Classical Keeping Score:

GYPSY AIRS: The ridiculous and the sublime go hand in hand with the career of live wire Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Following her enterprising Nonesuch debut-a '98 re-creation of the virtuoso Romantic soundtrack to the 1947 film "Humoresque"-the 39-year-old violinist was the subject of a jaw-droppingly bad documentary called "Speaking In Strings" (which bowed at the Sundance Film Festival and just aired on HBO), with a mediocre EMI anthology disc accompanying the film. Now, though, the tide has turned again with a very special Nonesuch album, as Salerno-Sonnenberg performs with the Brazilian guitar duo of Sergio & Odair Assad in a set of Gypsy-flavored material due out Jan. 18.
Drawing on airs born of the Gypsy tradition from Russia to Spain, the boldly rhythmic, intensely colored compositions were written and arranged by Sergio Assad-except for a turn on "Nuages," a signature tune by that French jazz guitar great of Gypsy extraction, Django Reinhardt. "This is definitely not the kind of Gypsy music that you hear as background in restaurants," Salerno-Sonnenberg says. "Sergio's writing is very exciting and very sophisticated, and he has come up with some cruelly difficult parts for his brother and I to play. And even though it was daunting to try to fit in with their incredible rapport, we're altogether simpatico as a trio. The music is just so vibrant that I can't wait to take it on the road."
Salerno-Sonnenberg gets her chance when she and the Assads embark on a five-date club tour that crosses the U.S., from Jan. 25 at Joe's Pub in New York to Feb. 2 at Largo in Los Angeles. Two additional treks across America are to follow, with dates also planned for Europe and Japan. Salerno-Sonnenberg is so high on her partnership with the Assads that she is already thinking of another Nonesuch album project with the label-resident duo, perhaps of Baroque repertoire. Her long-held relationship with EMI also continues, with an album of William Bolcom music possibly in the works.
MAJOR-LABELS' 2000: Joining the Nonesuch album from Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the Assad brothers in the Atlantic group's new-year release schedule is a Jan. 18 Teldec "best of" from the wonderful Brodsky Quartet, including tracks from the group's collaborations with Elvis Costello and Icelandic pop oddity Björk. March finds the label entering the DVD Audio arena with a Beethoven symphony cycle from Daniel Barenboim and Johann Strauss from Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Teldec also promises a spring set from a bright new signing: young Canadian cabaret chanteuse Patricia O'Callaghan, who manages to find common ground among Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, and Kurt Weill. In February, Finlandia will have a disc from Esa-Pekka Saraste and the Toronto Symphony featuring Henri Dutilleux's sublime Symphony No. 2, "Metaboles," and "Timbre, Espace, Mouvement." Also in February, soprano Dawn Upshaw will have an Erato album of French melodies from Dutilleux, Debussy, Ravel, and Satie. And April brings from Erato a much-awaited Handel "Alcina," with William Christie leading the starry soprano trio of Ren e Fleming, Susan Graham, and Natalie Dessay.
Leading the way in Universal Classic's coming attractions are several issues in Deutsche Grammophon's "20/21" contemporary music series, including Elliott Carter's "Symphonia" and Peter Eotvos' opera "Three Sisters" in January and albums revolving around Magnus Lindberg's "Aura" and Pierre Boulez's "Sur Incises" in April. In the realm of big stars and standard repertoire, Decca has a Schumann recital from baritone Bryn Terfel in January, and Philips has the long-awaited Tchaikovsky "Pathetique" from Valery Gergiev and his Kirov Orchestra. Crossover-wise, Decca Broadway brings out the original cast recording of Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus" this month to accompany its revival on the Great White Way, and Philips has an Andrea Bocelli "Sacred Arias" VHS set for April. Also in April, Decca brings us cabaret knockout Ute Lemper's "Punishing Kiss," which features her singing the Costello title tune and songs written for her by the likes of Tom Waits and Philip Glass. With ECM having joined the Universal distribution stable in the U.S. last year, many of the label's classic catalog titles will be available at retail again starting this month. On Feb. 1, ECM New Series has the first new all-instrumental Arvo P rt album in ages, as well as Hilliard tenor John Potter's Dowland project and discs devoted to pieces by Erkki-Sven Tuur and Veljo Tormis.
EMI Classics kicks off the new year with a Jacqueline Du Pr documentary on VHS. In February, the label has "Classic Kennedy," a collection of crowd-pleasers from the singularly named British fiddler. Kennedy also has an EMI set of duos with cellist Lynn Harrell due in May. That month should also bring the first new solo recital album in many moons from the super-hot Martha Argerich, whose unreleased 1966 debut recital of Chopin was last year's most spectacular find. EMI's aptly named "Great Recordings Of The 20th Century" series resumes in March, with Walter Geiseking's Debussy Preludes, George Szell's Mahler "Das Knaben Wunderhorn" with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Itzhak Perlman's Paganini "Caprices," among others. March on Virgin Classics promises comely French soprano Veronique Gens' 20th-century debut on record, as she sings Debussy and other melodies with ace accompanist Roger Vignoles. And in April, Angel Records issues a second set of engaging acoustica from San Francisco's Tin Hat Trio, a group that would top the charts in a more perfect world.
Sony Classical opens with more strong titles in its "Bernstein Century" edition, as well as two February discs from polyglot composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. In addition to the spring "Appalachia Waltz" redux, Sony has several winning new albums from its star violinists. Young Hilary Hahn's set pairs the Barber concerto with the premiere take on Edgar Meyer's concerto. And Joshua Bell teams with Esa-Pekka Salonen on the Sibelius and rarely heard Goldmark concertos, and he plays the highly touted Nicholas Maw Violin Concerto with Roger Norrington. Along with a new album by Belgian lounge act Helmut Lotti, RCA has several first-quarter entries in its "High Performance" reissue series and gives super-virtuoso Evgeny Kissin the VHS/DVD Video treatment with "A Gift Of Music."