Firsts amid an old favorite

“East Meets West”

Music of Shankar, Ravel, De Falla, Bartok and Schnittke. Daniel Hope, violin; Gaurav Mazumdar, sitar; Asok Chakraborty, tabla; Sebastian Knauer, piano and lutheal (Warner Classics)

***

Berg: Violin Concerto. Britten: Violin Concerto

Daniel Hope, violin. BBC Symphony Orchestra. Paul Watkins, conductor (Warner Classics)

***

Mendelssohn: Trio No. 1. Dvorak: “Dumky” Trio

Beaux Arts Trio (Warner Classics)

***

Daniel HOPE is a young British violinist with an ingratiatingly warm, Old World sound and new ideas. New ideas and big ones. A protege of the late Yehudi Menuhin, he takes as his starting point for “East Meets West” Menuhin’s collaboration with Ravi Shankar in the ‘60s, respectfully re-creating two ragas Shankar wrote for that duo to begin and end this recital. But what really makes it a fascinating disc is what comes in between. Ravel’s “Tzigane” is accompanied by a lutheal, a piano with various percussion effects to make it sound gypsy-ish. Long lost, the lutheal has now been re-created, and it sounds delicate and beautiful. Hope also offers works by Bartok and De Falla arranged for violin and lutheal as well as the first recording of a student violin sonata by Alfred Schnittke for violin and piano, written in the style of Ravel.

The concerto disc features another first -- it uses a new edition of the Berg concerto that finally corrects many mistakes in the standard printed score. They are mostly small details, although if you know the concerto well, a rhythm here or there will stand out. It’s mainly of interest, though, for Hope’s lush sound and Romantic approach. The Britten concerto, seldom heard, gets a full-blooded performance that could change a few minds about this early, seldom-heard work.

And then there is the Beaux Arts Trio. Hope is the latest -- and youngest -- violinist to join the original pianist, Menachem Pressler, in the 50-year-old ensemble. The cellist, Antonio Meneses, is also new and young. But the refined, mellow sound of the Beaux Arts remains.

-- Mark Swed

Vivaldi gets his due from Manze

Vivaldi: Concertos for the Emperor

The English Concert. Andrew Manze, director (Harmonia mundi)

*** 1/2

The English Concert, under the leadership of enlightened violinist Andrew Manze, here delivers another in its welcome series of releases devoted to Vivaldi concertos. This set consists of alternative versions of six concertos previously published as part of the Opus 9 set, “La Cetra” (The Lyre). Opus 9 had been dedicated to the Austrian ruler Charles VI, and these alternatives were versions Vivaldi gave the emperor when they met during Charles’ visit to Trieste in 1728. Sweetness and energy characterize the playing, with the muted orchestra effect in Concerto No. 10, “L’amoroso,” especially seductive. Manze also provides several dazzling improvised cadenzas.

-- Chris Pasles

Three albums celebrate Ives

Ives: “Concord” Sonata. Barber: Piano Sonata.

Marc-Andre Hamelin (Hyperion)

****

Ives: “Concord” Sonata. Songs.

Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano. Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano (Warner Classics)

***

Ives: “Concord” Sonata, “Varied Air and Variations,” “The Celestial Railroad,” Transcriptions from “Emerson” No. 1.

Steven Mayer, piano (Naxos)

** 1/2

So far this year, the 50th anniversary of Ives’ death, has brought only these major Ives releases, all of them of the “Concord” Sonata. One might hope for more variety, but the “Concord” is the great American piano sonata, it hasn’t had a significant new recording in years, and the best older ones are out of print. And on top of that, no one has brought to this crazy, wonderful score, with its roof-raising complexities and haunting simplicities, such compelling virtuosity as does the Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin. Barber’s sonata hardly stands up to Ives, but even in it Hamelin’s extraordinary playing makes for compelling listening.

One can learn from the cool analytic approach to the “Concord” of Pierre-Laurent Aimard; the clarity is altogether bracing. But Ives was also a hothead, and the fine French pianist is not. The addition of 17 songs sung by Susan Graham does add an American accent.

Steven Mayer’s is the most straightforward interpretation of the three “Concords” (and it is budget-priced), but he brings the least personality to it. A nice touch, though, are readings by Kerry Shale of excerpts from Ives’ writings about the Transcendentalists that help set the mood before each movement of the “Concord.”

-- M.S.