It is the largest box I have ever been sent to review – physically speaking – even bigger than Karajan’s 82-CD collection, though it holds only 12 discs. It also contains a lavish 192-page booklet chock full of colour photographs and articles about the pianist’s inspiration and suchlike. The product’s dimensions reflect the phenomenon of Lang Lang, a young concert pianist whose discs have sold millions of copies in China alone. Lang recently decamped to Sony, announcing his arrival with an excellent Liszt program, so DG have sensibly decided to repackage the recordings he made for them between 2000 and 2009 in a new design splashed liberally with red. No one can say that Lang Lang does not deserve the acclaim. He is a remarkable musician: technically adroit and emotionally involved in the music at all times. In many ways a throwback, he adopts the approach and occasional mannerisms of older pianists like Horowitz and Arrau. He sometimes rolls chords, and has a penchant for emphasising lyrical moments with rubato and a hushed, pearl-like tone. I call this an “18th Variation” approach, because it particularly suits that famous movement from Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Lang is also……

Across its eight movements, this secular mass is a focused refinement of what Westlake does best.

In one of the most singularly gorgeous recordings to have come across my desk in recent months, Zurich-born cellist Christian Poltéra and British pianist Kathryn Stott explore some of Dvořák’s greatest melodies in new transcriptions by Poltéra. Silent Woods was arranged by the composer himself from the original version for piano four hands; in fact, the only compositions originally written for cello here are the Rondo in G Minor and the Polonaise in A. It seems extraordinary now to think that Dvořák wasn’t immediately enamoured of the cello’s sound, finding it “nasal” in the upper register and “grumbling” in the lower, as the booklet notes recall. But how he would have adored the warm, emotionally expansive playing of Poltéra – and Stott for that matter: a superb soloist in her own right and an ever-sensitive accompanist.  The opening Sonatina in G, originally for violin and piano and dedicated to Dvořák’s children, is all brightness shot through with pentatonic flavours; Poltéra and Stott animate the music with the perfect balance of poise and exuberance. And if, in the following Rondo in G, the players seem for the most part simply to be letting… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4…

>Following the success of his English and Spanish albums, Stephen Hough has come up with this thoughtfully planned, beautifully executed French album. Typically for Hough, the repertoire is anything but predictable. It opens with the familiar strains of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. The Gallic connection lies in the transcription by the pianist Alfred Cortot, who was actually Swiss. Hough himself is a transcriber of note (or notes) and so we have his keyboard arrangements of Pizzicati from Delibes’ ballet Sylvia and Massenet’s song Crépuscule. Among the rarely played works are the charming Automne by Cécile Chaminade and Alkan’s quirky La chanson de la folle au bord de la mer. Two popular encores are included: Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Debussy’s Clair de lune, the latter sounding not at all hackneyed due to the surrounding context. There are multiple selections by Fauré and Poulenc, and the recital ends with a longer work, Liszt’s Réminiscences of Halévy’s opera La Juive. Hough invariably hones in on the specific quality that defines each piece. In the Ravel, it is humour, an aspect that pianists often neglect in their desire to remind us how difficult this music is to… Continue reading Get…

There are big choices here but crucially, every moment of this intimate collaboration has been thought through.

Nobody does special projects quite like Cecilia Bartoli – each one with at least a few premiere recordings, and each seemingly more elaborate than the last. Mission is no exception, having been preceded by a whimsical YouTube video series and even inspiring a new book by American detective novelist Donna Leon. The centre of all this activity? Agostino Steffani: composer, priest, diplomat and possible spy, whose name has fallen into obscurity but who, according to Bartoli and company, might just be the “missing link” between Monteverdi and Vivaldi in the development of Italian opera. It’s hard to argue with their evidence. This double disc not only showcases Bartoli at her intense and virtuosic best; it’s an immersive musical experience, whose interest lies not merely in the novelty and rarity of the repertoire, but in its genuine brilliance. Gorgeous melodies, tireless musical invention, and a deft sense of theatre leap out at every turn (it’s hardly surprising to discover how heavily Handel was influenced by Steffani, even incorporating some of the latter’s compositions into his own works) and while the program is long, there’s little chance of fatigue. Bartoli’s expressive palette is as colourful as Steffani’s own, and this music –…

