Album Reviews

This second album from the New York-based six-piece picks up perfectly from where their excellent 2007 debut Fort Nightly left off. Opener and current single Percussion Gun is typical of the album as a whole; frantic drums (living up to the song's title), thumping piano and guitars that could have been dragged from Radiohead's epic The Bends. White Rabbits have two frontmen, Greg Roberts and Stephen Patterson, and it works a treat, their voices capable of gelling together and clashing when necessary. AW

Pat Metheny: Orchestrion (Nonesuch) 12.99

There's been a lot of web chatter about this new CD by the guitar maestro, because none of his accompanists is human. The Orchestrion is a roomful of instruments played by computers and mechanical contraptions, over which Metheny solos. So is it any good? Well, yes and no. Metheny is plainly inspired by the experiment, delivering solos that are technically brilliant and inventive. The problem is that the mechanics of the music tend to obscure its content. It's a worthy experiment, but Metheny has long demonstrated that he plays best with people. AV

Enrico Rava/Ran Blake: Duo en Noir (Between the Lines) 12.99

The great Italian trumpeter and the super-sensitive American pianist are a perfect pairing on this absorbing live session from 1999. Unusually for both players, the programme is mostly standards, and they achieve their stated aim to summon up an atmosphere of film noir. Apart from a sprightly Tea for Two, Rava and Blake opt for very slow tempos on Nature Boy, There's No You and an original, Certi Angoli, and this allows the lyricism to unfold very appealingly. Rava is a brilliant player and his intensely melodic solos are delightful. AV

Verdi: Don Carlos (Chandos CHAN 3162) (3CDs) 19.99

Opera North's most successful production of the decade now forms a highly desirable part of Chandos's ongoing Opera in English series. John Tomlinson is brought in as the Grand Inquisitor, but otherwise it is last year's cast seen headed by the lyric tenor of Julian Gavin as Carlos, Janice Watson as a charming Elisabeth, and a suitably tormented Philip from Alister Miles. Remarkably good diction in excellent recorded sound from the Leeds Town Hall, the superb orchestral playing, under Richard Farnes, being the jewel in the crown. DD

Schubert: String Quartets Nos. 14 & 15/String Quintet EMI 9 67025 2 (2CDs) 13.99

Four young students came to Sheffield's Crucible Studio, and within minutes you knew they were destined to be famous. Their name was the Belcea Quartet, and a couple of decades later they have become living legends. Using a wide dynamic range, they give us some of the most captivating Schubert on disc. Purity and tenderness pervade their Death and the Maiden quartet, and nowhere will you find the Quintet's lyrical passages more affectingly played. DD