Christmas has always been a source of inspiration for musicians, and this harp album contains many Christmas pieces and famous melodies. Charles Bochsa (1789–1856) wrote much harp music, including his Fantasy on "Adeste fideles (dedicated to Clementi). Joseph Mazzinghi’s (1765–1844) Andante from Sonata, Op. 30 No. 3 consists of a series of variations on the, likely pre-existing, melody that almost a century later would become the famous song Deck the Halls. Charles Oberthür (1845–1924) was the first harp professor of the Royal Academy of Music in London. His piece Virgo Maria is based on the ancient Marian hymn O Sanctissima. Unlike other tracks, Edmund Schüecker's (1860–1911) Weihnachtslied is not inspired by any traditional Christmas melody. His other didactic compositions are well known and still used in conservatories, unlike his concert pieces. The same can be said of his pupil, Dutch composer Johannes Snoer (1868–1936). His Phantasia combines the two themes of the Christmas carols Stille Nacht and Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen. In France, Alphonse Hasselmans (1845–1912) was the most important harp tutor at the Paris Conservatory, teaching Tournier, Renié, Grandjany and Salzedo. Rather than depicting a light-hearted holiday scene, Hasslemans’ Conte de Noël evokes Christmas ghost tales. In 1912, Marcel Tournier (1879–1951) succeeded Hasselmans at the Paris Conservatory. Tournier composed in an impressionistic style, and his two pieces here are from his four volumes of Images (inspired by Debussy). Les enfants expresses children’s joy watching the nativity scene, and Cloches evokes the sound of bells under the snow. Hasselmans’ first choice for his replacement was, however, not Tournier, but Henriette Renié (1875–1956), perhaps the most important female harp music composer. However, the Minister of Education refused Hasselmans, as there were no women teaching principal courses at the time, and because she was a Christian when the French government was advocating secularism. The melancholic Conte de Noël opens her collection of Six Pièces brèves. Marcel Grandjany (1891–1975), a pupil of Renié, composed many pieces that remain part of study and concert programs for the harp, and his version of Stille Nacht here contrasts with Snoer’s version. Marcel Samuel-Rousseau’s (1882-1955) Variations pastorales are inspired by an old French popular carol. Carlos Salzedo’s (1885-1961) compositions for harp were very innovative: he invented and described several of the effects that are still used in contemporary harp music. His Concert Variations are based on the song O Tannenbaum, created from a late medieval or Renaissance melody. Jingle Bells needs no introduction. Composed by James Pierpont (1822-1893) in 1850 (originally for Thanksgiving), it has become a distinctive Christmas song, arranged here by harpist Masumi Nagasawa. © Brilliant Classics

Natalie Dessay has an instinctive understanding of Debussy's idiom and a combination of passion and delicacy that makes her an ideal interpreter of the composer's distinctive vocal style. In this recording, made in 2011, Dessay's voice doesn't always convey the supple ease floating above the staff that characterized her work around the turn of the century. She sounds terrific when she can cut loose with exuberance and plenty of volume, as in Flôts, palmes, sables. It's her in her approach to the upper register at a quiet dynamic level that she comes across as less secure. Those moments are few, though, and overall Dessay's singing is beguilingly sensuous and her insights illuminating. One of the chief attractions of the albums is the inclusion of the premiere recordings of four songs unpublished songs Debussy wrote when he was 20, that had only recently come to light. They fit seamlessly into the composer's song output and are likely to become standards on Debussy song recitals. The most distinctive is the ballad, Les elfes, the composer's longest song and one of his most dramatic, which makes extreme coloratura demands and has a wonderfully eccentric piano part. The album also includes La Damoiselle élue, a cantata using a translation of a poem by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, women's choir, and piano.Pianist Philippe Cassard is a fully equal collaborator in the endeavor and brings an acute sensitivity and intelligence to the accompaniment. Mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes and Le jeune chœur de Paris deliver lovely performances in the pastel-hued cantata. Virgin Classics' sound has a warm, natural ambience, excellent balance, and is clean and clear.© TiVo

