When The City Sleeps

Here's an excellent Shostakovich chamber program, combining music from different phases of the composer's career as well as introducing two fairly unusual works in combination with a great masterwork, the Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67. This work, written in 1944 as the tide had begun to turn against Hitler's armies in Russia, is perhaps the definitive musical response to the horrors of the Second World War. Its final movement, evoking klezmer music gradually overtaken by darkness, is almost unbearably moving.

Susannah McCorkle's second Pausa album is highlighted by a remarkable version of "There's No Business Like Show Business." Usually performed in razzle-dazzle style, the song is drastically slowed down and treated as a dramatic ballad by McCorkle, and she shows that the words are actually quite touching. Also on the diverse set are the singer's fresh interpretations of such tunes as "A Fine Romance," "Where or When," "Cheek to Cheek," "Slap That Bass," and even a tolerable rendition of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Backed by the Ben Aronov trio and on a few numbers joined by either tenor saxophonist Al Cohn or guitarist Gene Bertoncini, Susannah McCorkle is in such fine form that one truly regrets that her first seven American albums (four on Inner City and three on Pausa) have yet to appear on CD.

"Baby James Harvest" is felt by many to be the weakest of their first four albums which were all released on the Harvest Label. This would be their last album for that label. This album is more of an acquired taste than their previous, more accessible releases…