Classical: Gidon Kremer/naoko Yoshino; Peter Blanchette/the Virtual Consort

GIDON KREMER/NAOKO YOSHINO
Insomnia
PRODUCER: Wilhelm Hellweg
Philips 289-456-016
"Insomnia" is the latest of violinist Gidon Kremer's border-bounding concept albums, recorded in 1996 in Japan while on tour with harpist Naoko Yoshino. The theme here is West meets East, with artful simplicity the common thread among pieces by Michio Miyagi, Yuji Takahashi, and Toru Takemitsu; Erik Satie and Jean Fran‡aix; John Cage and Kaija Saariaho; and Arvo Part and Alfred Schnittke, plus two wild-card inclusions-Nino Rota (a solo harp take on "The Godfather" theme) and Richard Strauss (the "Daphne" Etude for solo violin). The album revolves around the 15-minute ghost opera of Takahashi's title piece, written especially for the duo. Other highlights include Cage's "Six Melodies" and Part's "Spiegel Im Spiegel," both of which are more compelling with the exotic harp supplanting the usual piano. Emblematic of the entire moonlit affair is Takemitsu's arrangement of Satie's "Le Files Des Etoiles," a piece of entrancing beauty in which less is definitely more.

PETER BLANCHETTE/THE VIRTUAL CONSORT
Had Miles Met Maurice
PRODUCER: Peter Blanchette
Dorian 93198
The "Miles" of "Had Miles Met Maurice" is Miles Davis, and the "Maurice" is Maurice Ravel, giving an indication of the alchemical agenda of this odd but endearing album. Peter Blanchette plays the lutelike, 11-string alto arch-guitar, joined by Charlie Schneeweis on trumpet and Jean Chaine on tenor arch-guitar and electric bass. The instrumentation makes for a spare, sinewy sound, particularly persuasive with the jazzy impressionism of the title track (even though Schneeweis has a tone more akin to Mark Isham's sanguine lyricism than to Davis' plangent haiku). If the takes on Satie's Gymnopedies are too glib, the Renaissance pieces work especially well, as do the upbeat items from the Nino Rota book. Beyond its appeal to record buyers, the album's quiet dynamism seems like a gold mine for bumper and background music for public radio stations. Distributed in North America by Allegro and in the U.K. by Priory.