Album Review
Im Abendrot (DG)
The baritone Matthias Goerne sings with a voice like brushed velvet and diction clearer than iced vodka in this five-star album
Alexei Stanchinsky: Piano works (Ondine)
Stanchinsky occupies a tonal territory midway between Rachmaninov and Scriabin; an amalgam of suppurating misery and crackpot visionary
Giya Kancheli: Poetry of Silence (Gramola)
Kancheli’s miniatures grip you by the throat and won’t let you do anything else until it’s over
Tigran Mansurian: Con anima (ECM New Series)
You may find that Con anima is one of the best ways of spending the next 15 minutes of your life
Dear Mademoiselle (Alpha)
Mademoiselle was not much of a composer, too set on correct form to allow the flight of inspiration
Eighth Blackbird and Navarra String Quartet
I’m not giving up trying to persuade younger people to listen to new composers
Valentin Silvestrov: 7th symphony (Naxos)
Silvestrov writes almost as if Mahler is speaking to us from beyond the grave