John Fleming's CD picks: Heinz Holliger, Donnacha Dennehy, Nikolas Harnoncourt, Simon Trpceski

By John Fleming, Times Performing Arts Center
In Print: Sunday, July 10, 2011

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Heinz Holliger

Album: J.S. Bach: Concertos and Sinfonias for Oboe (ECM)

Why we care: Heinz Holliger, born in Switzerland in 1939, is one of the world's great oboists. Here he takes up the baroque oboe for solos from Bach cantatas and orchestral works. His outstanding collaborators are Camerata Bern and violinist Erich Hobarth.

Why we like it: In erudite liner notes, Holliger says that the inspiration in Bach's oboe writing is "virtually inexhaustible," and the music on this disc reflects that sentiment. There's an emotional punch to Ich hatte viel Bekummernis (I was much beset by care), which the oboist dedicates to his brother, who died last year.

Reminds us of: Holliger's previous foray into core classical repertoire for ECM, his 1999 recording of Zelenka Trio Sonatas

Download these: Ich hatte viel Bekummernis, Double Concerto for Violin and Oboe, Oboe Concerto in D minor

Grade: A

Donnacha Dennehy

Album: Grá agus Bás (Nonesuch)

Why we care: Contemporary Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy has done something remarkable with Grá agus Bás (Love and Death), a 24-minute work for singer Iarla O'Lionaird and Dublin-based Crash Ensemble, a chamber orchestra that includes electric guitar, accordion and electronics, conducted by Alan Pierson. Also on hand is American soprano Dawn Upshaw in That the Night Come, Dennehy's settings of six poems by W.B. Yeats.

Why we like it: Though Grá agus Bás is based on traditional Celtic song, Dennehy's score is hauntingly strange, a modern sonic world like no other, but also unusually accessible for new music. Upshaw is at her luminous best in the Yeats song cycle.

Reminds us of: Van Morrison's Astral Weeks

Download these: Grá agus Bás, Her Anxiety

Grade: A

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Album: Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (RCA)

Why we care: Conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt made his name in early music, and that, I think, is what informs his interpretation of the German Requiem. Brahms, after all, had been deeply influenced by the vocal music of Palestrina, Schutz, Handel and Bach when he composed his choral opus, prompted by the death of his mother in 1865.

Why we like it: Harnoncourt leads a fine-grained, broadly paced performance by the Vienna Philharmonic, the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and soloists soprano Genia Kuhmeier and baritone Thomas Hampson. The choir is especially impressive, Kuhmeier scales the celestial heights in Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit and the Vienna Phil owns this music.

Reminds us of: Faure's Requiem

Download this: Denn alles Fleisch

Grade: A-

Simon Trpceski

Album: Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto Nos. 1 and 4 (Avie)

Why we care: The Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski brings elegant style and daunting technique to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Nos. 1 and 4 plus the swoony Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. His partners are Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko and England's Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Why we like it: Because these are not the most frequently played Rachmaninoff piano concertos — those would be Nos. 2 and 3 — it is appealing to hear the first and fourth in Trpceski's nimble fingers. Petrenko takes a slam-bam approach with the orchestra.

Reminds us of: The Trpceski-Petrenko-Liverpool Phil best-selling recording for Avie of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Nos. 2 and 3

Download this: Piano Concerto No. 4, Variation 18 of the Paganini Rhapsody

Grade: B+

[Last modified: Jul 09, 2011 04:30 AM]