, the bass drum hammering remorselessly as the first part leads to its cataclysmic climax. There have been more razor-sharp performances, the rhythms at times a little blurred, but the LSO play as if their lives depended on it. The engineers in these 1995 sessions have somehow captured this onslaught, and if the two sets of timpani in the concluding scene lack separation, it is a small matter in the overall context. The Nightingale started life as one of Stravinsky's early works written very much in the style of Rimsky-Korsakov, but it was shelved and remained uncompleted until 1914 by which time he had composed The Firebird and The Rite of Spring. It was a fantasy opera that became better known in an orchestral suite, The Song of the Nightingale. It is here performed in its original form by a fine cast of singers, while the playing of the Philharmonia is wonderfully detailed. A highly desirable disc I can strongly recommend.

BLISS: Checkmate. Melee Fantasque. Royal Scottish National Orchestra, David Lloyd-Jones (conductor). Naxos 8.557641. (65' 00").

The Naxos cycle of Arthur Bliss's music has become a major part of the golden age of British music recordings, David Lloyd-Jones seemingly born to conduct his music. He now adds to the series a rarity on disc with the complete ballet, Checkmate. Born in London, but of American descent, Bliss's early years were influenced by Stravinsky, but the passage of years saw his music mellow into a more British mainstream character while retaining faithful to tonality. In 1937 he collaborated with the great choreographer, Ninette de Valois, to create a ballet on the subject of a game of chess. Dramatic, intensely colourful and wonderfully orchestrated - with just a touch of Hollywood in the background - Checkmate became a tremendous success on the international scene. A suite took the work into the concert hall, but this concentrated on the ballet's more boisterous moments, though, as this new recording demonstrates, you need to hear the whole work to make sense of the scenario. It is played with tremendous brilliance and exuberance by the Royal Scottish National Symphony, the finesse superseding an earlier version from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Bliss's name had flickered in the public eye as early as 1921 when the London Proms premiered the Melee fantasque, a well-worked composition that has instant appeal. The disc's sound is punchy at the appropriate moments, the quite passages having an atmospheric warmth and beauty. For anglophiles this is an absolute necessity, and those interested in 20th century ballet should immediately investigate. Fabulous. 

BRITTEN: Violin Concerto. Canadian Carnival Overture. BRITTEN/BERKELEY: Mont Juic. Lorraine McAslan (violin), English Chamber Orchestra, Steuart Bedford (conductor). Naxos 8.557198. (58' 16"). 

Having already given us the outstanding version of Britten's Violin Concerto from Rebecca Hirsch, Naxos is here competing with itself. Which one to have? Well that is not easy to answer. Hirsch is the more outgoing and at the same time emphasises the score's difficulties. That can be a virtue, the sense of a virtuoso musician taken to the brink adding an element of excitement to the performance. By comparison problems vanish in McAslan's hands, her interpretation just a little more introverted as is fitting to Britten's homage to those lost in the Spanish Civil War. That difference can be easily sampled by comparing the last few moments of the piece where Hirsch is so passionate and McAslan in resigned sadness. This 'new' release was one of the most highly regarded Britten discs when first released on the ill-fated Collins label in 1990, and maybe your choice will rest on couplings, Hirsch's disc having Tim Hugh's magical account of the Cello Symphony. Here we have some rarely heard music from Britten's younger years, the Canadian Carnival Overture very much in the ilk of William Walton, while his collaboration with Lennox Berkeley resulted in a four-movement suite, Mont Juic, based on Catalan Dances. Its tuneful vivacity almost qualifies as 'British Light Music', and at present this seems to be the only version available on disc. The English Chamber Orchestra's playing throughout is in the superlative class with recording quality to match. So if you have Rebecca Hirsch why not try an alternative, for at this stupidly low price why hesitate. 

RAMEAU: Ballet Suites from Platee, Pigmalion and Dardanus. European Union Baroque Orchestra, Roy Goodman (conductor). Naxos 8.557490. (75' 44"). 

