LACHENMANN: Piano Music. Marino Formenti (pno). collegno WWE 1CD 20222.

ELLIOTT CARTER: What Next? Valdine Anderson, Sarah Leonard, Hilary Summers, William Joyner, Dean Elzinga, Emanuel Hoogeveen, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra c. by Peter Eötvös. ECM New Series 1817

In describing the performance of three extraordinary pieces by the Czech composer Pavel Novák, I have to begin by declaring an interest in my capacity as Artistic Director of the Deal Summer Music Festival, at which he was a featured composer. Novák was born in Brno in 1957, and has achieved a high reputation in Moravia, where he is now acknowledged to be the leading composer of his generation. He is not yet well known outside the Czech Republic, although the Schubert Ensemble have commissioned three pieces from him – Lord, We Seek the Song of the Chosen for piano trio (1991); Royal Funeral Procession to Iona for piano quintet (1995); St Mary Variations for piano quartet (2000) – and have played them in Britain and abroad. Novák's teacher, Miloslav IÎtvan, was a pupil of Janáček's pupil Jaroslav Kvapil, and Novák, more than any other composer in Moravia, seems the true inheritor of the Janáček tradition. That tradition remains a vital force in Brno, partly because Janáček is the most local of composers and his music still, and in a vital way, haunts his home town with its Janáček Academy (where Novak studied), and the Janáček Theatre (where Novak played the oboe for a number of years in the opera orchestra) at which Janáček's operas are performed as nowhere else, players and singers alike attuned to the Moravian dialect; partly through the continuing vitality of Moravian folksong, whose spirit and melodic contours inform Novák's music as they did Janáček's.

When Lan Shui, Music Director of the Singapore Symphony, began the 14–15 November 2003 pair of concerts with Joan Tower's first Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, he specifically had in mind who would follow: Evelyn Glennie, who entered wearing a black lace blouse with solid black breast-plate, black lace cape, and hot, tight, flaming red sequined slacks with a large bare metal cross around her neck. I exclaimed, ‘Now that's the kind of priest I'd like in my church!’

HENZE: Scorribanda Sinfonica sopra la Tomba di una Maratona; Antifone; Piano Concerto No. 11. Christopher Tainton (pno), Norddeutschen Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester c. Peter Ruzicka. Wergo 6657 2

There would hardly seem to be a composer better placed to write a concerto for orchestra than Magnus Lindberg: his complete mastery of orchestral texture – demonstrated in a string of modern classics, Joy (1989–90), Arena (1994–95), Feria (1997) and Cantigas (1998–99) among them – makes it a wonder he hasn't tackled the genre before now. Indeed, he quietly billed the magnificent Aura (1994–95) as a concerto for orchestra, although in reality it's as good a symphony as anyone has written this past half-century – my suspicion is that the label allowed him to dodge the issue.

BERNARD STEVENS: Piano Trio op.3; Sonata for violin and piano op.1; Trio for horn, violin and piano op.38; Fantasia on a theme of Dowland for violin and piano op.23; Improvisation for solo violin op.48a. The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble – Kenneth Sillito (vln), Stephen Orton (vlc), Hamish Milne (pno), Timothy Brown (hn). Albany Records TROY 572.

KLETZKI: Symphony No. 3, In Memoriam; Concertino for Flute and Orchestra. Sharon Bezaly (fl), Norrköping Symphony Orchestra c. Thomas Sanderling. BIS CD-1399.

A Vision and a Journey is David Matthews's op. 60 – a neat coincidence, then, that the first performance of its revised version should be part of the celebrations of his sixtieth birthday. The work is part of a series of imposing orchestral scores Matthews has been composing over the past two decades, beginning with In the Dark Time in 1983 and continuing with Chaconne in 1985 and The Music of Dawn two years later; this one followed in 1993, when it was premièred by Yan Pascal Tortelier and the BBC Philharmonic, but it underwent a thoroughgoing revision between March 1996 and March 1997. I asked the composer before the concert what the revisions had entailed: ‘I completely rewrote the whole thing. It's more or less a new work’.

