ARTnews.US [AMERICAN NEWS AGENCY]

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5, Choral Fantasy
Leif Ove Andsnes, pianist and conductor; Mahler Chamber Orchestra
(Sony Classical 43058862; one disc)
With this new recording, the superb Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes completes his “Beethoven Journey,” a multiyear project capped by his recordings of the five Beethoven concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The last album in the series offers his vibrant, elegant, uncannily clear-textured accounts of the mighty “Emperor” Concerto and, joined by the fine Prague Philharmonic Choir, the episodic Choral Fantasy. Every note speaks in Mr. Andsnes’s distinguished playing. And he proves an insightful conductor, drawing comparably lucid and lively music-making from the excellent orchestra. (Anthony Tommasini)

Leif Ove Andsnes performing in 2012 with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall. —————Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

HANDEL: ‘Messiah’
Handel and Haydn Society, conducted by Harry Christophers
(Coro)
Yes, by record company standards, it is time for “Messiah” already, several weeks before its adopted season, Christmastime, and many months before its intended season, Eastertide. This recording bears a great weight of history, mostly carrying it lightly. The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, which celebrates its bicentennial next year, has performed “Messiah” annually since 1854. Harry Christophers, the society’s artistic director since 2008 and a noted early-music specialist, draws an appropriate litheness from chorus and orchestra. But the vocal performances are on a generally lesser level, the best being those of Gillian Keith, a soprano, and Sumner Thompson, a baritone.(James R. Oestreich)

SCHUMANN: Variationen and Fantasiestücke
Andreas Staier, pianist
(Harmonia Mundi) 
Thanks to the historically informed movement, listeners have a chance to hear 17th- and 18th-century music on the instruments it was originally composed for. It’s less common to hear Romantic piano music performed on fortepianos, however, as most pianists prefer the power and richer, fuller sound of a modern piano. Andreas Staier performs Schumann on an 1837 Erard — a brand about which Chopin said: “You can thump it and bash it, it makes no difference: the sound is always beautiful.” Mr. Staier’s sensitive, passionate playing is remarkable throughout as he coaxes a range of colors and timbres from his keyboard. (Vivien Schweitzer)

‘WAGNER WITHOUT WORDS’
Llyr Williams, pianist
(Signum Classics SICCD388; two discs)
No one practiced the art of piano transcriptions better than Liszt. He was naturally drawn to the music of Wagner, his son-in-law. Liszt’s transcriptions and fantasies on excerpts from Wagner operas are ingenious works that take you inside the music without the distractions, in a sense, of the orchestra and the voices, or “Wagner Without Words,” to quote the title of this rewarding album by the splendid Welsh pianist Llyr Williams. Here he plays Liszt’s transcriptions ranging from the short, charming “Spinning Chorus” (from “The Flying Dutchman”) to the mesmerizing “Liebestod” (from “Tristan und Isolde”). Mr. Williams offers several of his own ambitious and impressive transcriptions, including his extended scenes from “Parsifal” and his tweaked version of Glenn Gould’s take on the Prelude to “Die Meistersinger.” There are also some piano pieces by Wagner, including a youthful 26-minute fantasy, a fascinating, if not great, work: you hear the 19-year-old Wagner beholden both to Beethoven and bel canto opera. (Tommasini)

BACH: ‘The Art of Fugue’
Angela Hewitt, pianist
(Hyperion) 
Angela Hewitt, the brilliant Canadian pianist, has dedicated much of her career to performing Bach and has an extensive, much-admired discography of his works on Hyperion. She initially found the “Art of Fugue” dull, not to mention overwhelming: the “Goldberg Variations” “seem like child’s play in comparison,” she writes in the liner notes. But she overcame her initial trepidation and uses her trademark musical intelligence, taste and elegance to potently illuminate the contrapuntal marvels of this elaborate masterpiece.(Schweitzer)

JUDITH WEIR: ‘The Vanishing Bridegroom’
Ailish Tynan, Anna Stéphany, Andrew Tortise and other singers; BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra; Martyn Brabbins, conductor
(NMC Recording NMC D196; two discs)
The British composer Judith Weir, a major figure in Europe, especially acclaimed for her musically bold and theatrically original operas, has never found the recognition she merits in America. Maybe this BBC Symphony Orchestra recording of her inventive opera “The Vanishing Bridegroom” will help. The libretto, also by Ms. Weir, brings together three of J.F. Campbell’s “Popular Tales of the West Highlands.” The stories tell of a stolen inheritance, a forbidden wedding, a man lured into the supernatural en route to marriage, a wooing stranger who appears to be the Devil and more. Ms. Weir’s brash, impetuous, spiky music is at once unabashedly modern and continually entertaining. And this is a terrific performance. (Tommasini)

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
Tracks from the recordings discussed this week. (Spotify users can also find it here.)

Reference: THE NEW YORK TIMES