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A look at some new classical music.

By ZACHARY LEWIS
Published April 2, 2006

Chopin: BALLADES; SCHERZOS; MAZURKAS; EManuel Ax, piano (RCA) - These aren't exactly Chopin's "greatest hits," but maybe they should be. Leaving aside shorter, popular pieces like the Etudes and Preludes, Emanuel Ax devotes himself instead to Chopin's longer, more substantial and lesser known works for solo piano, including the Ballades, Scherzos and Polonaises. Even the single Nocturne here, the lengthy Op. 62 No. 1, isn't famous within its category.

But each of these pieces comprises a cosmos worth inhabiting, and Ax makes an ideal champion. Or at least he did. The disc's cover, featuring a current photo of the pianist, is deceptive. Everything here was first recorded in the late 1970s and mid '80s, a fact made evident by intimate, unfiltered engineering one doesn't hear much anymore. This isn't Chopin of the wistful, silken variety, played in the moonlight with a teary eye. Rather, Ax delivers music with backbone, vitality and passion.

The then-young pianist plays a bit of the Glenn Gould character, too, singing and humming along with his own performances. As distracting as this can be at times, it's worth putting up with a little eccentricity. Drama never flags as Ax traverses the four turbulent Ballades and a set of six volatile Mazurkas with explosive but elastic force.

Were the fully mature Ax to record these works again today, he'd probably turn out something more polished. But this quasi-historical recording deserves to reach beyond the pianist's considerable fan base interested in how he sounded in decades past. It deserves to reach anyone who loves the music of Chopin. A

- ZACHARY LEWIS, Times correspondent

BACH: WORKS FOR TRUMPET; ALISON BALSOM, TRUMPET (EMI Classics) - None of the music on this disc was originally intended for trumpet. All of it in Bach's days went first to singers, keyboardists and string players. But this point shrinks to a minor historical technicality when British trumpeter Alison Balsom plays. Her case for this music on trumpet is largely irresistible, enough to make one wonder whether Bach shouldn't have written it her way instead.

Incredible sensitivity is Balsom's secret. In her hands, the trumpet rivals the human voice for expressivity and tonal coloring. Nary a note comes off as harsh or blaring, qualities typically associated with the instrument, and tenderness abounds. It's hard to split musical hairs at this level of artistry.

What's more, Balsom retains at least part of the music's original format, collaborating with soloists every bit her equal: organist Colm Carey, violinist Alina Ibragimova and harpsichordist Alistair Ross. Ross is a spry partner in the lengthy but fascinating Italian Variations while Carey more than compensates for the missing ensemble in the Bach-Vivaldi concerto transcriptions and other would-be orchestral works.

Balsom falls short only in the selections from a Violin Partita and a Cello Suite. Even a player as marvelous as she is cannot match the chordal richness of those instruments on the trumpet; much original depth is lost in translation. These two missteps aside, Balsom and Bach are an ideal combination. A

- Z.L.

[Last modified March 30, 2006, 12:11:29]