By the first part of the 18th century Jean-Philippe Rameau had secured a place among France's musical elite, his writings on music being treated with veneration, and keyboard works recognised as masterpieces. Yet through his life he had harboured a desire to compose for the stage, at last achieving his ambition in his fiftieth year with the performance of his opera, Hippolyte et Aricie. It led to an appointment at the Royal Court, and it was there that many of his subsequent stage works received their first performance. Fortunately he lived a long life and was then to compose a large catalogue of works in the genre. It was fashionable to include ballets, which, by today's standard, were actually ornate dances set in lavish costume and surroundings. They often punctuated the opera, though in the case of Pigmalion, the opera punctuated the ballet. The stories were usually silly, but Rameau's orchestral writing was the saving grace, the dances contrasting lyric beauty with outgoing brilliance. Here they are served-up with elegance and vivacity by an outstanding period instrument orchestra, the Orage from Platee a piece of pure exhibitionism (track 4). The recorders give the woodwind pungency, while the use of gut strings provides the tart quality we expect. Goodman is a master craftsman in this period of music, his tempos perfectly chosen, and the whole project displaying excellent musicianship. Outstanding sound quality completes an exemplary release.

ZWILICH: Violin Concerto. Rituals for five Percussionists and Orchestra.

Pamela Frank (violin), Nexus, IRIS Chamber Orchestra, Saarbrücken Symphony Orchestra, Michael Stern (conductor). Naxos 8.559268. (52' 02").

I came across the music of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich a few years back when a disc containing her very fine Fourth Symphony was issued on the Koch label. It was played by a student orchestra, but was good enough to disclose a composer who is a musical traditionalist, treading in the footsteps of tonality yet well able to find new and colourful things to say. Born in the United States in 1939, she was to win the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1983, and was the first person to hold the Composer's Chair in New York's Carnegie Hall. Often writing to specific commissions, her works have been premiered by many of the top soloists and orchestras in the States. The Violin Concerto is in three conventional movements, and if you are receptive to Szymanowski's concertos you will surely enjoy this, the slow central movement, which is based around Bach’s Chaconne, being of considerable beauty. It certainly testes the soloist's agility in the outer movements, Pamela Frank playing with brilliance and pinpoint intonation. Zwilich adds a most interesting part for orchestra, often commenting on the solo role. Rituals is more 'modern' in compositional style, the oriental sounds produced by tuned percussion set against a slow moving backdrop, the opening Ritual progressing to a jazz inspired and rhythmically strong finale. Throughout the playing of the percussion group, Nexus, and the accompanying chamber orchestra is of that high quality such little known music requires if it is to establish a world market. Whether Zwilich, one of many other composers who are reaching out to disaffected audiences, or the uncompromising modernists will be remembered, we shall never know. I will readily settle for Zwilich and company.

ROCHBERG: Symphony No.2. Imago Mundi. Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Lyndon-Gee (conductor). Naxos 8.559182. (55' 32").

The work that first brought George Rochberg to international attention released following the sad news of his death four months ago. He was a composer who passed through a multiplicity of styles largely brought about by two traumatic experiences - his front line service in the Second World War, and the later death of his 15-year-old son. Born in New Jersey in 1918, he came to composition late in life with serialism dominating his early scores followed in more recent times with a move to tonality as I discovered in the Fifth symphony previously issued on Naxos. The Second was completed in 1956, and moves between tonality and atonality as the mood pleases him. I cannot pretend it is easy music to listen to, but I hope you bought the outstanding Fifth, and will now try to come to grips with this work. In four movements with a sad, quiet and resigned coda, it has moments where you feel Rochberg's frustration at the world around him. Imago Mundi was completed in 1973 and finds a totally different composer and one you can immediately enjoy. North African influences in the opening section slowly moving to the Russian world of Stravinsky before returning to the haunting mood of the opening. It is a brilliant orchestral showpiece that finds the Saarbrucken orchestra in fine form. I guess the project has been put together by the radio station, the sound quality admirable without going to dynamic extremes.

BEETHOVEN: Piano Trios No. 5 Op. 70 No. 1 ‘Ghost’; No. 6 Op. 70 No. 2: Variations Op. 44. Nina Tichman (piano), Ida Bieler (violin), Maria Kliegel (cello)

Naxos 8.557723. (71' 41").

I have been delighted with the partnership of Kliegel and Tichman in the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas, and as Tichman dives headlong into the opening phrase of the 'Ghost' Trio, it sets the scene for something very different to the vast number of recordings already in the catalogue. In the event these are well prepared mainstream interpretations where the keyboard is the main protagonist, and as Beethoven was a pianist, this is most likely what he would have expected. The wispy and hushed quality of the second movement of the first of opus 70, that gave it the nickname, Ghost, is most imaginatively played in a hushed mood, with some suitably spooky interjections. Throughout the performances are characterised by simplicity of style that I find appealing, the dynamic range in line with music making in the home rather than the concert hall. Tichman's nimble fingers and thrusting tempos create plenty of exhilaration - sample track 7, the finale of the second trio - the conversation between instruments perfectly judged. Never a fan of the Variations, they here chug happily along, Kliegel adding some nice solo passages. This is apparently the first of a complete cycle of Beethoven's piano trios from this source.

