Detlev Glanert: "Caligula"; Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, conducted by Markus Stenz (Oehms) This opera, based on Albert Camus' play, portrays the unbalanced Roman emperor as a prototypical dictator playing God -- with such dramatically resourceful results you wonder why the idea wasn't hatched sooner.
Glanert uses the orchestra to mold dramatically purposeful, tautly paced soliloquies, duets and choruses that have a basis in German modernism, but with a degree of color, histrionic specificity and even melody that one doesn't associate with the more literary operas of this genre.
Few new operas are heard in such a fully realized performance, a significant force being conductor Markus Stenz. This recording, plus his excellent Mahler symphony discs (also on the Oehms label), mark him as a major talent. The only drawback in the set is the lack of an English libretto.
DAVID PATRICK STEARNS, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Bach: Suite for Unaccompanied Cello No. 3; Britten: Cello Sonata in C; Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 2; Miklos Perenyi with Denes Varjon (Wigmore Hall Live)
Now in his early 60s, Hungarian cellist Miklos Perenyi is giving such interpretively well-chiseled performances that American audiences might wonder why he wasn't better noticed decades ago. Recordings suggest why: Previous outings with the same repertoire haven't been nearly as interesting as this 2009 live performance.
Besides showing a more interpretively evolved musician, the new disc has a refinement that more clearly conveys the subtlety of his musical thoughts. And that's exactly what the rarely heard Britten sonata needs to emerge as a major work (with equal credit going to pianist Denes Varjon). The Brahms sonata isn't just deep; its extreme register changes are managed with great intelligence.
DAVID PATRICK STEARNS, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
