Despite or because of its youthful excesses the Scythian Suite is no mere pale imitation but a work of genuine

Despite, or because of its youthful excesses, the Scythian Suite is no mere pale imitation but a work of genuine power; that's why he saved it till last.. EMERSON QUARTET | Complete Shostakovich Quartets (DG) Shostakovich's quartets are one of the towering (or should that be tottering?) edifices of 20th-century music. No modern works, not even the same composer's symphonies, have generated such a tangled web of verbal interpretation: are they a private cleansing of the soul, an encrypted barb aimed at the heart of Soviet power, a sentimental retreat? All three and more, no doubt. The Emersons, in London with their Shostakovich this week (see Classical Choice, page 8), favour cool empathy over exaggerated aggression, but these suave performances generate a cumulative intensity that reiterates Shostakovich's power to engage and enrage in equal measure. NICK KIMBERLEY EMERSON QUARTET | Complete Shostakovich Quartets (DG) Shostakovich's quartets are one of the towering (or should that be tottering?) edifices of 20th-century music.

No modern works, not even the same composer's symphonies, have generated such a tangled web of verbal interpretation: are they a private cleansing of the soul, an encrypted barb aimed at the heart of Soviet power, a sentimental retreat? All three and more, no doubt. The Emersons, in London with their Shostakovich this week (see Classical Choice, page 8), favour cool empathy over exaggerated aggression, but these suave performances generate a cumulative intensity that reiterates Shostakovich's power to engage and enrage in equal measure. NICK KIMBERLEY WOLFGANG HOLZMAIR | An die ferne Geliebte (Philips) In a world full of fine baritones, you'd be pushed to find one with a voice more warmly enveloping than Wolfgang Holzmair's. If recording removes some of the startling immediacy of his live performances, this is nevertheless a moving collection of songs by Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. None of the three was first and foremost a song composer, yet Holzmair has an easeful charm that lends even the most skittish piece something close to profundity without ever sounding overwrought. His usual accompanist Imogen Cooper is the soul of tact, their partnership encompassing soaring lyricism and rough humour with equal grace NK. MARC RIBOT| Muy Divertido (Atlantic) The American cult guitarist and occasional accomplice of Tom Waits, John Zorn, Elvis Costello and Marianne Faithfull says he found in the simplicity of Cuban music some of the spirit of old-time rock 'n' roll.

Recorded in New York using a mixture of downtown avant-garde and Latin musicians, Ribot's ninth solo album - a tribute to 1950s composer and bandleader Arsenio Rodriguez - makes for an odd but continually diverting set, in which buzzing, rockabilly guitar sounds, clave beats, and greasy kid-stuff vocals conjure up a kind of Afro-Cuban jazzpunk. Ribot ensures that a Tom Waits sense of the carnivalesque is never far away. PHIL JOHNSON MARC RIBOT| Muy Divertido (Atlantic) The American cult guitarist and occasional accomplice of Tom Waits, John Zorn, Elvis Costello and Marianne Faithfull says he found in the simplicity of Cuban music some of the spirit of old-time rock 'n' roll. Recorded in New York using a mixture of downtown avant-garde and Latin musicians, Ribot's ninth solo album - a tribute to 1950s composer and bandleader Arsenio Rodriguez - makes for an odd but continually diverting set, in which buzzing, rockabilly guitar sounds, clave beats, and greasy kid-stuff vocals conjure up a kind of Afro-Cuban jazzpunk. Ribot ensures that a Tom Waits sense of the carnivalesque is never far away.