Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas - Henryk Szeryng, violin - Gary Graffman, piano
This archival recording features performances from three recitals given in 1970 and '71 at the Library of Congress by Henryk Szeryng and Gary Graffman. While the sound is not always pristine, the musicality of these two artists certainly makes up for it. They perform three of Beethoven's Sonatas for Violin and Piano with passionate verve and incisive playing. In the eighties and nineties, Graffman primarily performed works for the left hand only due to dystonia in his right hand; he has recently returned to performing a limited repertoire of pieces for both hands. Still, hearing his electric interplay with Szeryng, you can't help but mourn all of the recordings we might have had of Graffman's Beethoven. Lithe and fluid, his rhythmically charged performance on the Sonata in D, Opus 12 No. 1, is inspiring. Szeryng's playing sparkles, particularly in the Allegro movement from the Sonata in E-flat, Opus 12 No. 2, and in his brilliant traversal of the finale to the "Kreutzer" Sonata, Op. 47. Chamber music fans should not miss hearing this.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata in F minor, Op. 57, Appassionata - Lambert Orkis, piano
Another dose of Beethoven on Bridge, but one done from a completely different perspective. Lambert Orkis presents three performances of a "warhorse", the Appassionata Sonata, each recorded on a different instrument. Two of the them are fortepianos, rebuilt versions of historical instruments from the early nineteenth century that are smaller antedecedents to today's modern grand piano. While most of us have grown accustomed hearing Beethoven performed on modern pianos, with the greater volume and sustain imparted by today's large instruments, the fortepianos featured on this recording are closer to the instruments on which Beethoven and his contemporaries played. Orkis demonstrates in his performances how very different sounding the Appassionata is from piano to piano. This is not just a matter of sound, but also one of attack and tempo; the two fortepiano renditions are both faster than Orkis's performance on a modern (and massive) Bosendorfer Imperial Grand. I am particularly fond of the pianist's rendition of the sonata on the R.J. Regier fortepiano, a bold instrument with considerable spunk that elicits a zesty performance from him. While some may prefer to hear Beethoven through modern ears on a 10' concert grand, it's instructive to have this chance to imagine how the Appassionata might have sounded during the composer's lifetime.

Romances: Music of Robert & Clara Schumann - William Purvis, french horn - Mihae Lee, piano
Robert and Clara Schumann's marriage was one of the most famous in music history. Robert may be the better known of the two, but Clara was also a fine composer in her own right. This disc features music by both of the Schumanns for french horn and piano. Only one of the pieces, Robert Schumann's Adagio and Allegro for Horn and Piano, Op. 70, was originally written for this ensemble configuration; the rest are transcriptions of duos for other pairings (violin/piano, clarinet/piano, et cetera). This doesn't prove to be a problem; the soaring Romantic-era melodies favored by the Schumanns translate nicely to french horn. This is particularly true when they are played by William Purvis. He demonstrates impressive dramatic heft on Robert Schumann's Fantasiestuck, Opus 73; the Adagio and Allegro is imparted with a touching lyricism. Lee excels at drawing the poignancy out of melancholic phrases; her gifts are ideally employed on Clara Schumann's Op. 22, the affecting Drei Romanzen. While the fireworks may be kept to a minimum here, there is ample sehnsucht and angst, making this a disc that will tug at your heartstrings.

Dialogues with Double Bass - Jeremy McCoy and Friends
The double bass is often considered an ensemble instrument, but solo works have been written for it, some dating back to the eighteenth century. Thankfully for bassists, their repertory, although still modest in size, has grown somewhat in recent years. More and more composers are realizing that the bass has enormous potential as a solo instrument; extremes of range, harmonics, special effects and surprising virtuosity are now within the reach of an increasing number of bassists. Jeremy McCoy surveys a wide range of pieces on this Dialogues. Repertory staples, such as Gioacchino Rossini's Duetto for Cello and Bass and Bottesini's Gran Duetto No. 3 for two double basses, are played with impressive technical prowess and interpretive authority. A brief Duetto by Edward Elgar for trombone and double bass is one of several welcome obscurities included here. MacPherson's Rant, a piece for flute and bass by contemporary Scottish composer Martin Dalby, is another, a finely crafted, angular and puckishly agile musical dialogue. McCoy is joined by jazz bassist John Pattitucci for two of the latter's compositions: The Root and Grateful. Their arrangements imaginatively deploy the two basses over wide registral and harmonic terrain. Dialogues is an effective project, well conceived and executed.

Thea Musgrave: Choral Works - The New York Virtuoso Singers - Victor Rosenbaum, conductor
Although born in Scotland, composer Thea Musgrave (b. 1928) is a longtime US resident; she recently retired after a distinguished tenure as Professor of Composition at the City University of New York. Throughout her career, she has excelled at writing for voices, composing songs, operas and choral music. The works collected on this disc show the wide range of experiment and expressivity abundant in her writing for voices. The Black Tambourine is a vivid setting of poems by Hart Crane. The voices are accompanied by percussion, which supplies a dance-like propulsion to several of its movements. For the Time Being: Advent, a nearly thirty minute setting of Auden, features spoken word narration by Michael York and an octet of soloists. Musgrave plays with space and density in this work, dispersing forces throughout the hall, employing attractive stacked harmonies, and juxtaposing solos, speech and lush choral passages. The overall effect is captivating. On the Underground Sets 1-3, groups of short settings of texts by various poets feature some dazzling writing as well. I'm particularly fond of Musgrave's setting of John Berry's "Benediction" and "Sometimes"; both are filled with sumptuous chords and interweaving contrapuntal lines. Musgrave's choral music is exciting fare, demonstrating a composer with absolute technical command and considerable sensitivity for text-setting.

-- Christian Carey