Claire van Kampen, the Director of Music at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on London's Bankside, followed up her jazz score for Macbeth and innovative minimalist style score for Cymbeline – complete with authentic ritualistic temple gongs from Burma – with an intriguing modern score for one of the plays for Season 2003 too.

‘Frédéric Rapin: Concertos suisses pour clarinettes’. Works by HERBERT FRIES, ARMIN SCHIBLER, JEAN BINET, JEAN BALISSAT, ANDOR KOVACH and ALEXIS CHALIER. Frédéric Rapin (cl), Kammerorchester Arpeggione Hohenems c. Jean-François Antonioli. Musiques Suisses Grammont Portrait MGB CTS-M 80.

‘Musik in Luzern: Kammermusik Duo Lang’. FRITZ BRUN: Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano. THÜRING BRÄM: Album ‘Goodbye Seventies’. With works by MENDELSSOHN and RACHMANINOV. Brigitte Lang (vln), Yvonne Lang (pno). GALLO CD-1084.

‘Rhapsodische Kammermusik aus der Schweiz’. ERNST LEVY: Quintet in C minor for 2 violins, viola, cello and double bass1. HERMANN SUTER: Sextet in C major for 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos and double bass2. FRANK MARTIN: Rhapsodie for 2 violins, 2 violas and double bass3. Florian Kellerhals, Stefan Häussler (vlns), 2,3Nicolas Corti, 1,3Bodo Friedrich (vlas), Imke Frank, 2Matthias Kuhn (vcs), Andreas Cincera (db). Musiques Suisses MGB CD 6201.

HERMANN SUTER: Symphony in D minor. HANS JELMOLI: Three Pieces for Orchestra from the comic opera Sein Vermächtnis. Moscow Symphony Orchestra c. Adriano. Sterling CDS-1052-2.

CASELLA: Complete Piano Music. Lya de Barberiis (pno). Warner Fonit 0927 47043-2 (3-CD set).

GEORGE CRUMB: The Complete Piano Music. Makrokosmos 1; Makrokosmos 2; Five Pieces for Piano; Gnomic Variations; Processional; A Little Suite for Christmas Philip Mead (pno). Metier MSV CD92067 (2-CD Set).

The demise of the Symphony is frequently announced, yet easily refuted by the quality of contemporary works bearing that title. Many recent examples have been written by British composers – Anthony Powers's Second, James MacMillan's Third, David Matthews's Fifth and Peter Maxwell Davies's Seventh, for example. To this distinguished list must be added Julian Anderson's Symphony. His four previous orchestral works contain sufficient structural ingenuity and intellectual rigour to make the cogency of his new piece no great surprise, yet it also offers some of Anderson's most lyrical as well as intricate writing.

Big Noise – heard in London on 21 November and repeated at the Dome (Corn Exchange) in Brighton on the 22nd – was a collaboration between the highly idiosyncratic New Music ensembles Orkest de Volharding (Holland) and Icebreaker (UK). The former was established by the amazingly influential Dutch composer Louis Andriessen: reacting against the elitist music of his youth, he saw the need for a new type of Art-music ensemble which could travel into the streets and play music with a broad appeal. Borrowing from the model of Dutch street bands (the equivalent, perhaps, of the UK's brass bands), jazz of the 1920s, Minimal music coming out of America and the European avant-garde, Andriessen created an ensemble and a language with an overt non-elitist agenda.

