Mozart Made New All Over Again

****

MOZART

Piano Concertos Nos. 21 and 24

Piotr Anderszewski, piano and conductor,

Sinfonia Varsovia

Virgin Classics

The young Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski first came to wide attention seven years ago as the fine accompanist for violinist Viktoria Mullova on a Philips recording, followed by an excellent solo Bach disc on Harmonia Mundi and an increasingly active concert career. But none of that was preparation for Bruno Monsaingeon’s extraordinary film of Anderszewski (pronounced On-der-SHEV-ski) brilliantly discussing and playing Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations that was released on video last year. Last month, Anderszewski was named 2002 Gilmore Artist, a $300,000 award given every four years in Michigan to a pianist judged not just an exceptional player, but also an exceptionally interesting one.

Here, in Anderszewski’s latest recording, is an excellent example of what all the excitement is about. I wouldn’t have thought we needed another recording of these two popular Mozart concertos. But the stimulatingly alert performances, with Anderszewski conducting the Sinfonia Varsovia, a Warsaw chamber orchestra, reminds us that each generation discovers something new and marvelous in Mozart. For any Mozart lover--or anyone who would like to become one--this CD is a must.

--Mark Swed

**1/2

ELGAR

“Enigma” Variations, “In the South,”

Introduction and Allegro, “Sospiri”

Vienna Philharmonic,

John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

Deutsche Grammophon

***

ELGAR

“Nursery Suite,” Serenade,

“Dream Children,” “In Moonlight,”

Romance, “Sospiri,” Elegy

English Chamber Orchestra,

Paul Goodwin, conductor

Harmonia Mundi

The Vienna Philharmonic has been recorded in some unlikely matchups in recent years--Boulez conducting Bruckner, Stravinsky under Maazel--and here comes another, as the increasingly cosmopolitan John Eliot Gardiner tries his hand at Elgar. Alas, the Introduction and Allegro often lacks thrust, and despite the polished, translucent textures, you miss the depth of feeling and nobility that many British orchestras pour into the “Enigma” Variations. Yet it’s a fascinating idea to turn the Viennese loose upon “In the South,” which blatantly takes its cues from Richard Strauss. Listen to the unique way in which the Viennese play the quiet “Canto popolare” in the center of the work, shimmering with premonitions of “Der Rosenkavalier.”

Paul Goodwin’s beautifully played selection of Elgar standards and rarities opens with “Nursery Suite,” a delightful, now-bustling, now-melancholy series of vignettes based on material from the 73-year-old composer’s childhood notebooks. The wistful, lyrical mood persists throughout the program, anchored near the close with a relaxed, curvaceously phrased performance of the Serenade.

The two discs intersect in “Sospiri”--in which Gardiner/Vienna find an anguished kinship with Mahler while Goodwin/English Chamber let the sentiment speak for itself--and “In Moonlight,” a transcription of “Canto popolare” on Goodwin’s disc.

--Richard S. Ginell

***

TOBY TWINING

“Chrysalid Requiem”

Toby Twining Music

Cantaloupe

Fresh ideas and practices are all too rare in the field of choral writing, which lends composer Toby Twining a decided edge. As heard on this satisfying and lucid new recording, his a cappella ensemble freely blends the old with the new and with roads less traveled--in this case, the traditional liturgical form of the requiem with the ear-tweaking use of an ancient unorthodox tuning system, hocketing (the practice of splitting one melodic line among many voices), the ethereal timbral hum of throat singing, and sudden swarms of polyphony. Along the hourlong path of the “Chrysalid Requiem,” composed in 1999, there are references to Penderecki, Georgian vocal tradition, medieval music and even a hint of Minimalism. Such an eclectic approach could have yielded a disjointed postmodern casserole, but this requiem is instead a thing of disarming beauty, and a wholly personal statement.

