Classical

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Sinfonia of London/Wilson, Isata Kanneh-Mason
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.2; Cello Sonata / Britten: Cello Sonata
Decca 487 0835 (downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution)

Much more than on his earlier recording of the First Concerto, Kanneh-Mason plays in dialogue, now not as cellist-hero but as diffident protagonist in a work that heralds the introspective world of the composer’s late style. Wilson works hand in glove with the cellist, who goes all out for character without sacrificing the centre of his tone or its speaking quality. The same uninhibited familiarity pays dividends in the two sonatas, with his sister Isata as partner. Even the inward slow movts hold their shape as soliloquies and recitatives for a postwar age of anxiety. This is SKM’s finest record to date – a marker of a real musician. PQ

Sound Quality: 90%

Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque
Biber: Violin Sonatas (1681), Sonata Representativa
Channel Classics CCS48525 (downloads to 44.1kHz/16-bit res)

The bare continuo line in these sonatas leaves much to the imagination of the interpreters while implying that the violin – Biber’s own instrument – should stand out as the main event. Podger is always generous as a musical partner, bringing these pieces to life as leader of a six-strong ensemble. Thus textures vary as much as Biber’s solo writing, which dips and soars like a swift on the wing. With the backing of a chamber organ, No.2 becomes a prayer in the style of the Mystery Sonatas, while No.3 (in F) dances and stamps like a country fair. Forget the testamentary magnificence of the Bach solo sonatas: Biber is much more a creature of the moment. PQ

Sound Quality: 85%

Mariam Batsashvili
Influences: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt
Warner Classics 2173253517 (downloads to 192kHz/24-bit res)

Batsashvili takes the pulse and taps the vein of Liszt’s music: she plays the Dante Sonata as a story of flesh and blood, with an affinity rivalled (among pianists of her generation) only by Saskia Giorgini. In fact she could play nothing but Liszt and I would be happy (I suspect she would be, too), but she has planned this album as an origin story for Liszt, and for her approach to him too. Haydn and Mozart sonatas in D don’t quite have the high finish and control of Pires in this music, but again each phrase tells a story. Then the ‘Appassionata’, captured on the cusp of Classical and Romantic eras even while drawing on the tonal resources of a modern Steinway. PQ

Sound Quality: 85%

Estonian Nat SO/Neeme Järvi
Furtwängler: Symphony No.2
Chandos CHAN20373 (downloads to 48kHz/24-bit res)

As a recreative interpreter, Furtwängler stood apart. His own music is harder to love, or so I thought until now. Tightened up by Järvi’s typically no-nonsense tempi, the Second Symphony gains a distinctive profile as more than a compilation of Bruckner and Tchaikovsky tropes. Patience is still required to follow a convoluted symphonic logic, but the pay-off is an insight into a mind that valued continuous development over sharply outlined forms. Doing the same thing twice was anathema (a world view shared with Elliott Carter): this makes his Wagner unforgettable, and yields here an apotheosis of the symphony as an act of struggle. PQ

Sound Quality: 80%