Classical

Pygmalion, Raphaël Pichon
Bach: Mass In B-minor, BWV232
Harmonia mundi HMM902754.55 (two discs; downloads to 96kHz/24-bit res)

Pichon seems unerringly to hit the spot – whether in Monteverdi, Mozart, the Passions and now the Great Mass of Bach. Each section has its own specific colour and character in a full unity of text and music. The opening Kyrie has its full measure of weight and grandeur, yet the theorbo-enriched counterpoint is gently unfurled like a carpet to heaven. The close-up balance pitches you into the midst of a sacred drama, directly confronting the pathos of ‘Et Incarnatus’ and the (quite properly more urgent) passacaglia of the ‘Crucifixus’. All the soloists, vocal and instrumental, measure up to Pichon’s imaginative vision, especially Lucile Richardot in a plangent Agnus Dei. I haven’t heard a B-minor on this level for years. PQ

Sound Quality: 95%

Iestyn Davies, Fretwork
Gibbons, Fantasias; Muhly, My Days
Signum SIGCD897

The aching suspensions and soft, grainy timbres of the Elizabethan viol consort always feel like a guilty pleasure, and almost too good to be true. The composer of melancholy madrigals such as The Silver Swan is instantly recognisable in these richly harmonised fantasias. Fretwork’s long history with this music weaves an even more intricate web than their classic Virgin Classics album. The novelty is an extensive fantasia by Nico Muhly on the anthem Behold, My Days. Muhly’s take is entirely contemporary while drawing the quiet power of its rhetoric from the original. Led by Davies, the singing of the vocal consort matches the viols for cool beauty. PQ

Sound Quality: 85%

Soloists, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Adrian Partington
Williams: Missa Cambrensis
Lyrita SRCD-442 (downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution)

The crowning work of Grace Williams turns out to be this Welsh Missa Solemnis – from 1970 but only now recorded, perhaps due to its choral challenges. Two remarkable, Welsh-language interpolations to the Latin Credo include an enchanting carol, and the text of the Beatitudes over a broken swirl of strings, recited powerfully here by Rowan Williams. Shades of War Requiem, perhaps, though this music sounds like no one else. I love the chromatic ribbons of joy in the Sanctus and the folksy lilt of the Hosanna, but the prevailing tone is one of doubt and angst, even in the slowly building, hard-won assurance of the Dona Nobis Pacem. PQ

Sound Quality: 80%

Gerald Finley, Lise Davidsen, Norwegian National Opera, Gardner
Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer
Decca 487 0952 (two discs; downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution)

There’s a pleasing authenticity to a Norwegian Dutchman, given that Wagner was inspired to write it by a rough North Sea voyage. Lise Davidsen has said this would be her first and only Senta – and yet she embodies the role with thrilling identification, beginning with a brave and proto-Brunnhilde ‘Johotoe’. Seizing on every word, she draws ferocious commitment from everyone else – notably a soaring Erik from Stanislas de Barbeyrac. Meanwhile Finley brings both heft and intensity to the title role. The Dutchman was a highlight of Gardner’s ENO tenure, and he drives this three-act (live) take very hard. PQ

Sound Quality: 80%