ARCAM (RDAC WIRELESS) PRICE: $775 ★★★★★ For a while, Arcam had the “affordable-DAC-by-a-venerable-hi-fi-brand” sector all to itself with its 2010 rDAC. As this test shows, it’s now under pressure, but it’s a measure of just how right Arcam got the original that this wireless variant is still up there. This sturdy little box features the most important connections: optical and coaxial digital and asynchronous USB inputs, plus stereo RCA output. Wireless connection requires an rWave or rWand streaming dongle. Build quality is impeccable. Hard-wired preference The wireless aspect will appeal, but there’s no denying the rDAC sounds its most effective when hard-wired to a source. We used a MacBook for the bulk of our listening and for every genre of music, at every file size, the Arcam proved an adaptable and likeable device. A 24/192 file of REM’s Country Feedback reveals everything that’s admirable about the rDAC. It’s a punchy, dynamic listen, with an emphasis on excitement. That’s not to suggest it’s short on detail, but its real strengths concern scale, soundstaging and separation. Listening to the other units, however, highlights the rDAC’s relative lack of low-frequency finesse. Extension is impressive, and there’s admirable tonal variation, but where the leading…

Avi Avital is a young man from Be’er Sheva determined (we are told) to bring the mandolin and its repertoire to a wider audience. Trained in Israel and Italy and backed by the Deutsche Grammophon marketing machine (it’s hard to see how he can be ‘the instrument’s first international superstar’ on his debut album!), this disc eschews the traditional Vivaldis and Hummels in favour of Avital’s own arrangements of Bach concerti. There’s a good precedent for such treatment, as both the harpsichord concerti presented here are thought to have started life as works for other instruments. Avital is at his most convincing in the works originally for keyboard (a mandolin being not that different from the ‘plucked’ strings of a harpsichord). The opening D Minor concerto goes with a great swing and sense of joie de vivre. The Largo of the G Minor concerto is positively enchanting, with a sound world close to Vivaldi’s. The A Minor violin concerto can feel a bit Spartan, missing the longer-held notes, as can the E Minor flute sonata, but these are minor quibbles. Needless to say, Avital’s technique is excellent and given the tiny fret board of his instrument, his playing is impressively…

Whoever said grand sweeping melodies were a thing of the past? Grant Foster clearly has a penchant for the archetype of the brooding Russian virtuoso pianist-composer, despite being based in Bowral. You may remember Foster from his in-depth Limelight interview a few months back. After initially studying in Sydney he set off for Paris and London, where he built up a solid reputation as a pianist and composer before returning to Australia to settle in rural NSW. This CD is a follow up to The Music of Grant Foster and features two main works: the Russian-inspired The Pearl of Dubai suite for piano, cello and orchestra, and a setting of Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol for tenor and piano. As a bonus there is a DVD of the Ballad and part of the suite played live in concert. The overall impression of Foster’s orchestral music is that of a stirring and decadent black-and-white film score, albeit with super-smooth edges and superior sound quality. The pieces are unashamedly Romantic, as if Rachmaninov had been cryogenically frozen and thawed out in the 21st century. The Pearl of Dubai is the most ambitious work here, a set of mini tone poems…

A virtuosic collection of new Aussie works for sax and piano.

Don’t judge this CD by its cover. No doubt the packaging went through a rigorous design process by expert minimalists, but somehow the portrait of virtuoso Israeli-Swedish flautist Sharon Bezaly, who recorded this disc of largely contemporary repertoire during her 2009 Australian tour with the ACO, still looks like a bad Polaroid, with the shadows left in and a random font or two slapped on as an afterthought. BIS certainly can’t have been relying on the familiarity or commercial appeal of the composer names to compensate. Ultimately, this CD featuring the most famous golden flute since James Galway’s and music by José Serebrier, Adina Izarra, Carl Vine and Ginastera, has just two things going for it – the quality of the South American/Australian music and the excellence of the performances. As she’s demonstrated on many previous recordings for BIS, Bezaly is an incredible flautist – fearless and truly an “attacking” player when it comes to the technically challenging bits – so she’s always exciting to listen to. And some of the repertoire here, largely unknown though it is, is terrific. Serebrier was once a long-serving conductor on the ABC orchestral network and he remains a prodigious recording artist, but… Continue…

Once again displaying her skill with non-professional actors, Andrea Arnold’s version of Wuthering Heights is palpably, powerfully emotive.