Double Play: Pleasures that come in short measures

BERG, KORNGOLD, STRAUSS: Lieder. Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg

(DG 437 515-2)

SOME Lieder discs are collections, to be sampled with discrimination; others are real recitals. This belongs firmly to category two. A whole hour of Strauss songs would be a little much even for some devotees. Anne Sofie von Otter's beautifully chosen seven are just enough to leave one wanting more. The contrast with the more intense, darkly erotic Berg and the sweeter chromaticisms of Korngold is well-judged, and the singing and playing are glorious virtually throughout.

Virtually? Von Otter slightly overdoes the sulky adolescent bit in Hat gesagt - bleibt's nicht dabei but then I'm not sure this is my favourite kind of Strauss. Perhaps there was a slight sense of let-down after a near-perfect Ich trage meine Minne: according to received wisdom, this is really a soprano or tenor song, but Von Otter's beautiful mezzo, light but fully rounded, is very much at home, and her flowing, subtle phrasing makes it an outstanding version, even among strong competition.

Bengt Forsberg's hushed misterioso in the prelude to 'Nacht', the first of Berg's Seven Early Songs, sets the scene for one of the finest recorded performances I've heard. Again subtlety is the word, though here the sense of barely controlled desire - ready to erupt dangerously at the slightest provocation - is always present, like a constant electric charge. Korngold seems much safer, homelier ground after this, but Von Otter's obvious enjoyment of his sensuous lyricism enhances the appeal.

Stephen Johnson

RICHARD Strauss's Befreit ('Freed') exemplifies the artistry of this partnership. Richard Dehmel's touching poem is all about preparing for death: acceptance, letting go, a happy release. In the final stanza, Von Otter and her sensitive, all-hearing partner, Bengt Forsberg, really inhabit the subtext, the abiding inner calm of the song, with Von Otter investing the last word 'Gluck' ('Happiness') with an extraordinary intensity and heavenly length. Parting really is such sweet sorrow.

That's one detail in one song. There are many others. Von Otter is an explorer: she enjoys peeling back the layers of a song, uncovering its truths. She's a knowing singer, acutely aware of the words, the deployment of vocal colour, the dramatic effect of the modulations. But the details don't draw attention to themselves. Artful she may be, but never arch. The Ariadne-like melisma at the climax of Das Rosenband is a natural musical extension of the word 'Elysium' ('Paradise'). Then, in early Berg, she introduces a less discreet, ever so slightly decadent, portamento. Everything here is sung on a kind of enticing sigh.

Enticing certainly describes Korngold when he's not trying to be one of the 'Second Viennese School' boys. His lighter lyric songs Liebesbriefchen and Gluckwunsch are the charmers here, and there's a fulsome tribute to the city he was forced to flee - Vienna. Another seductive recital from a potentially great singer.

Edward Seckerson

RAMEAU: Suite, Les Indes Galantes. Orchestra of the 18th Century / Bruggen (Philips 438 946-2)

FRANS Bruggen's crusade on Rameau's behalf continues - may it go much further. For some, a suite of dances from an early 18th-century French opera-ballet would still seem to be a definite no-go area. They are the losers. The vitality, colouristic brilliance and bold originality of this music transcend its baroque courtly origins, especially when it's played with this kind of elan.

However 'authentic' the Orchestra of the 18th Century may strive to be, they have succeeded in recreating this music for now; there's nothing drily academic, historical in the narrower sense - not a hint of scholarly exercise. And the sound of those period instruments is a delight - lighter in tone, but with more rawness and immediacy. Those who are glutted with high-calorie modern orchestral sound should find this a first- rate refresher.

If only there had been more of it - complaints about underfilled CDs have a tendency to sound like greediness, but 44 minutes is very short measure. SJ

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AFTER the banquet - a tray of delicious sweetmeats. But 44 minutes? That's really not on for a full-price CD - whatever the quality. It's high, of course. Bruggen's orchestra turn on the luxuriant airs and graces as beguilingly as they do the infectious country dancing.

Jean-Philippe Rameau knew what it was to be catchy: a pair of piccolos leaping to the beat of a tambour de basque, the rosiny buzziness of strings kicking up the dust. And he knew just when to spring his colouristic surprises: the arrival of horns and, later, musettes (early bagpipes) in the Prologue, the hazy, grazed strings and eerie flute of the Peruvian Festival of the Sun with its ravishing harmonic suspensions. The locations may be exotic, but the manners are entirely French. Expensive pleasures. ES