Psanterin: Anthology of Israeli Music for Piano. Liora Ziv-Li, Allan Sternfield, Ora Rotem-Nelken, Herut Israeli, Tomer Lev, Michal Tal, Natasha Tadson, Yuval Admoni, Astrith Baltsan, Allon Goldstein (pianists). Israel Music Center IMCD: 104–112 (9-CD set) produced by The Israel Composers League and the Israeli Music Center (IMC), 55 Begin Rd, Tel Aviv, Israel. (Tel/fax:00-972-(0)3-562 1282. Email: [email protected]

MARGARET BROUWER: Lament for violin, clarinet, bassoon and percussion12,4,6,10; Light for soprano, harpsichord, flute, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion1,7,2,5,13,14,11; Under the Summertree for piano8; Skyriding for flute, violin, cello & piano3,13,14,9; Demeter Prelude for string quartet15. 1Sandra Simon (sop), 2Sean Gabriel (fl), 3Alice Kogan Weinreb (fl), 4Jean Kopperud (cl), 5Amitai Vardi (cl), 6Donald McGeen (bsn), 7Jeanette Sorrell (hpschd), 8Kathryn Brown (pno), 9Mitsuko Morikawa (pno), 10Dominic Donato (perc), 11Scott Christian (perc), 12Laura Frautschi (vln), 13Gabriel Bolkosky (vln), 14Ida Mercer (vlc), 15Cavani String Quartet. New World 80606-2.

CHEN YI: Momentum; Chinese Folk Dance Suite for violin and orchestra1; Dunhuang Fantasy for organ and chamber wind ensemble3; Romance and Dance for 2 violins and string orchestra1,2; Tu. 1Cho-Liang Lin (vln), 2Yi-Jia Susanne Hou (vln), 3Kimberley Marshall (org), Singapore SO c. Lan Shui. BIS-CD-1352.

SADIE HARRISON: The Light Garden for mixed quintet1; The Fourteenth Terrace for clarinet and ensemble2; Bavad Khair Baqi! for solo violin3. Traditional Afghan Music4. 1Tate Ensemble, 2Andrew Spalding (cl), Lontano c. Odaline de la Martinez, 3Peter Sheppard Skærved (vln), 4Ensemble Bakhtar. Metier MSV CD92084.

MISATO MOCHIZUKI: Si bleu, si calme1; All that is including me for bass flute, clarinet and violin1,2,3; Chimera; Intermezzi I for flute & piano1,4; La chamber claire. 1Eva Furrer (fl, bass fl), 2Bernhard Zachhuber (cl), 3Sophie Schafleitner (vln), 4Marino Formenti (pno), Klangforum Wien c. Johannes Kalitzke. Kairos 0012402KAI

ONUTE NARBUTAITE: Symphony No. 2; Liberatio for 12 winds, cymbals & 4 strings; Metabole for chamber orchestra. Lithuanian National SO c.Robertas Fervenikas. Finlandia 0927-49597-2.

ALLA PAVLOVA: Symphony No. 1, Farewell Russia1,3,4; Symphony No.32,3,5. 1Leonid Lebedev (fl), Nikolay Lotakov (picc), Mikhail Shestakov (vln), Valery Brill (vlc), Mikhail Adamovich (pno); 2Olga Verdernikova (vln), 3Russian PO c. 4Konstantin D. Krimets, 5Alexander Vedernikov. Naxos 8.557157.

‘APPARENZE: Collana di Nuove Musiche 1997’. Works by SILVIA DELITALA, RITA PORTERA, CATERINA DE CARLO, BEATRICE CAMPODONICO, PAOLA CIAR-LANTINI, JANET MAGUIRE, MARCO SANTAM BROGIO, PAOLO MINETTI, FEDERICO MONTAGNER, RINALDO BELLUCCI and BIAGIO PUTIGNANO. Maria Vittoria Vallese (sop), Pia Zanca, Fiametta Facchini, Rinaldo Bellucci (pnos), Duo Soncini-Flückiger, Italian Guitar Quartet, Ensemble Paul Klee, Fabrizio Fantini, Gianluca Calonghi (cls), Giuseppe Giannotti (ob). Radio Onda d'Urto E.F.B 001.