Birmingham 6

Nikolai Lugansky and Sakari Oramo conclude their Rachmaninov cycle with the Second and Fourth Concertos, generally matching the proficient (though somewhat generic) standards characterising earlier releases in this series. The Second’s ample rubato and incisive climaxes are far better judged than in the recent, horrifically indulgent Lang Lang/Gergiev recording (DG, 4/05). And although Lugansky’s piano dominates in the mix, the first movement’s rolling arpeggios do not pull focus from the orchestra who, of course, have all the thematic material. In the slow movement I’d prefer a firmer, chamber-like profile between the pianist and first-desk wind soloists. You’ll also glean more ferocity and shapely characterisation from Stephen Hough, Krystian Zimerman, Sviatoslav Richter and Julius Katchen throughout the finale, but this is not to disparage Lugansky’s fleet, assured and world-class fingerwork.

Recorded in association with a live performance from Birmingham's Symphony Hall last year, this account of Stanford's Requiem rescues a magnificent work from wholly unjustified neglect. The performance of Charles Villiers Stanford's forgotten late-Victorian masterpiece, marking 125 years since the premiere of the Requiem at the Birmingham Triennial Festival, featured a number of international soloists alongside Brabbins including Carolyn Sampson and Marta Fontanal-Simmons (both Birmingham alumni), with James Way and Ross Ramgobin.

One of the aspects that appeals to this listener about Nikolai Lugansky's approach to the perennial favorite piano concerti of Sergei Rachmaninov is the commitment to the organic feeling of each work. So often these concerti are served up as early career, flamboyant exercises to introduce the young pianist du jour to already accepting audiences. And at times the imprint on the works imposed by the various pianists is what remains in the hall after the performance, not Rachmaninov.

Rattle’s performance gives us a fascinating view of a masterpiece – we feel that he has approached the music afresh on its own terms, without being influenced by tradition. He has the advantage, as Britten did not, of a choir and orchestra with the music in their blood, so there need be no concerns on grounds of musical accuracy. His pacing of the work overall is masterly in his projection of the overall structure; the drama of earlier parts of the score such as the Dies Irae is not allowed to overshadow the final cataclysmic climax in the Libera Me, which is devastating in its power. In the Owen setting, “Strange Meeting” which follows is sung with great concentration by both Tear and Allen, emphasising as Britten intended the personal cost of conflict and its futility.

For the third volume in their cycle of Schubert’s symphonies, Edward Gardner and the CBSO turn to the first and fourth symphonies. Composed in 1813, when Schubert was just sixteen, the First Symphony admirably demonstrates the young composer’s grasp of symphonic form and technique, and whilst the influences of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven are clearly audible, the spirit of Schubert’s own distinctive voice is certainly in evidence.

Tragic love story: after her celebrated album with Benjamin Britten's “Sinfonia da Requiem”, the Lithuanian star conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is dedicating her latest release to a composition by William Walton that has hitherto hardly been noticed in this country: the opera “Troilus and Cressida”. The stage work is full of energy, drama and surprising twists. First performed in 1954 at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the opera soon fell into oblivion and is no longer on the repertoire of major theaters. The publisher of William Walton must have guessed what was in the work, because after the composer died in 1983, his publisher suggested the music writer and arranger Christopher Francis Palmer to create an orchestral suite with the musical highlights of the opera.

Nicholas Maw's Odyssey is a landmark in contemporary music; at approximately 90 minutes it is one of the longest continuous examples of music written for full-orchestra and received a first, truncated, performance at the 1987 BBC Proms. It took Maw many years to complete and was later recorded to great acclaim by Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.