Classical

Luiza Borac
Bach: Goldberg Variations, etc; Chick Corea: Children’s Songs
Profil PH24018 (two discs)

From the gentle, considered touch of the Aria, it’s clear that this will be a rewardingly ‘central’ and unfussy Goldbergs. Borac’s long experience in playing the music of her countryman Enescu tells in the unerring clarity of her voice-leading, up there with classic accounts by Rosen and Yudina. Wild flights of fancy and tempo extremes are left to the likes of Olafsson [DG], though there’s no shortage of electricity and virtuosity. Ornamentation is spare and elegant, never an end in itself. The ‘Black Pearl’ Var 25 is noble and restrained: this is Bach-playing that Chopin would surely have admired. Illuminating couplings include the enigmatic canons based on the Goldberg theme, and ‘swung’, deceptively rich counterpoint from Corea. PQ

Sound Quality: 90%

Rachel Fenlon
Schubert: Winterreise
Orchid ORC100343 (downloads to 192kHz/24-bit resolution)

Winterreise sung by a soprano won’t be for everyone, nor will the piercing intimacy of Fenlon’s approach. Yet I find it entirely true to Schubert’s world, not least through her scarcely believable mastery at accompanying herself. This was the way Schubert introduced these songs to the world, and great Lieder singers such as Ian Partridge continued the practice. Somehow her playing doesn’t inhibit her breath control, and meanwhile she underlines the continual dialogue between voice and piano. Her inflection is less expressionist, more believably Biedermeier, than previous female wanderers such as Brigitte Fassbaender and Christine Schäfer. PQ

Sound Quality: 85%

Franco Mezzena, Pina Napolitano
Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos. 2 & 3, Schoenberg: Fantasy, etc
Odradek ODRCD485

With several Brahms and Schoenberg albums to her credit, Napolitano wears her Italian-school intellectualism lightly. Mezzena’s sweet and centred tone is a big plus here: their Schoenberg sings as lyrically as their Brahms. Sonata No.3 is especially impressive: taut and neoclassical, piano and violin balanced shrewdly as equals. Meanwhile, No.2 revels in the often-neglected, joyful side to Brahms. The Four Pieces Op.7 of Webern share a playful spirit of exploration with late Brahms and indeed late Schoenberg in the Fantasy, no longer sounding as forbidding as it used to, thanks to performers like Napolitano. PQ

Sound Quality: 85%

BBC Concert Orchestra/Alice Farnham
Imogen Holst: Persephone, Suite For String Orch, Festival Anthem, etc
NMC NMCD280 (downloads to 48kHz/24-bit resolution)

It can only be a matter of regret that Imogen Holst spent so much of her life promoting the music of her father (and others) rather than composing her own. Certain fingerprints are genetically passed from father to daughter: modal harmonies, meditative introspection, and a striking emulation of ‘Saturn’ in the flickering textures of Persephone. But she brings this legacy up to date in her own way, writing with a sturdy and unmistakably ‘English’ confidence. The anthem is an expansive setting of Psalm 104, cousin to Tippett in its ribbons of exaltation and uncompromisingly personal response to the text. PQ

Sound Quality: 80%