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One may well wonder why (or whether) a non-keyboard version of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, arguably at the apex of the entire tradition of keyboard music, is at all needed. However, Baroque violinist Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque member Chad Kelly, who "reimagined" the work (arranged is not a strong enough word), offer several justifications for their deployment of the Variations across various kinds of chamber music here. "Despite what many respected and respectful commentators have propagated," Kelly says, "it is not a sacrosanct work of pure, absolute and abstract art." Kelly seeks to use the varied settings to clarify Bach's counterpoint, to examine the musical influences that were in the air when Bach wrote the work, and to "be idiomatic to the historical instruments used in its performance and to the individual styles and genres referenced in the work." All this involves rewriting certain passages. That is a lot to ask, but generally, Kelly and Podger make it work. There are just 18 tracks, with several variations often combined into a little suite. This tends to deemphasize the tripartite structure of the variations, with a canon every third variation. Listeners can make up their own mind about that, but most will be impressed enough by the smooth Baroque winds in the slower variations, especially the crucial Adagio Variation 26, that they will be won over by this unorthodox effort. This release made classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo

The late Beethoven recordings of pianist Mitsuko Uchida have been career makers, and it is cause for celebration that she has capped them with the 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120, a work that perhaps poses deeper interpretive challenges than any of the late sonatas. The Variations often show a kind of rough humor, and a performer may pick up on that, or the player may deemphasize the humor and seek out the epic qualities of the Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, and Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111. Uchida does neither. The outlines of her usual style, high-contrast and a bit dry, are apparent, but she does not let them dominate her reading. What Uchida realizes is that the abrupt transition from humor to the deepest existential ruminations is part and parcel of Beethoven's late style, and she works to hone the particular character of each Beethoven variation. Her left hand, as usual, is strikingly powerful, and this brings out many striking details (consider the stirring variation 16). The trio of slow minor variations toward the end are given great seriousness but are not in the least overwrought; Uchida achieves an elusive Olympian tone through the final variations. There is much more to experience here, for each variation is fully thought out, but suffice it to say that this is one of the great performances of the Diabelli Variations.© TiVo

To record the Golberg Variations, the absolute pinnacle of western works on harpsichord and the apotheosis of the Baroque era, is the ultimate dream for many musicians. Lang Lang, who admits to have studied the fourth section of the Clavierübung by the Cantor of Leipzig for over twenty years, is no exception. This collection offers two interpretations of the same work. Firstly, a studio version, captured beautifully at the Berlin Jesus-Christus Kirche in March 2020 under the supervision of Christopher Alder, in which Lang Lang displays more measured tempos, particularly in the the initial aria and the first variation. This approach begins to animate itself more in the next section before the first variation in G minor which is slow, sluggish-sounding and unrelenting, taking on a stubborn and repetitive saraband rhythm - a remarkable conclusion to the first section. The outburst of the French Ouverture of Variation 16 is nothing short of spectacular. The following variations pass quickly before the second variation in G minor (Var. 21, Conone alla Settima.), with its very depressive phrasing, an imaginary Tombeau which momentarily instills an impressive gravity. Lang Lang nevertheless remains indifferent to the intrinsic structure of the Goldberg Variations, organised into ten successive groups of three variations with each group finishing with an increasingly complex canon (from the Var. 3’s Canone all’Unisono to Var.27’s Canone all Nona). For the Chinese pianist, his expressive heart seems to concentrate on the three minor key variations, and he doesn’t hesitate to project a Baroque expressionism that finishes the Golbergs with a touch of pathos and romanticism alongside a rounded and silky sound.The energy of the Leipzig public, on the 5 of March 2020, adds a welcome characteristic. During the concert, recorded by Philip Krause, who also accompanied Alder during his studio recording, Lang Lang has fun with the polyphony, beginning with the Aria. Here, he dances and injects subtle variations into the accents, thus opening up a wider and more diverse field of expression (Var. 1, Var. 7). Mischievous (Variation 23 has 2 harpsichords!), Lang Lang lets his imagination run rampant and the emotion that ensues is truly striking (Var. 21, with its obsessive delays). A certain weight is lifted, even in the way the harpsichord sounds, which bears witness to how the Chinese pianist’s sound has changed over the last fifteen years. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz

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