Born in 1971‚ Matthias Pintscher is by some way the youngest German composer with the beginnings of an international reputation. His reputation in Germany is already secure: his opera about Thomas Chatterton (the English writer who died in 1770 at the age of 17) was first heard in Dresden in 1998‚ the Hérodiade­Fragmente were premièred by the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado in 1999. That reputation undoubtedly has much to do with the way Pintscher has adopted a kind of ‘mainstream’ Expressionism stemming from Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Wolfgang Rihm. And although opinions will vary about the success of the works on this disc‚ there’s no denying either the confidence or the competence of a young composer who is so evidently at ease with large­scale vocal and orchestral forms. Both the extracts from Thomas Chatterton‚ and Hérodiade­Fragmente‚ the latter using a French text by Mallarmé‚ deal with extreme psychological states. Compared to the inescapable model for such scenas‚ Schoenberg’s Erwartung‚ Pintscher’s designs seem dangerously episodic‚ their extreme contrasts of texture and dynamics intensified in a recorded sound of the widest dynamic range imaginable. Nevertheless‚ the frequent climaxes are imposing‚ not merely overblown‚ and both end with particularly gripping music‚ the Mallarmé setting surprisingly light and matter­of­fact after all the trauma that has gone before‚ the Chatterton extracts marvellously restrained in their depiction of the young writer’s empty desolation. The third work‚ Sur ‘Départ’ (also 1999)‚ is a shorter meditation on a poem by Rimbaud which is less overtly expressionistic‚ but equally uncompromising in its stark juxtaposition of calm and less rarefied states. The Chatterton excerpts have been recorded before‚ sung by Urban Malmberg and conducted by the composer. Dietrich Henschel is a fine soloist on this new release‚ and‚ given the challenges of the vocal line‚ he can be forgiven for not sounding like a 17­year­old. Claudia Barainsky is simply stunning in Hérodiade­Fragmente‚ managing the many stratospheric phrases even more effortlessly than those in the middle register‚ while Christoph Eschenbach with the NDR chorus and orchestra is most persuasive in support. Pintscher’s voice demands to be heard‚ and even if he moves away quite quickly from the more strident‚ heavily orchestrated qualities of these particular compositions – a work completed in 2001 involves live electronics – the music on this disc will provide a useful reminder of where he started from.