MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 5 (Katherine Broderick • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) 2CD (2010) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Eugene Asti’s pioneering Mendelsson Songs and Duets series, containing a large number of first recordings and rarities, concludes with this fifth volume, a generous two CDs for the price of one. The contents range from Mendelssohn’s first extant composition of any kind – a birthday song presented to his father by the precocious ten-year-old composer – to settings of the German romantic poets Schiller, Goethe and Eichendorff, which place Mendelssohn firmly in the canon of the great Lieder composers.

These works are performed by a talented group of young singers who will be familiar from other discs in the series, including the winner of the 2008 Kathleen Ferrier prize, Katherine Broderick. Hyperion   Tracklist & Credits :

FRÉDRÉRIC CHOPIN : Complete Nocturnes (Jan Lisiecki) 2CD (2021) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

 Pianist Jan Lisiecki, 26 years old when this recording was released in 2021, was dubbed the Doogie Howser of the piano by the New York Times, and the moniker is apt not only for his youthful appearance but for his wealth of experience. In the music of Chopin, with which he began to make a splash in Poland as early as age 14, he's positively a veteran, and it shows in this traversal of the composer's Nocturnes. Lisiecki does not propose any interpretive breakthroughs for these pieces; his tempos are moderate, perhaps on the slow side, and he is expressively self-effacing rather than dramatic, with the focus squarely on the melody. It may take multiple hearings to appreciate his accomplishment here, but those who devote the time will find exceptionally smooth Chopin readings in which every detail has been considered and practiced well. This is not to say that Lisiecki's Chopin is mechanical. The quasi-improvisatory element is there and is elegantly realized, but the pianist tends to defer it until later in the piece, after the quiet nocturnal atmosphere has been established. The Berlin Meistersaal is an ideal sound environment for Chopin in general, and here, it contributes a truly magical touch. The next generation of Chopin interpretation is in good hands. James Manheim
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BEETHOVEN : Diabelli Variations · Piano Sonata No. 23 Op. 57 "Appassionata" (Rudolf Serkin) (2011) RM | Serie Les Indispensables de Diapason Nº31 | FLAC (tracks+.cue) lossless

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ALBAN BERG : Complete Chamber Music (Schoenberg Quartet) (2002) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

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HANDEL : Complete Chamber Music (L’Ecole d’Orphee) 6CD's BOX-SET (1991) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Although best known for his operas and oratorios along with a couple of occasional orchestral works called Water Music and Fireworks Music, Handel did from time to time turn his compositional attention to the chamber music forms of the late Baroque. This six-disc set on Brilliant released in 2006 collects all Handel's works in the genre in a single, inexpensive package featuring superb performances in 1991 by the English period instrument group L'Ecole d'Orphée. In the flute sonatas, soloist Stephen Preston plays with the kind of warm tone and lyrical phrasing that make Handel's music sound fresh and alive. In the recorder sonatas, Philip Pickett plays with the kind of deep feeling and honest sensitivity that make Handel's music sound even better than it is. And in the violin sonatas and trio sonatas, John Holloway plays with the kind of irresistible energy and unabashed virtuosity that make Handel's music seem fully the equal of their best contemporary competition. With the elegant Micaela Comberti on second violin, the dulcet David Reichenberg on oboe, and the subtle Susan Sheppard on cello as well as either the equally talented John Toll, Robert Woolley, or Lucy Carolan on harpsichord, L'Ecole d'Orphée makes the case for the excellence of Handel's chamber music -- a case only the hard-hearted or hard-headed could dispute. Brilliant's un-remastered digital sound is crisp and clean, but a tad too distant. James Leonard   Tracklist & Credits :