American Record Guide - Emmanuel Siffert - conductor
American Record Guide - Emmanuel Siffert - conductor
American Record Guide - Emmanuel Siffert - conductor
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<strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />
Independent Critics Reviewing Classical <strong>Record</strong>ings and Music in Concert<br />
&<br />
us $7.99<br />
September/October 2011<br />
<strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />
Side 1<br />
San Francisco Ring—3 Views<br />
Carnegie's “Spring for Music”<br />
Buffalo Phil's 2 premieres<br />
L.A. Master Chorale<br />
Montreal Piano Competition<br />
Festivals:<br />
Boston Early Music<br />
Spoleto USA<br />
Fayetteville Chamber Music<br />
Montreal Chamber Music<br />
Mahler's 100th:<br />
MTT's Nos. 2, 6, 9<br />
Crakow Phil Festival<br />
Over 500 Reviews
Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 1<br />
Contents<br />
Sullivan & Dalton Carnegie’s “Spring for Music” Festival 4<br />
Seven Orchestras, Adventurous Programs<br />
Gil French Cracow’s Mahler Festival 7<br />
Discoveries Abound<br />
Jason Victor Serinus MTT and the San Francisco Symphony 10<br />
Mahler Recapped<br />
Brodie, Serinus & Ginell San Francisco Opera’s Ring Cycle 12<br />
Three Views<br />
Brodie & Kandell Ascension’s New Pascal Quoirin Organ 16<br />
French and Baroque Traditions on Display<br />
Perry Tannenbaum Spoleto USA 19<br />
Renewed Venues, Renewed Spirit<br />
John Ehrlich Boston Early Music Festival 22<br />
Dart and Deller Would Be Proud<br />
Richard S Ginell Mighty Los Angeles Master Chorale 24<br />
Triumphing in Brahms to Ellington<br />
Herman Trotter Buffalo Philharmonic 26<br />
Tyberg Symphony, Hagen Concerto<br />
Melinda Bargreen Schwarz’s 26 Year Seattle Legacy 28<br />
Au Revoir But Not Good-Bye<br />
Bill Rankin Edmonton’s Summer Solstice Festival 30<br />
Chamber Music for All Tastes<br />
Gil French Fayetteville Chamber Music Festival 32<br />
The World Comes to Central Texas<br />
Robert Markow Bang! You’ve Won 34<br />
Montreal Music Competition<br />
Robert Markow Osaka's Competitions and Orchestras 35<br />
<strong>American</strong>, Dutch, French, and Russian Winners<br />
Edward Greenfield Glyndebourne’s First Meistersinger 38<br />
Dressing Well (and Warmly) at Garsington<br />
Coming in the Next Issue:<br />
Festivals Galore:<br />
Bavarian State Opera<br />
Bellingham<br />
Here & There 40<br />
Opera & Concerts Everywhere 42<br />
Critical Convictions 50<br />
Meet the Critic: Don O’Connor 53<br />
<strong>Guide</strong> to <strong>Record</strong>s 54<br />
Collections 178<br />
The Newest Music 227<br />
Broadway 234<br />
Archives 235<br />
Videos 243<br />
Books 254<br />
<strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> Publications 256<br />
Cabrillo<br />
Festival of the Sound<br />
Glimmerglass<br />
Music at Menlo<br />
Ohio Light Opera<br />
And Much More...
Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 2<br />
www.<strong>American</strong><strong>Record</strong><strong>Guide</strong>.com<br />
e-mail: subs@americanrecordguide.com<br />
Editor: Donald R Vroon<br />
Vol 74, No 5 September/October 2011 Our 76th Year of Publication<br />
Editor, Music in Concert: Gil French<br />
Art Director: Ray Hassard<br />
Design & Layout: Lonnie Kunkel<br />
..Advertising: Elaine Fine (217) 345-4310<br />
Reader Service: (513) 941-1116<br />
CORRESPONDENTS<br />
<strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />
ATLANTA: James L Paulk<br />
BOSTON: John W Ehrlich<br />
BUFFALO: Herman Trotter<br />
CHICAGO: John Von Rhein<br />
CLEVELAND: Robert Finn<br />
LOS ANGELES: Richard S Ginell<br />
NEW YORK: Susan Brodie, Joseph Dalton,<br />
Leslie Kandell<br />
SAN FRANCISCO: Jason Victor Serinus<br />
SANTA FE: James A Van Sant<br />
SEATTLE: Melinda Bargreen<br />
LONDON: Edward Greenfield, Kate Molleson<br />
CANADA: Bill Rankin<br />
PHOTO CREDITS<br />
Page 4: Photo by © Steve J. Sherman.<br />
Page 8: Photo by J.Wrzesinski<br />
Page 10: Photo by Bill Swerbenski<br />
Page 11: Photo Courtesy of SFO<br />
Page 12: Photo by Cory Weaver<br />
Page 16 & 18: Phot by Tom Ligamari<br />
Page 19 & 21: Photo by William Struhs<br />
Page 22 & 23: Photos by BEMF.org<br />
Page 24: Photo by Steve Cohn<br />
Page 25: Photo by Lee Salem<br />
Page 27: Photo by Mark Dellas<br />
Page 28: Photo by unknown<br />
Page 31: Photo by Twain Newhart<br />
Page 36: Photo courtesy of Attacca<br />
PAST EDITORS<br />
Peter Hugh Reed 1935-57<br />
James Lyons 1957-72<br />
Milton Caine 1976-81<br />
John Cronin 1981-83<br />
Doris Chalfin 1983-85<br />
Grace Wolf 1985-87<br />
RECORD REVIEWERS<br />
Paul L Althouse<br />
Brent Auerbach<br />
John W Barker<br />
Carl Bauman<br />
Alan Becker<br />
William Bender<br />
John Boyer<br />
Charles E Brewer<br />
Brian Buerkle<br />
Ira Byelick<br />
Stephen D Chakwin Jr<br />
Ardella Crawford<br />
Stephen Estep<br />
Donald Feldman<br />
Elaine Fine<br />
Gil French<br />
William J Gatens<br />
Allen Gimbel<br />
Todd Gorman<br />
Philip Greenfield<br />
Steven J Haller<br />
Lawrence Hansen<br />
Patrick Hanudel<br />
James Harrington<br />
Rob Haskins<br />
Roger Hecht<br />
David Jacobsen<br />
Benjamin Katz<br />
Page 40: Photo by Sussie Ahlberg<br />
Page 38: Photo by Alastair Muir<br />
Page 42: Photo by Scot Ferguson<br />
Page 46: Photo by Bonnie Perkinson<br />
Kenneth Keaton<br />
Barry Kilpatrick<br />
Mark Koldys<br />
Lindsay Koob<br />
Kraig Lamper<br />
Mark L Lehman<br />
Vivian A Liff<br />
Peter Loewen<br />
Ralph V Lucano<br />
Joseph Magil<br />
Michael Mark<br />
John P McKelvey<br />
Donald E Metz<br />
Catherine Moore<br />
David W Moore<br />
Robert A Moore<br />
Kurt Moses<br />
Don O’Connor<br />
Charles H Parsons<br />
David Radcliffe<br />
David Schwartz<br />
Jack Sullivan<br />
Richard Traubner<br />
Donald R Vroon
Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 3<br />
Music in Concert highlights<br />
September 7-14<br />
Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony celebrate<br />
the gala opening of L’Adresse Symphonique,<br />
Montreal’s new symphony hall,<br />
with works by three Quebec composers and<br />
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Four nights later<br />
the Borodin Quartet performs Quartets Nos. 15<br />
by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Then Nagano<br />
inaugurates the MSO’s regular season with<br />
Joshua Bell (Glazounov and Tchaikovsky) and<br />
Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony with pianist<br />
Angela Hewitt.<br />
September 9-10<br />
Joana Carneiro leads the St Paul Chamber<br />
Orchestra in the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s<br />
Luminous Body. Also on the program are<br />
works by Bach, Haydn, and Brahms at the Ordway<br />
Center.<br />
September 10-30<br />
The San Francisco Opera gives the world premiere<br />