THOMSON: Synthetic Waltzes. Four Songs to Poems of Thomas Campion. Violin Sonata. Two by Marianne Moore. Praises and Prayers. Continuum. Naxos 8.559198. (50' 53").

Virgil Thomson was twenty-nine when he moved to live in Paris, the change of location pointing his life in the direction of composition. Born in Kansas City in 1896 he had originally studied and worked as an organist, the granting of a fellowship having already given him a year to study in France. There he met and was strongly influenced by members of the group of composers, Les Six, the quirky score, Synthetic Waltzes, being part of that period. It was a meeting with another American, Gertrude Stein, in Paris and their collaboration in producing the opera, Four Saints in Three Acts, that provided Thomson with the urge to continue composing. In the following seven years he worked on perfecting technique, the four-movement Violin Sonata coming from that period. Another change took place in 1940 when he was appointed music critic of the New York Herald Tribune and over the next 14 years he became established as one of the world's most influential critics. It was a position that reinforced his name in public perception and drew attention to his sizeable output of works. Stylistically he was influenced by many composers to an extent that rather deprived him of a personal voice. Ellen Lang is the mezzo-soprano soloist in the three remaining works, and with excellent diction and intonation, they are reliable performances, though I could imagine stronger characterisation. This reissue dates from recordings made in the late 1980's and is of good quality.

WOLF: Symphonies in E flat major; F major; C major and D major. Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Weimar Nicolas Pasquet (conductor). Naxos 8.557132. (64' 54").

Born in Germany in 1735, the young Ernst Wilhelm Wolf travelled around Europe taking in the various styles of composition before eventually settling in Weimar where he served as organist and court concertmaster, eventually appointed Weimar's Kapellmeister in 1772. Though he had some very attractive offers - one being to succeed C.P.E. Bach at the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia - he decided to serve his local community, his eminence as a leading composer of the time largely residing in the widespread publication of his music. He was a prolific in every genre, including a composer of comic opera, while at the same time making a major contribution to church music. The bulk of his music was in the field of orchestral and instrumental works, with a particularly large collection of keyboard scores. But in the changing world of Classicism that surrounded him, Wolf became disillusioned, his output almost coming to an end long before his death in 1792. The four symphonies show a fine craftsman of the period, and though lacking the melodic inspiration that lodges in the memory, his finales are always attractive. Try the vivacious track 6 for a typical sample. Played on modern instruments, the performances are smooth and elegant with creamy woodwind solos, with secure string intonation. Maybe Pasquet could, with benefit, have taken central movements and the two Minuets in the C major symphony with a little more thrust. But let us be thankful that we have the works available on disc.

WAXMAN: Rebecca. Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Adriano (conductor). Naxos 8.557549. (72' 30").

Though Franz Wachsmann was obviously a musically gifted child at an early age, his father insisted that he obtain a stable occupation, and as a good son he obeyed and went into banking. Saving all he could he was eventually able to study music in Dresden and Berlin, supporting himself as a night-club pianist. There he came into contact with people from the film industry who found him employment as an orchestrator and conductor. A beating by a young Nazis prompted the young Jew to leave Germany with his wife, and after a brief period in France, he arrived in Los Angeles where he changed his name to Waxman. In Hollywood his film scores were an instant success, much of his output linked with horror movies. Nominations for Oscars, and countless highly acclaimed scores in the 1940’s made him famous, the demand, as with so many other composers, leaving others to orchestrate his scores – the very aspect that was Waxman's major attribute. The film score for Rebecca dates from 1940, and was to form the backdrop to Hitchcock’s first Hollywood film. Starring Lawrence Olivier it won 'Best Picture' Oscar in 1940 and an Oscar Nomination for Waxman. Often using pastiche to set the period of the story, it was one of his most extensive and outstanding scores. The present disc was first released in 1992 on the Marco Polo label, the fourteen tracks from the film being most persuasively performed by Adriano and the Slovak orchestra.

