The youthful conductor István Kertész had worked mainly in provincial Hungary when he made his first recording for Decca in 1961, but his reputation was rising rapidly. Everyone responded to the freshness of his music making. His musical memory was acute: he was reputed to learn scores for the first time on the plane on his way to rehearsal. He was booked to do Elgar’s First Symphony for his recording debut with the London Symphony Orchestra, but on the strength of his success in a concert with Dvorák’s Eighth, the plans changed. Eventually he recorded all of Dvorák’s symphonies, and much else, with the LSO. Kertész would have cemented his international standing but for the intervention of fate: he drowned in the Mediterranean while on holiday in 1973, at the age of 43. The recordings with the London Symphony form the bulk of his legacy, and many of the best are included here. Dvorák is represented by the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, some tone poems and the Requiem. A great recording of Bartók’s dark and gloomy opera Bluebeard’s Castle with Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry is also here (sung in Hungarian). One of his most exciting early recordings was of…

It’s always a burning question. When the performer walks back on stage, what encore will she play? Something slow and meditative, like Bach, or maybe flashy Paganini at breakneck speed? Encore pieces are a revered repertory, which according to Hilary Hahn were “shaped by the performers who preceded us”. So, this stellar violin virtuoso has asked a different question: what should today’s encores sound like? Her answer came in an ambitious project: commissioning 26 composers to write encore pieces, plus holding an open competition to find a 27th. The result is a ripper, two-disc compilation with one of the most profoundly contrasting arrays of compositional style and language you could imagine. You’ll find older, more established writers, like Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara, with newer voices thrown into the mix. Each piece explores a different sound world, and posits a unique idea of what an encore should do. Some works are slow, lyrical and open, others fast, dissonant, and impossibly demanding when it comes to technique and flair. Everyone will have a favourite, but Israeli composer Avner Dorman’s Memory Games is an outright thrill to listen to. Hahn’s performance is stunning in every encore. She is often lauded for her rich tone…

Kent Nagano’s ongoing Beethoven recording project is one of the most underrated cycles in the current catalogue and this latest release of Symphonies Nos 1 and 7 again proves the point. As with the previous symphonies (Nos 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9), this ‘Departure – Utopia’ (each installment bears a literary title) has all the dynamic contrasts and tempo changes that one would expect from a project that aims to reveal Beethoven the Revolutionary. But unlike so many other Beethoven re-interpreters who accentuate dynamic contrasts and tempo changes, Nagano never lapses into affectation or sensationalism. Instead, he gets his Montreal Orchestra up on its toes, like a middleweight ducking and weaving while unleashing rat-a-tat volleys that rarely miss. Take the finale of No 1, for instance, which starts so hesitantly that you think it’s a mistake, before that blisteringly quick tempo of the main theme suddenly takes off with such precision of articulation that you have to marvel that somehow it’s completely virtuosic without ever drawing obvious attention to that fact. The reason is that there’s deep thought behind it all, the intellectual rigour never weighing it down but only serving to heighten the musical assurance – the sure-footedness…

Another dose of what I’ve come to regard as high altitude kitsch, with Strauss marking time until the next good idea. Ho hum! Richard Strauss’s most grandiose, final tone poem, An Alpine Symphony, celebrates its centenary this year. The Saito Kinen Orchestra, founded by Seiji Ozawa, is a Japanese  equivalent of Abbado’s Lucerne Festival Orchestra, or for that matter, the Australian World Orchestra, drawing Japanese players from the world’s most prestigious ensembles. Daniel Harding and his forces enter a crowded field, up against Previn, Welser-Möst, Thielemann and, naturally Karajan. Harding’s orchestra plays well, although the strings lack the last ounce of sheen. Woodwind and brass are distinguished (although the great burst of 12 horns representing the first rays of the sun always reminds me of Caro mio ben). Also, I found the very opening a little lacking in mystery and tension. The incidents, which take place during the hike are also well handled – these climbers are granite-jawed blue-eyed Aryans, not day-trippers in sensible shoes worrying about whether they’ve remembered to pack the thermos. The glacier episode exudes a real sense of danger. The ending is well handled, not drawn out too agonizingly (it’s not Mahler Nine). Mehta indulges more…

Impressive roll-call of performers is announced for this year’s APRA AMCOS Awards

