Classical CDs reviewed

Aside from showcasing the rich aural grain of a lovely old Steinway grand (model D, 1901), Elisabeth Leonskaya's new CD of Brahms's "late" piano pieces, Johannes Brahms: Piano Music, Op 116-199 (MDG/Coda 943 1349-6 ) displays what, in my experience, is unparalleled perception into some of the repertoire's most affecting and elusive music. The opening Capriccio from Op 116 suggests wild emotions unexpectedly unleashed, rugged passion given extra substance by the instrument's orchestral resonance. Listen to how expressively Leonskaya leans into the second piece, a pensive Intermezzo, then the sense of disorientation that she brings to the fifth, or the poised grandeur of the sixth. Equally remarkable is her ability to hold a chord without spoiling the musical line (117/1), gauge the music's natural pulse (118/2), launch a muscular assault (118/3), and even smile a little on the few occasions when Brahms lightens the mood (119/3). These and other qualities (intelligence, concentration, tonal control, invariable spontaneity) mark Leonskaya out as an exceptional Brahmsian, and one would like to think that this superb CD might signal the start of a Brahms series from her.

One established series, which has already given hours of pleasure, explores the various ways that Bach emerges when reinvented on a modern piano. Walter Rummel's Bach: Piano Transcriptions - 6 (Hyperion CDA67481/2, two discs ) stopped me in my tracks, not least because of the extraordinarily imaginative way they treat the originals. I'm thinking in particular of the soft and sensual colouring of the organ prelude Liebster Jesu, the haloed arpeggios that frame Weinen, Klagen, the festive reworking of Mein gläubiges Herze, and, most unexpectedly, the elegance of the Magnificat's "Esurientes implevit bonis". These are among the many attractive smaller pieces. But others are rather more ambitious, such as Cantata 146's Overture (same music as the first movement of the D minor Keyboard Concerto), with its thrillingly transposed bass-line, or, most remarkable of all, the 12-minute aria from Cantata 127, "Die Seele, ruht in Jesu Händen". Here, the harmonic enrichments, the meaningful pauses and sense of narrative achieve what the note-writer Charles Timbrell aptly describes as "a masterful tone poem in which Bach's sublime melody is 'orchestrated' in different ranges". "Orchestrated" is the word, though I can't think of a genuine Bach orchestration that is more haunting or beautiful than this. Rummel's background was cosmopolitan. He died in 1953 in his late sixties, and left a few recordings but nothing that I've heard even begins to compare with the rapt and refined playing of Jonathan Plowright on these remarkable CDs.

As to recent duo-sonata releases, one that caught my ear features the best of Schubert's music for violin and piano, Schubert: Sonate D574, Rondo Op 70, Fantasie D934 (Harmonia mundi HMC 901870 ), namely the late Fantasie, the Sonata in A major, and the Rondo brillant in B minor. Alexander Melnikov's bright, at times almost puckish, piano playing is perfectly matched by the violinist Isabel Faust. Try the Fantasie's ethereal opening, where Faust wafts in as if on a sigh; her sweet but never cloying way with the variations; and the sense of joyful release as the finale bounds in. She is one of the few violinists who virtually always hits the note dead-centre, and her rapport with Melnikov is clear. A final sampling suggestion: the Rondo's opening theme (after the intro), where Faust's bowing approximates a glistening stream of light, like an ocean horizon touched by the midday sun.

r.cowan@independent.co.uk