Classical

Cleveland Orch/Franz Welser-Möst
Bruckner: Symphony No.4
Cleveland Orchestra TCO0012 (downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution)

I make no apologies for giving Bruckner more than his fair share of reviews in this anniversary year. Especially when the Cleveland Orchestra’s in-house engineering team, led by producer Elaine Martone, continues to set a gold standard for modern orchestral sound on record. In both weight and detail, the balance complements Welser-Möst’s intensely engaged, analytical but lively approach. The Fourth comes into focus as a step on the road to the hard-won serenity of the Fifth. There’s nothing radical here in terms of tempi, beyond (ii) more Allegretto than Andante. The dawn light of (i) and the approach of the hunt in (iii) are magically evoked, and the episodes of (iv) build surely towards a coda of glowing assurance. PQ

Sound Quality: 95%

Trio Bohémo
Schubert: Piano Trio No 2; Smetana: Piano Trio
Supraphon SU4344-2 (downloads to 192kHz/24-bit res)

A young Czech trio makes an impressive debut. The engineering at Snape Maltings expertly balances Jan Vojtek’s piano behind the violin of Matouš Pěruška and cello of Kristina Vocetková so that there is no feeling of being reined-in or congested. The Smetana is an early and under-rated example of his invention beyond the Wagnerian canvases of his orchestral writing. The central Allegro hums with a gentle, authentically Czech charm, and the finale gallops over Schubertian fences, caution thrown to the wind. The same high contrasts of tempo and mood hold the attention over the 16m course of Schubert’s finale in its uncut form. PQ

Sound Quality: 90%

Sansara, United Strings of Europe/Tom Herring
Works by Connor Kennedy, Khoury, Shaw, Tallis etc.
Platoon PLAT24493 (downloads to 192kHz/24-bit res)

Wraparound sound, captured in the warm acoustic of All Saints’ East Finchley, intensifies the ‘timeless’ vibe of an album themed around the threshold of life and death, blending reflection and reassurance. Caroline Shaw’s vocal cycle To The Hands begins by evoking antique worlds of plainchant and Buxtehude, then brings them closer to our time with blurring time-slips of harmony and phrase. In turn, Piers Connor Kennedy weaves a hypnotic anthem from fragments of the Shaw. A soaring violin decoration to the voices becomes the focus of an instrumental meditation by the Lebanese composer Houtaf Khoury. PQ

Sound Quality: 90%

Vilde Frang, DSO Berlin/Ticciati
Elgar: Violin Concerto
Warner Classics 2173240942 (downloads to 192kHz/24-bit res)

A century on from Menuhin and Sammons, Elgar’s Concerto lives in a different world. Frang’s almost neurotic sensibility and tightrope lyricism draw the piece closer to Bartók and Schoenberg – and why not, when Elgar himself was prone to more than a touch of neuroticism? Skittering flourishes and hot-tempered sequences in (i) generate Tchaikovskian tension, and there’s a Russian-accented soul to (ii), producer Stephen Johns capturing her characteristically covered tone in the lyric episodes. All her twists and turns of phrase are followed, given space to expand in the Jesus-Christus Kirche acoustic. Carissima and a W. Lloyd Webber miniature make attractive fillers. PQ

Sound Quality: 85%