It's been eight years since Kidd's last album, which might explain why she is so mysteriously overlooked in the roster of superior singers. Dreamsville serves to remind what a superb artist she is.
Kidd sings with an authority and heart that should be the envy of other contemporary vocalists. She inhabits a song so completely that it can be difficult to imagine anybody else doing it convincingly. Ballads were always her forte, and her readings
of Dreamsville, Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe and It Never Entered My Mind are simply wonderful. This is top-drawer singing. AV
Carol Kidd: Dreamsville (Linn) £12.99Muthspiel is a marvellous guitarist, and this absorbing new CD holds the attention not just for the quality of his playing , but for the amount of ground it covers. Rock and hip-hop grooves find their way into the programme and are embraced wholeheartedly by the quartet. Muthspiel's solo flights on the likes of Radiohead, Mupemo and What Stays are brilliant, the interplay between him and pianist Jean-Paul Brodbeck is superbly daring, and there is excellent support from brothers Matthias and Andreas Pichler on bass and drums. AV
Wolfgang Muthspiel: Earth Mountain (Material Records) £13.99Franck's F minor Piano Quintet lacks little in scale or ambition, so it was appropriate for the Petersen Quartet to turn to Artur Pizarro for the piano part. He won the Leeds Piano Competition in 1990 and has the presence to make a fine performance memorable. The Quintet's debt to Beethoven is heard not merely in the symphonic structure but in its drama and the warmth of tone which the Petersen brings to the String Quartet is balanced by an unfailing clarity of line. Fine recording quality. RC
Cesar Franck: Piano Quintet, String Quartet. Phoenix Edition, 142. £12.99 John Scott Whiteley, the organist of York Minster, is a musician of impressive range, as persuasive in the Baroque as in French Romantic repertoire. His exploration of pieces by French and Belgian composers from the 19th and 20th centuries yields lovely miniatures like the Berceuse marine by Maurice Guillame and the Scherzo-Caprice by Desire Paque. Also striking in their freshness are the seven pieces by Joris Verdin and Whiteley's own transcription of a symphony improvised by Pierre Cochereau in 1963. RC
Organ Music from York Minster. Regent, REGCD275. £13.99 Andrew Vine (Jazz), and Robert Cockroft (classical/opera)
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