Although the German pianist Wilhelm Kempff had embarked on a celebrated concert and recording career by the late 1920s, his gifts would not be appreciated until after WWII and the dawn of the LP, recording for both Decca and Deutsche Gramophon, sticking to central Teutonic repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven (he recorded two celebrated cycles for DG) to Romantics like Schubert and Schumann. Kempff was a pianist who focused on the score at hand rather than presenting a more individualistic approach – as per many of his discographic contemporaries. These two generously filled discs focus on Brahms’ solo works, which show the influence of Schumann. Here are performances which sing, yet are content let his melancholic and darker edge shine through. These are straightforward interpretations in a selection presenting the finest of Brahms’ compositions for the keyboard – ranging from the early evocative Ballades Op. 10, wherein the mature Brahmsian style is already firmly in place. We get a pair of performances of the Two Rhapsodies Op. 79 and some of the late Intermezzi with their Romantic air of heartfelt anguish. It might be noted here that the Decca recordings were met with some critical reservation upon their initial……

Back in 2102, Austrian baritone Florian Boesch and pianist Malcolm Martineau gave us a searingly intense Winterreise. Hot on its heels comes Wilhelm Müller’s prequel, Die schöne Müllerin, and anyone expecting a gentle ramble beside a chattering brook had better look elsewhere. Once again, Boesch and Martineau demonstrate how deeply one can peer into dark waters with an interpretation that’s mercurial, febrile and ecstatic by turns. The setting off is full of jauntiness – this miller is determined to find romance, come what may. Boesch wields his light baritone to great effect, toying with words and notes. Martineau’s outburst into Halt!, is the first sign that all is not well – this young man is likely to crash and burn – and the way Boesch twists the phrase “the darling girl wishes everyone goodnight” in Am Feierabend (when clearly she is meant to except the miller from her farewells) proves it. It’s a true partnership as each takes turns to play the subtext, whether musical or literary. Listen to Martineau’s staggering left hand in Ungeduld against stabbing quavers in the right – I’ve never heard it so unhinged – the music says what the words hint at. In other places…

Goldner and Lane turn in fine performances and provide a refreshing change from the standard classics.

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Is this the best possible art I can make, right now? In the Education section on The Music Trust website, there is mentioned a German film called Rhythm Is It! This marvellous film documents a project hosted by the Berlin Philharmonic. It involves 250 kids mostly in their late teens, drawn from neighbourhood schools in Berlin. They are from every social class and many countries; a good number are refugees, “exiles” as they say. The orchestra, led by Simon Rattle, performs Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and we are privileged to see moments from the rehearsals and to hear Simon Rattle talk about his life and art and this work. The kids learn to dance it. They learn to dance it, mostly beginning with no previous experience of dance or even of classical music. The project begins from zero, getting the kids into the room and quiet. (A choreographer speaks at one point of “the power of stillness”. Stillness does not come for weeks and, as she points out when it arrives, is transformative.) The man in charge, English choreographer Royston Maldoom, brings great authority. In a couple of sequences he tells of his own isolated and dangerous childhood and how, when he was…

As one of Les Six, Poulenc was acutely aware of modern trends. His mélodies (French Art Songs) set poets like Apollinaire, Éluard and Aragon; the voices of 20th-century French feeling. This charming collection reveals Poulenc as a master craftsman for the voice, affirming his position as heir to the French Art Song tradition, after Fauré and Debussy. His melodic lines are gracefully uncomplicated, and feature a delicate lyricism with a popular edge. Belgian soprano Sophie Karthäuser is the charismatic chanteuse whose voice fills this parlour of musical delights. Her performance pedigree is impressive: she has sung Classical and Baroque roles under conductors such as Chailly, Gardiner and Christie. Her voice is sumptuous on this disc, gliding effortlessly through Poulenc’s long, sensuous phrases with a casual elegance. It is never overdone, and features all the nuance and variation of colour required in a diverse set of songs. She inhabits the character of each poem, employing theatrical touches and vocal shading to convey the narrative of each. Poulenc’s music is quintessentially French, and embraces a more contemporary world than some. Works like Voyage à Paris are fit for the dreamy atmosphere of the cafés and salons of 20th-century Paris. Others have a…

In this thoughtful and measured recital, French pianist Bertrand Chamayou gives evocative accounts of a wide range of Schubert pieces. In the liner notes, Chamayou suggests that the album is “a kind of imaginary recital programme, along the lines of a concert that could have been heard in Vienna at the beginning of the Romantic period, in the cosy and intimate atmosphere of a salon… but which, for various historical reasons, could not have happened in this form”. While several other pianists have used the idea of a Schubertiade as inspiration for recital programming, the anachronistic inclusion of arrangements and transcriptions by Liszt and Richard Strauss make this a performance to remember, and prove that Chamayou has put a considerable amount of thought into this CD. At its heart is a strong performance of the Wanderer-Fantasie, a work that Chamayou infuses with a crucial sense of interconnection between the movements. It’s particularly important here, as the whole work is built on a motif taken from Schubert’s lied Der Wanderer, and that vital link is neatly highlighted. The other major works on the disc include the late Drei Klavierstücke D946, and the delightful 12 Ländler D790. The Klavierstücke were written within…