of Christopher Theofanidis’s Heart of a<br />
Soldier with Thomas Hampson, William Burden,<br />
and Melody Moore conducted by Patrick<br />
Summers and directed by Francesca Zambello<br />
at War Memorial Opera House.<br />
September 14-15<br />
The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio perform<br />
yet another world premiere, Stanley Silverman’s<br />
Piano Trio No. 2, on a program with<br />
Mozart’s Trio, K 502, and Beethoven’s Archduke<br />
at New York’s 92nd Street Y (see a review<br />
of their Danielpour premiere in this issue).<br />
September 23-30<br />
David Robertson and the St Louis Symphony<br />
serve up two weekends of world premieres at<br />
Powell Hall: Steven Mackey’s Piano Concerto<br />
with Orli Shaham plus Mahler’s Symphony No.<br />
1; then Edgar Meyer in his Double Bass Concerto<br />
No. 3 on a program with Copland’s Suite<br />
from The City with film, plus Ives and Gershwin.<br />
September 29<br />
Sitarist Ravi Shankar (we can hope) celebrates<br />
his 91st birthday with a long-awaited, twice-<br />
postponed concert at Disney Concert Hall in<br />
Los Angeles.<br />
September 22-October 1<br />
In his first two weeks as the Seattle Symphony’s<br />
new music director, Ludovic Morlot conducts<br />
Zappa’s Dupree’s Paradise, Dutilleux’s<br />
Tree of Dreams with Renaud Capuçon,<br />
Beethoven’s Eroica, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring,<br />
Gershwin’s <strong>American</strong> in Paris, and Varese’s<br />
Ameriques at Benaroya Hall.<br />
October 4-8<br />
The Brooklyn Academy of Music presents Kurt<br />
Weill’s Threepenny Opera with stage direction<br />
and lighting conceived by Robert Wilson. The<br />
Berlin Ensemble accompanies the US premiere<br />
of this production.<br />
October 6-11 and 14-16<br />
Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra<br />
take Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies (two per<br />
night) first to Carnegie Hall and then to the<br />
University of California-Berkeley’s Zellerbach<br />
Hall. They add an extra night in New York with<br />
the winner of the 14th Tchaikovsky Competition<br />
plus works by Stravinsky and<br />
Shostakovich.<br />
October 16<br />
Pianist Louis Lortie celebrates Liszt’s bicentennial<br />
with the complete Years of Pilgrimage at<br />
the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall in<br />
Toronto.<br />
October 22-23<br />
David Alan Miller leads the Albany Symphony<br />
in the world premiere of Kathryn Salfelder’s<br />
Saxophone Concerto with Timothy McAllister,<br />
plus Kernis’s Concerto with Echoes based on<br />
Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (also on<br />
the program), and Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony<br />
at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy<br />
and Skidmore College’s Zankel Music Center<br />
in Saratoga Springs.<br />
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Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 4<br />
Carnegie’s<br />
“Spring for Music” Festival<br />
Seven Orchestras, Adventurous Programs<br />
[The unique purpose and the principles for<br />
selecting orchestras that perform in the<br />
“Spring for Music” Festival, held in May at<br />
Carnegie Hall and now planned through<br />
2013, is explained at: springformusic.com-<br />
/Mission.htm. Jack Sullivan attended six of<br />
this year’s seven concerts; Joseph Dalton<br />
attended the middle one with the Dallas<br />
Symphony. —Editor]<br />
Jack Sullivan<br />
We hear so many grim stories about the<br />
state of symphony orchestras that it is<br />
heartening to report something good<br />
for a change. “Spring for Music” is a new<br />
annual series of adventurous programs performed<br />
by North <strong>American</strong> orchestras chosen<br />
Carlos Kalmar conducts the Oregon Symphony<br />
by competition. The orchestras, both full-sized<br />
