A master class for all pianists

Leon Fleisher: “Two Hands”

Leon Fleisher, piano

(Vanguard Classics)

****

In the 76-year-old pianist’s first two-handed solo recital in 40 years, Fleisher -- affected since 1964 by the hand cramping known as focal dystonia -- displays complete mastery of musicality and technique in important works of the repertory. He uncovers all the profundity, delight, subtlety, whimsy and serenity in Schubert’s final and greatest sonata, the one in B-flat, D. 960, through a devastating yet utterly natural performance. He does the same with Bach transcriptions by Myra Hess and Egon Petri and brings exquisite lightness to a Chopin mazurka and nocturne, transparency to Scarlatti’s Sonata in E, and an array of mezzo-tints to Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” This recording is the ultimate master class for pianists, delivered without a word being spoken.

-- Daniel Cariaga

Clear commitment to the music alone

Beethoven: Complete Music for Piano and Cello

Andras Schiff, piano. Miklos Perenyi, cello (ECM New Series)

*** 1/2

You have to love a CD of Beethoven performances that begins with a note saying that listening to good music in a concert hall is a pleasant way to spend one’s time but that it means “nothing.” Well, these performances by two intensely committed and unshowy Hungarian virtuosos are quite something. The sonatas are so cleanly and clearly realized that they feel not only performed but curated and exhibited in an environment designed to direct one’s attention to the music alone.

-- Mark Swed

Presenting a Glass full of excitement

Glass: Symphony Nos. 2 and 3

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Marin Alsop, conductor (Naxos)

***

Glass: The Concerto Project, Vol. 1

Julian Lloyd Webber, cello. Evelyn Glennie and Jonathan Haas, timpani. Royal Liverpool Orchestra. Gerard Schwarz, conductor

(Orange Mountain Music)

*** 1/2

Although we don’t hear it often in America, Philip Glass’ orchestral music can be, as these two U.S. conductors prove with their British orchestras, genuinely exciting. Alsop is especially impressive in the go-for-broke last movement of his large-sized Second Symphony. The Third Symphony is for a chamber string orchestra, half the length of the Second and beautifully wrought, though played on the aggressive side here. These do not supersede Dennis Russell Davies’ recordings on Nonesuch, but the budget release is more than presentable and a whole lot cheaper.

The Cello Concerto, written for and sumptuously played by Lloyd Webber, and the Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists are first-rate works given first-rate readings. The latter goes to percussive town, and Glennie and Haas are riveting.

-- M.S.

Emotional rescue from obscurity

Popov: Symphony No. 1, Shostakovich: Theme and Variations

London Symphony Orchestra. Leon Botstein, conductor (Telarc)

***

Always on the prowl for rarities, Botstein has done it again, resurrecting a tempestuous First Symphony by the neglected Russian composer Gavriil Popov (1904-72). An often wild, emotional hothouse of ideas, with a clamorous finale, this music comes out of the same experimental atmosphere that produced Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony. But Popov didn’t share Shostakovich’s sarcasm -- and thus his music doesn’t have quite as much subversive effect (the Soviets banned it anyway). The Shostakovich companion piece is a pleasant exercise from the composer’s teens.

-- Richard S. Ginell

Echo buries this tenor’s true sound

Opera Arias

Yu Qiang Dai, tenor. New Symphony Orchestra. Jose Antonio Molina, conductor

(EMI Classics)

** 1/2

In some quarters, Yu Qiang Dai is the Fourth Tenor. In others, he belongs to the world of karaoke. This disc supports both views. He appears to have an ardent, bright and weighty high C and sings with genuine emotion. Still, the EMI engineers surrounded him with such a huge echo that the true quality of his voice remains unknown. Conductor Jose Antonio Molina tends to bury him as they ride the climaxes together. His diction and occasional odd phrasing suggest an unfamiliarity with Italian. Still, there is a thrill to much of his singing.

-- Chris Pasles