On track: Adoration to the last arpeggio

By WILLIAM DART

Pity Henri Herz (1803-1888), "doomed to rapid oblivion", according to the 1954 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Fifty years later, this remarkable composer, pianist and piano manufacturer has not quite faded away.

His music is alive, well and lovingly played by British pianist Howard Shelley on Hyperion's latest instalment of its Romantic Piano Concertos series.

Herz was an inveterate showman. He may have baulked when the entrepreneur P.T. Barnum suggested he appear in concert as an angel, descending from heaven to keyboard, but he was happy to lead a contingent of 16 pianos in a Hommage a Washington spectacular.

Shelley has selected three of Herz' concertos that cover the composer's career, and the music bubbles happily along, especially when it is on the Allegro side. Only in the slow movements, despite romantic horns and Chopinesque finery, does one occasionally long for more emotional engagement.

Shelley obviously adores it all to the last rippling arpeggio, and revels in its often quaint mood painting, from coquettish Spanish Rondo to mock-chivalrous Polonaise.

With solid support from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, vividly caught in Hobart's music-friendly Federation Concert Hall, this CD is a rare pleasure.

There is also pleasure to be had, albeit it of the guilty variety, from the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Their latest release, As Time Goes By, finds them taking a trip to the movies. Although yet another version of the dreaded Titanic theme should have been tossed overboard in the planning stages, there is enough musical wit here to keep this venture securely afloat.

The cellists amuse themselves with sliding dissonances for Morricone's Man with the Harmonica and pump some Puccini into the theme from La Strada, while the title number could almost slip into the pages of Richard Strauss.

Guests include the elegant Max Raabe, of Palace Orchestra fame, who tells us, tongue in cheek, all about the Bare Necessities.

There's a serious note, too. A subtly coloured arrangement of Jerry Goldsmith's Basic Instinct theme proves a timely tribute for the great film composer who died just last week.

* Henri Herz, Piano Concertos (Hyperion CDA 67465, through Ode Records); The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic, As Time Goes By (EMI Classics 57789)