DALLAPICCOLA: Sonatina canonica. Tre episodi dal Balletto Marsia. Quaderno musicale di Annalibera. Musica per 3 pianofortei. Due Studi. Tartiniana. Duccio Ceccanti (violin), Roberto Prosseda (piano). Naxos 8.557676. (70' 59")

Luigi Dallapiccola's elevated standing in 20th century music is in inverse proportion to the size of his output, though he was seen as Italy's most progressive composer in the period just prior to and after the Second World War. His teaching posts influenced the next generation, and studying with him was seen as the basic requirement for a broad swath of young European composers. Sadly his avant-garde reputation as a composer may have deterred many from sampling his music, though as you will hear in the opening Sonatina canonica we are very much in the familiar world of Messiaen. In this genre he was a miniaturist saying all that he wanted in very short statements, and while there is no requirement for outgoing virtuosity, there is a need to make long stretches sound interesting when very little happens. He could also write in a very naïve way when his music becomes readily attractive, the Musica per 3 pianofortei a ready example. The final two works on the disc are for violin and piano, Tartiniana a reworking of Tartini's violin sonatas, the score existing with piano or orchestral accompaniment. Performances throughout are very good, Duccio Ceccanti's deep throated instrument having a viola quality in the lower register, while the technical hurdles in Tartiniana are never apparent. The recording quality provides a very realistic piano sound.

BRUCH: Eight Pieces, Op. 83. D’INDY: Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op. 29.

Amici Ensemble. Naxos 8.557347. (72' 01").

Considering the popularity of the first of Bruch's violin concertos, it is surprising how very little we know about his sizeable output. The Eight pieces for clarinet, cello and piano dates from 1910 and comes late in his life and by which time his lyric style was outdated and belonged to a previous era. It was quickly consigned to obscurity, though the gentle flowing melodies fall pleasingly on the ear. Vincent d'Indy suffered a similar fate, having remained faithful to Cesar Franck's style long into the 20th century, though his later symphonic works showed a wonderfully imaginative orchestration. The Trio dates from 1887, its first movement, entitled 'Overture', has a yearning quality that is most attractive and offset by the jollity of the following Divertissement. But it is the highly unusual sonorities of the following Chant Elegiaque that should at least have found the work a place in the repertoire. Neither piece makes excessive technical demands, the Amici's performances lovingly shaped and unfussy, with dialogues between instruments perfectly balanced. Once your ear adjusts to the level of reverberation around the ensemble, the sound quality is enjoyable. As a sampling point try the tender sixth piece of the Bruch or track 11 of the d'Indy.

MONTEVERDI: Il Quatro Libro de Madrigali, 1603. Delitiae Musicae, Marco Longhini (director). Naxos 8.555310. (73 ' 44"). 

Precociously gifted Claudio Giovanni Monteverdi was just 17 when his first volume of three-part motets was published, an earth-shattering event when we remember that this was the 16th century when a music publication was a major landmark. He was to prove a major innovator that opened a new era in vocal music, a fact that worried those who saw him as a reactionary and publicly attacked his compositions. Today he is revered as the composer of religious vocal music, the Vespers of 1610 still forming part of our choral repertoire, and though his madrigal output is already available on disc, this complete issue of his works in that genre reminds us of his skill. He was thirty-five when the third volume of 20 madrigals was published in 1603, and by now his music was liberated from the shackles of previous musical styles. By juxtaposing the content of the texts he was able to create a very diverse effect, so that they could be performed separately or as a complete work. As a sampler go to the joy of the eighth madrigal. Reviewing previous releases in this on-going series I have commented that the general style of Delitae Musicae brings a sacred feel to secular music, though at the same time admiring their tuning - though here they have an uncomfortable moment in the fifth madrigal - and the excellent quality of their counter-tenor. The church acoustic covers the tone with a nice warm glow.

STILL: Three Visions. Seven Traceries. ‘The Blues’ from Lenox Avenue. A Deserted Plantation. Africa. Mark Boozer (piano). Naxos 8.559210. (65' 29").

William Grant Still broke the white domination in all fields of American classical music, becoming the first black to have a symphony played there by a major orchestra; the first to conduct one of the major league orchestras and the first to have an opera professionally performed. In the later part of his life he concentrated on a large output of new compositions, and though he did a little experimentation, he remained wedded to tonal music when it was long out of fashion. His piano music is lightweight, pleasant and undemanding on both the performer and listener. Later in life he did use his native American music for inspiration, but the music on this disc was obviously influenced by French composers, particularly Debussy, the Seven Traceries so delicate that the main melody often receives little harmonic support. He also wrote a piano version of his most famous orchestral work, Africa, composed in 1928. Truth to tell its loss of orchestral colours leaves a pretty bare score, and I guess that Still, who was trained as a violinist, was not a born composer for the keyboard. Mark Boozer needed a more urgent and up-beat tempo for the final section of A Deserted Plantation, but he does most successfully hang together the slender Seven Traceries. The sound quality is pleasing.

