Notable CDs

Why, after a lengthy career establishing their mastery of the Great Medieval Songbook, would these four singing women choose to collaborate with a folk-singer-musician (Molsky) on an 18-song tribute to a 150-year-old hit parade that they’ve declared will be their farewell? The liner notes imply some answers: that pathos knows no spatial-temporal bounds, that the War we will always have with us, etc. The concluding a cappella selections—“Abide with Me,” “Shall We Gather at the River?”—imply a good deal more.

Bach Mass in B Minor

Read up on the history of this magnificent work and you’ll discover a mixture of motivations not uncommon to an age such as Bach’s, in which conflicting, post-Reformation manifestations of the Christian faith and the necessity of rendering unto the Caesars for whom one composed occasionally made strange bedfellows. Repeatedly absorb this thrilling reproduction from beginning to end, and something like optimism regarding the unity of all believers that Christ Himself prayed for will give new meaning to “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Complete Concerto Recordings

There will never be one definitive version of these piano concertos by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, Prokofiev, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky. But this economically priced five-disc collection—documenting over 40 years of collaboration between the Argentine pianist Argerich and orchestras conducted by the recently deceased Abbado—comes close. Whether in the studio or on stage, a passionate precision in keeping with the composers’ original intent seems to be the duo’s goal. And, thanks to commensurately gifted engineers devoted to perfectionistic audio standards, their achievement lives on.

Goldberg Variations

Ambrose Bierce famously, and more or less accurately, defined the accordion as “an instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.” Then again, it’s unlikely that Bierce ever heard it put to the service of this or any other Bach masterwork. Admittedly, the accordion’s dynamic range is limited compared to the piano, the organ, or the harpsichord. But in the hands of the Brussels-born Thuriot, it proves capable of intelligibly translating these 32 interrelated melodies into a fresh musical language.

Spotlight

Short of actually visiting the place, perhaps the quickest way to experience the turbulence and serenity unique to Finland is to listen to the music of its most celebrated living composer, Kalevi Aho. A believer in music’s universal capacity, Aho is nevertheless aware of his music’s nationalistic character. How else to explain his prominent participation in Finland’s official artistic endeavors? Or that the musicians featured on BIS Record’s latest recordings of his compositions—Carolina Eyck (theremin), Annu Salminen (horn), Sonja Fräki (piano), and Jan Lehtola (organ)—are all Finnish?

Fräki’s Works for Solo Piano comprises 31 mostly brief pieces composed between 1965 and 1993, many of which could serve as a Finnish counterpart to the 19th-century Americana of Edward MacDowell’s Woodland Sketches. Lehtola’s Ludus Solemnis: Music for and with Organ demonstrates breathtaking emotional range. Most breathtaking of all: Theremin Concerto/Horn Concerto, in which Eyck’s Lorelei-like theremin playing and singing point the way to heretofore undreamt-of vistas.