Urt Masur

This 2-CD set is essential for anyone who wants to understand a crucial aspect of 20th century music but it also offers far more. Russian music from Stravinsky’s early ballets to Schnittke and beyond to countries formerly in the USSR is large in output and mainly great in quality. Given that we all know snatches of Prokofiev and Shostakovich as well as contemporaries who lived elsewhere, I suggest that re-calibrating our perceptions is due about now and this should be done without the political fog so often mentioned.

Following the collections of symphonies (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Kletzki, SU 4051-2) and violin sonatas (Suk, Panenka, SU 4077-2), Supraphon is now releasing the complete Beethoven concertante pieces. All of them (including the Triple Concerto and the genre-unique Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra) came into being within a mere sixteen years, between 1793 and 1809. Although Beethoven deemed the piano "an imperfect instrument", his five piano concertos form one of the cornerstones of his oeuvre and represent a significant landmark in this genre.

Each instalment in Neeme Järvi’s Mahler cycle for Chandos has something new to say, but it’s hard to tell whether the insights of this First Symphony outweigh the exaggerations. Is there a valid point being made, for instance, about the first movement – mired in its ‘long sleep of winter’ for much longer than usual? Admittedly the awakening, when it finally comes after an emphatic developmental crisis, is massively impressive. The Scherzo’s central dream sequence drifts woozily, exaggerated even by Bernstein standards; the huntsman’s funeral is intriguingly brisk; and the finale lurches between magic and mannerism, capped by an almost ludicrous victory charge.

A unique cultural event, La Folle Journée proposes to desecrate classical music in order to allow access to a wider audience, always with the first requirement of artistic excellence. Created in Nantes in 1995 by René Martin, the festival presents for five days at the Cité des Congrès in Nantes about 300 concerts lasting 45 minutes and welcomes the greatest artists of the world. This year, La Folle Journée celebrates the 250th Anniversary of the birth of Beethoven and proposes to discover the richness of his work.