COUPERIN: Organ Masses: Messe a l'usage ordinaire des paroisses; Messe propre pour les convents de religieux et religieuses. Jean-Baptiste Robin (organ). Naxos 8.557741-42 (2CDs). (94' 00"). 

Today Francois Couperin is remembered as the leading French composer of harpsichord music in the period that led into the 18th century. Yet his training and background was as an organist, having come from a family of church musicians, his father, Charles, the organist and composer of St. Gervais. It was a post taken by Francois at the age of age of 18, and in this capacity he wrote two great Organ Masses in 1690 at the age of 21. The first, Mass for the Parishes, is majestic in concept and intended for use on feast days; the second, Mass for Convents, is more intimate in nature. Of course, unlike the present disc, the sections would have been used interspersed with vocal plainsong, the other recordings in the catalogue bringing the two together. Certainly Jean-Baptiste Robin has aimed at a big virtuoso performance of the first Mass, setting the scene in the opening Kyrie, the characteristic quality of the historic organ in Poitiers Cathedral bringing a pungency of mixtures that at times sounds like an instrument in urgent need of re-tuning. Injecting urgency into the Plein Jue. Et in Terra pax, Robins fingers do tend to run away with themselves, but he is a nimble player who knows how to introduce and extract excitement. I prefer his playing in the less outgoing second Mass, the use of quiet registers creating an inner radiance. The echo at Poitiers and the placement of the organ make it a difficult place to record, and others have failed. So full marks to Naxos for coming somewhere close to surmounting the difficulties.

JOSE: Sinfonia castellana, Evocaciones, Suite de la opera ‘El mozo de mulas’. Suite Ingenua. Alberto Rosado (piano), Castile and Leon Symphony Orchestra, Alejandro Posada (conductor). Naxos 8.557634. (57' 28"). 

Born in 1902, Antonio Jose Martinez Palacios was to die while in his thirties in the Spanish Civil War. At that point his music was beginning to have an impact on the orchestral scene, though he had never held a major post, his living coming mainly from school teaching. He later became professionally known as Antonio Jose, his tuneful and generally lightweight scores having a hint of his nationality without ever becoming dominated by the folk rhythms. The Sinfonia castellana from 1923 is painted in refined and gentle sounds with the rocking quality of the third movement, Nocturno, demonstrating a composer of sensitivity and a gifted orchestrator. The work sets the scene for a disc that is easy listening, the quiet and uneventful textures appealing to Jose, with the introduction of a solo piano in the Suite Ingenua adding a further pastoral quality. At the time of his death his first opera, ‘El mozo de mulas’ (The Muleteer), was unfinished, though the suite pointed to a work of great potential. The playing of the orchestra is well detailed, and, as with all of Naxos's Spanish series, the sound quality is excellent.

WAGNER: Lohengrin. Lauritz Melchior (Lohengrin), Astrid Varnay (Elsa), Kerstin Thorborg (Ortrud), Alexander Sved (Telramund), Mack Harrell (Herald), Norman Cordon (King Henry), Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Erich Leinsdorf (conductor). Naxos Historical 8.110235-37 (3CDs). (199' 30").

The big attraction of this 1943 'live' performance from the Metropolitan Opera is the presence of Lauritz Melchior as Lohengrin on a night when he was in superb form. He was already well into his fifties, though his massive voice never tired in performance, with the big last act area, when forced to divulge his name, as deeply moving as any on disc. The scene that follows is unusual in the high level of emotion at his parting from Elsa. Equally remarkable are the quiet passages where the voice is wonderfully focused and supported. Maybe you would not select Astrid Varnay if you remember her as one of the most dramatic Wagnerian sopranos, but at the age of 25, when this recording was made, she sounded suitably young and fresh, and remarkable for one so young. Kerstin Thorborg and Alexander Sved were ideally cast as a suitably dramatic pair of conspirators plotting Elsa's downfall, Sved an imposing but now forgotten baritone. Underpinning the performance is the great Wagnerian, Erich Leinsdorf, who many believe should have invited to conduct the first studio recording of The Ring. He instinctively conducted Wagner, his choice of tempos so persuasive that they become the benchmark. Of course we can only guess as to the quality of playing that he obtained, but the recording captured the voices very well, the audience and stage noises obtrusive but acceptable if only to hear such a fine performance. The transfer to CD must have been a painstaking.

