Michael Sanderling

Two names which, in this combination, really make you sit up and notice. With his recordings of the Russian’s great symphonies, Michael’s father Kurt Sanderling left the ultimate reference recordings. A legacy too for Michael Sanderling, just as the 15th, Shostakovich’s final symphony, was a legacy from the composer himself.

Mozart’s magnificent setting of the Requiem Mass needs no introduction. One of his last works and a landmark of choral music, it is paired on this album with a new and complementary work by the pianist and composer Fazıl Say: Mozart ve Mevlana.

The playing is strongly Romantic in character, emphasizing the violent contrasts and almost painful expressivity of the score; the ensemble can deliver feathery, near-inaudible pianissimos and powerful fortissimos with equal presence. Intonation is more or less flawless, and ensemble work is superb with all five parts often being equally audible with no loss of coordination. On each repeated listen I find new details springing out of the texture. There are occasional miscalculations—the cello pizzicati at the start of the adagio are a bit too prominent, though the reverberant acoustic (recorded in a church) could also be partly to blame—but for the most part everything is well judged.

Hefti has won many prestigious composition competitions and was a pupil of Rihm. These world premiere recordings, conducted by David Zinman and performed by his Tinhalle Orchestra Zurich, are a discovery.