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Hilary Hahn & Hauschka, Silfra

2012 | Label: DG

05.23.12 Cross-genre collaborations are inherently risky. For every peanut-butter-and-chocolate innovation, there are a dozen sardines-and-chutney mismatches. That classical violinist Hahn would improvise with a composer (Hauschka) who favors prepared piano and electronics was not an obvious fit. But the result is a considered studio product that still sounds spontaneous.

They stick close to classical norms on a few tracks – notably, "Krakow," where Hahn plays bits of melody over Hauschka's chord progression on an untreated piano. More often, they make music of alternately clashing or meshing textures, complementary gestures where, occasionally, listeners can't be sure which instrument's making which sound. While this is largely due to Hauschka's mechanical and electronic alterations to his piano sound, Hahn also deploys a wider variety of… more »

Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle, Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition

2012 | Label: EMI Classics

05.03.12 Modest Mussorgsky's masterpiece is just as much Maurice Ravel's masterpiece: The Russian composer wrote Pictures At An Exhibition for solo piano, but it didn't take long for other composers and conductors — from Rimsky-Korsakov to Stokowski (we shall not speak of Emerson, Lake & Palmer) — to hear the orchestral possibilities within it. Yet it is Ravel's familiar orchestration that is almost universally played and recorded. In fact, the piece is now so familiar that we sometimes don't appreciate the finely detailed palette that Ravel brought to bear. And this is the beauty of Simon Rattle's performance with the Berlin Philharmonic. The textures throughout this performance are remarkably transparent; in fact, there is even a curious sense of softness around… more »

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

2012 | Label: Mangora Classical / Believe Digital

05.03.12 Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra is such an effective showcase for the sound of an orchestra — to say nothing of the skill of the conductor — that you can find a wealth of recordings to choose from. I'm here to tell you to pick this one. The great Fritz Reiner, at the helm of the Chicago Symphony at the mid-century height of their powers, created the definitive recording of Bartok's work, and has been the template for many a version that has come since. The trembling, ominous strings in the opening; the cinematic sweep of the central Elegy; the passionate, almost frenzied finale — all of these show a conductor that's able to focus in on the finest details without… more »

Ralph van Raat/Hakon Austbø, Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen; Debussy: En blanc et noir

Label: Naxos

04.24.12 The literature for two pianos contains few masterpieces. Here are two modern exceptions. The three-movement En blanc et noir (In White and Black) is from 1915, in the "Indian Summer" of Debussy's career. Compared to the classic Paul Jacobs/Gilbert Kalish recording, this lingers less in the slow movement and has a livelier Scherzando. The seat-of-the-pants excitement of the Jacobs/Kalish concert recording is replaced here by lapidary precision and better sound and balance.

Messiaen's Visions de l'Amen was written in 1943 for him and his piano student (later wife), Yvonne Loriod, to play together; it was the first of his monumental piano cycles. A 1962 stereo recording of Loriod and Messiaen playing it occasionally flits into print as an import; in timing… more »