--Josef Woodard

***1/2

LIEBERSON

“Raising the Gaze,”

“Drala” and other works

Asko Ensemble, Cleveland Orchestra,

London Sinfonietta,

Oliver Knussen, conductor

Deutsche Grammophon

“Raising the Gaze” is a six-minute, spiky, rhythmically uplifting piece for seven instruments written in 1988 and inspired by medieval dance music Peter Lieberson heard on the radio one day. The title comes from Tibetan Buddhism; in meditation, it is sometimes OK to relax a little and raise one’s downcast gaze, the composer writes in his notes on this 25-year survey of his music. Lieberson calls those years a journey, and essentially what that journey has led him to is a large-scale raising of his musical gaze, from late Stravinsky-derived chamber scores to sumptuous big-orchestra pieces full of color and Buddhist imagery. The highlight of the disc is “Drala,” a symphony from 1986. The word means “above war” in Tibetan and the work represents in music a state of wakefulness said to be brave but gentle, powerful but without aggression. Lieberson’s shifting, gentle, inspired harmonies, gorgeous stillnesses and crackling dance rhythms are the musical equivalent of that elevated state in which quiet and exhilaration are one and the same. The Cleveland Orchestra plays wonderfully for Knussen, as do the contemporary music groups from London and Amsterdam.

--M.S.

***1/2

RACHMANINOFF

Piano Concerto No. 3

SCRIABIN

Selected Etudes

Lang Lang, piano;

St. Petersburg Philharmonic,

Yuri Temirkanov, conductor

Telarc

Lang has all the virtuosity required for the monumental Rach 3 challenge, but prefers stressing its poetry and lyricism instead. When the big guns need to be brought in, he can draw on them, but his approach is gentle and inward, with many echoes of Chopin and Ravel. Temirkanov must approve. The conductor also avoids the cannons and the schmaltz.

Lang takes the same moonlit approach in 10 selected Scriabin Etudes, preferring delicacy, color and control over sheer virtuosity, although no one can play these pieces who’s lacking in that area. In this live recording, made at a Proms concert last year in the Royal Albert Hall, London, you can hear Lang announcing a Chinese folk song as his single encore. Unfortunately, the folk element gets drowned in a rather syrupy arrangement. The Etudes were recorded at Oberlin College.

--Chris Pasles

***1/2

RICHARD STRAUSS

11 Lieder, and Four Last Songs

Soile Isokoski, soprano;

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Berlin, Marek Janowski, conductor

Ondine

Finnish soprano Isokoski lives up to her burgeoning reputation--she made her Metropolitan Opera debut early this year and has sung in major houses in Europe. This album is composed of glorious music, gloriously performed by the soprano and the sometimes overplaying Berlin Radio Orchestra. Isokoski’s silvery voice is perfectly suited to this repertory, and she sings it with variety and command. Her quirky German is sometimes bothersome, along with a quick vibrato and some ignoring of words. But these are quibbles; the songs are musical gold, and the singing is, most often, golden. Janowski supports the singer fully. (Incidentally, “Morgen” and “Zueignung” still sound better in the original, unorchestrated, piano versions.)

--Daniel Cariaga

****

SCHUBERT

Sonata in E, D. 157;

Sonata in G, D. 894;

“Der Muller und der Bach”

(arranged by Liszt)

Arcadi Volodos, piano

Sony Classical

Even Volodos’ previous recordings, with all their astounding technical brilliance and clarity, could not predict the authority and seriousness of his Schubert. The Russian virtuoso shines in this style, reveling in its simple directness and unadorned sentiment. And he does not merely conquer the many difficulties in the writing; he has fun with them. The early Sonata in E is bucolic, tuneful, deceptively unsophisticated; Volodos lets its charms resonate. The late Sonata in G breathes an atmosphere of repose and resignation, yet keeps yearning, actively, through its considerable length; the pianist reflects all moods specifically and compellingly. The world’s fastest fingers have a heart, and a soul, and the ability to share.

--D.C.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.