EXPANSION OF ART MUSIC HITS HIGH NOTE.

Byline: Scott Duncan Orange County Register

Take a look at what's coming out of Nonesuch Records these days and you get an idea of the diversity occurring in music. Led by executive Robert Hurwitz, Nonesuch has always been an imaginative, contemporary label that in the '70s championed composers such as George Crumb and Peter Maxwell Davies.

But in this decade, Nonesuch seems to be expanding in all directions, on the vanguard of a broader attitude about art music written for and listened to by the public. Consider four recent releases.

In a traditional vein, pianist Richard Goode and the chamber orchestra Orpheus are out with a disc of Mozart piano concertos, the first of a projected set. Representing the label's longtime commitment to what once was called minimalism, there is Steve Reich's ``Proverb.'' In the music theater tradition there is ``Leonard Bernstein's New York,'' where Bernstein's musical theater works are given serious treatment. Finally, in a nod to world music, there is the debut on Nonesuch by Varttina, the Finnish ensemble that has wedded contemporary pop sensibilities to the flavor of the folk tradition of non-Slavic regions of Finland and Russia.

On the heels of his excellent cycle of the Beethoven piano sonatas, Goode embarks on the Mozart Concerto in B-flat major, K.456, and the D-minor, K.466, partnered by the conductorless, New York-based Orpheus ensemble. Need we say the bins of Mozart piano concertos are already full? But there always will be room for quality performances, and these fall in that category.

Goode's musicality blends a rock-steady rhythmic integrity with a coloration and nuance in phrasing and dynamics that combine to create a sense of utter rightness. It is playing that is understated only in that the music emerges in the foreground, while the pianist recedes.

Goode is, in fact, a quite bold, masculine Mozartean. His treatment of the D-minor concerto is dark, robust and, at times, is given a hint of ferocity. He chooses the Beethoven cadenza, which roughens it even more, though he substitutes his own in the final movement, feeling that Beethoven's modulation is inappropriate.

Orpheus brings its usual energy, vitality and stellar musicianship to these performances, which are deeply satisfying and hold great promise, in the tradition of the Murray Perahia collaboration with the English Chamber Orchestra.

Reich's ``City Life'' is the longest work on his new ``Proverb'' disc. ``City Life'' uses a technique Reich has returned to increasingly in the past decade - building melodies and musical textures from speech.

In the case of ``City Life,'' Reich sampled speech and sounds from New York's street life - a cabbie, political speakers, others - and used them them to create rhythms, harmonies and textures of a five-movement piece.

The bits of speech are rearranged in snippets and reverberate in the musical gestures of the instruments of the Steve Reich ensemble, which include keyboard samplers that afford live performance of stored material. The 23-minute piece is on a par with Reich's best work: absorbing, entertaining and horizon-widening.