BRAHMS: Quintet in F minor for Piano and Strings, Op. 34. DVORAK: Quintet in A major for Piano and Strings, Op. 81. Clifford Curzon (piano), Budapest String Quartet. Naxos Historical 8.110307. (73' 29").

If you point to the moments where ensemble is untidy, a string accidentally caught, and intonation that is less than perfect, then you fail to understand the meaning of musicality. These works can rarely have received such spontaneously inspired and expressive performances, the forward drive in the third movement of the Brahms making almost every other recording sound tepid by comparison. But then move to the mystery at the opening to the finale and you are suddenly transported to a different world. Care over dynamics is the touchstone to both performances, and if Hungary is a distance from Dvorak's homeland, few Czech quartets have captured so faithfully the lilt in the music. The recordings date from 1950 and 1953, and if you have ever doubted that Curzon was not a deeply emotional pianist, then listen to these bold and unfettered performances. The transfer cannot eradicate the 'wow' on the original releases, neither can it hide a slightly boxy quality, but I cannot recall those LPs having the impact imparted by Naxos's restoration engineer, Mark Obert-Thorn.

BOCCHERINI: Cello Concerto in B flat. HAYDN: Cello Concerto in D, Op. 101 - first & second movements. ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85. BRUCH: Kol Nidrei, Op. 47. Pablo Casals (cello), London Symphony Orchestra, Landon Ronald (conductor), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Boult (conductor). Naxos Historical 8.110305. (79' 21"). 

Today's 'period informed' performances had never been heard of when the great Pablo Casals was recording the Boccherini and Haydn concertos accompanied by a full-blooded symphony orchestra. Born in 1876, he was convinced at the outset of recording that this new technology was the future of music and entered wholeheartedly into a lifetime working in the studio. Indeed you can go back to 1915 to find his first recording of Kol Nidrei, twenty-one years before this version. Time did take its toll on his left hand, leaving suspect intonation as something we have to accept to enjoy his innate musicianship. He enjoyed a long and distinguished career and was almost 70 by the time he recorded this performance of the Elgar in 1945. If fingers no longer always hit the centre of the note and the bowing arm misses some of the 'effects' required, it is still a loving performance the emotion of the finale taking the music as slow as you dare. His playing here thankfully omits the portamenti that smother the Haydn and Boccherini, while Boult and the BBC Symphony provide a warm and responsive accompaniment, the drawback being the largely inaudible brass in the finale. The other recordings date from the 1930's and all are of enjoyable quality.

LALO: Le roi d’Ys: Pasqu'on ne peut flechir, Act 3. PUCCINI: Tosca: Vissi d’arte, Act 2. VERDI: Otello: Piangea cantando nell’erma landa; Ave Maria, piena di grazia, Act 4. TOSTI: Good-bye. RONALD: O Lovely Night. WETZGER: By the Brook. MOZART: Il re pastore: L’amero, saro costante, Act 2. GOUNOD/BACH: Ave Maria. LEHMANN: Magdalen at Michael’s Gate. DEBUSSY: Mandoline. Romance. CHARPENTIER: Louise: Depuis le jour; Depuis le jour (unpublished on Victor), Act 3. FOSTER: Old Folks at Home. WHITE: John Anderson, My Jo. TRAD: Comin’ Thro’ the Rye. Annie Laurie. BEMBERG: Les anges pleurent. Chant venitien.. DVORAK: Songs My Mother Taught Me; Songs My Mother Taught Me (unpublished on Victor). Nellie Melba (soprano), various artists and orchestras. Naxos Historical 8.110336. (75' 44") 

By now the fan club of the Australian soprano must have decided I would not recognise a great artist if I fell over one. Yet while I derive some pleasure from her singing of the Charpentier and Verdi, I prefer singers who arrive with some level of consistency a little nearer to the pitch of the notes, to my ears the top of her range sounding strained and unhappy. I always think that she was a natural mezzo who was singing soprano. It was her recording of ballads that gave her mass appeal, and the whole style of singing has today so changed that her performances are bound today to cause an indulgent smile. This is the third volume in the 'Complete American Recordings', Naxos rigidly adhering to a chronological order of recording, the mix of ballads and arias including Melba as the pianist in Wetzger's duo for flute and piano, the performance a very stop-go affair. Certainly the most affective track is Foster's Old Folks at Home which sits happily on the voice. Such venerable discs cannot have escaped the creation of surface noise as they became worn, but Ward Marston's ability to keep the upper frequency intact while keeping extraneous noises to a minimum is a feat of admirable transfers.