Fairy TalesOrchid
Why did no-one think of this before? A batch of bedtime stories, wickedly recited by top actors, interspersed with music derived from the selfsame fairy tales. Simple, and brilliantly done.Start with a subversive version of Cinderella – minimum age six, I’d reckon – read by Tom Conti and sandwiched between two dances from Prokofiev’s Cinderella suite, reduced for violin (Matthew Trusler) and piano (Martin Roscoe). This makes bedtime so much more fun for parents and kids than it ever was before.Clive Owen gives a silky reading Jabberwocky, while Kenneth Branagh’s makes merry nonsense of Edward Lear’s verse, bookended by two Shostakovich dances. The music is age-neutral and the whole album feels like a family affair, a marriage of lightness and lilt. Click on Stravinsky’s Circus-Polka and Spike Milligan’s Jumbo Jet and you’ll get the point….Three Bach setsCello suitesSonyJan Vogler’s Stradivarius has a tone so rich it’s almost indecent. His playing is quick and supple and the New York studio is appropriately resonant. Among several sets this year, these suites have easily the best sound. Sadly, Sony don’t both to credit the studio team.ConcertosOnyxViktoria Mullova (violin) and Ottavio Danone (harpsichord/director) have found a remarkable rapport in Bach – so much so that you forget whether the concerto they are playing was written for the violin or transcribed from another instrument. Either way, the performances just fizz along with the Accademia Bizantina.Orchestral suitesHarmonia MundiExpect organic from the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin? You got it. But more, much more. The tempi are fiery and full of risk, all done without a named director. Thrilling performances from 1996.___Norman Lebrecht is a regular presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and other publications. He has written 12 books about music, the most recent being Why Mahler? He hosts the blog Slipped Disc.
