Classical reviews: Milos Karadaglic and Linarol Consort

Montenegrin guitarist Milos performs Einaudi and Schumann while Linarol Consort offers up Sixteenth-century viol music

Milos Karadaglic performes during the Laureus Media Award 2011 at Grand Tirolia Golf & Ski Resort (Bongarts/Getty Images)

Milos: The moon and the forest

Works by Howard Shore and Joby Talbot, and arrangements by Michael Lewin of works by Ludovico Einaudi and Robert Schumann

Milos Karadaglic, guitar; BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ben Gernon; Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Shelley

Decca 485 1525

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

There has always seemed something effortless about the Montenegrin guitarist Milos’s rise to stardom: he seemed born to wear the crown which he now does, as the most perfect and versatile master of his instrument, a debonair latter-day Segovia. But in truth nothing has come easily to him. During the Balkan war he applied for a scholarship at the Royal Academy by recording himself in his living room while Allied bombs fell around him; four years ago he suffered a sudden and apparently catastrophic neurological problem which looked like ending his career, and patiently played his way back to health. In 2012 his commanding presence allowed him to play a solo recital in the Royal Albert Hall and to hold his huge audience in the palm of his hand; when he plays in nightclubs (to please his record label) he in no way cheapens his style. Since the guitar repertoire is small, his ambition has long been to commission new works for it.

La La Hö Hö: Sixteenth-century viol music

Linarol Consort

Inventa INV1005

★ ★ ★ ★☆

A freaky title, but a charmingly down-home CD. The viol was – and also very much is, thanks to its new popularity – a softer-voiced ancestor of the violin, with a bleached tone that touches the heart. And viols come in many sizes, hence the proliferation of viol consorts in the Renaissance period. Most of the composers represented here are names new to me, but their music has great charm.