and chamber, played at Carnegie Hall, the<br />
gold standard for orchestral sound, over a hectic<br />
but exciting nine-day period in early May.<br />
All seats were $15 to $25, a brave attempt to<br />
lure younger audiences as well as local folk<br />
flown in from each region (1400 from Toledo,<br />
Ohio, alone for the Toledo Symphony).<br />
Instead of the usual overture-concerto-symphony<br />
formula, each program had to have a<br />
distinct architecture or theme, and there was a<br />
generous amount of contemporary music,<br />
much of it commissioned for the festival.<br />
As a revelation of some regional orchestras<br />
and what they are capable of, “Spring for<br />
Music” was a series of wonderful surprises. It’s<br />
one thing to hear local ensembles on obscure<br />
CDs, quite another to experience them at<br />
4 Music in Concert September/October 2011
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Carnegie Hall cheered on by home supporters<br />
as well as curious New Yorkers who are used to<br />
hearing the Vienna Philharmonic and the<br />
Cleveland Orchestra again and again. Most of<br />
these bands never make it to Carnegie at all;<br />
indeed, the Oregon Symphony had never ventured<br />
west of the Mississippi (simply too<br />
expensive, one of the exhausted but happy<br />
players told me after their concert). Every<br />
orchestra I heard was good, and every one had<br />
a dramatically different sound, rebutting the<br />
cliche that all orchestras these days sound the<br />
same.<br />
The Albany Symphony under David Alan<br />
Miller had the juiciest sonority. Their performance<br />
of Copland’s Appalachian Spring in the<br />
rarely heard “complete” version was one of the<br />
most colorful and memorable I’ve heard in a<br />
very long time (two weeks later I could still<br />
hear it floating through my head). This is not<br />
just because the normally excised material<br />
supplied a dark and startling contrast to the<br />
serene folksiness of what we normally hear, as<br />
if Connotations or some other modernist Copland<br />
piece had suddenly invaded his pastoral<br />
style, but because Albany’s luminous strings,<br />
forceful brass, and vivid winds took the work<br />
to a new level of poetry and theatricality.<br />
The Toledo Symphony under Stefan<br />
Sanderling was more delicate and austere, ideally<br />
suited to whisper the mysterious tremolos<br />
in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6; though, at<br />
the end, jeering woodwinds and thundering<br />
timpani showed they could make a big noise<br />
when they needed to. Sanderling brought out<br />
the jarring contrasts and discontinuities in this<br />
eccentric symphony with great skill.<br />
On the same program was the rarely programmed<br />
Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, an<br />
absurdist lampooning of Soviet oppression by<br />
Tom Stoppard and André Previn. It went beautifully<br />
with the symphony, especially since<br />
Previn’s music is a Shostakovich pastiche. This<br />
symphonic playlet from the late 1970s is a risk,<br />
requiring six actors and 94 players who only<br />
perform intermittently, since the “orchestra”<br />
exists in the head of a prisoner in a Soviet<br />
mental institution. Stoppard’s brilliantly sardonic<br />
language was a treat (though the acting<br />
was only adequate), as were Previn’s lively riffs<br />
on Shostakovich.<br />
The presence of fans waving colored hankies,<br />
so obviously proud of their hometown<br />
bands, lent a festive, slightly goofy air to even<br />
the most challenging concerts, including the<br />
Oregon Symphony’s somber wartime program.<br />
All the works in the first half were played<br />
without pause: Ives’s Unanswered Question, so<br />
quiet in Carlos Kalmar’s reading it was almost<br />
ineffable, faded into John Adams’s Wound<br />
Dresser, a tender and poignant depiction of<br />
horror (surely Adams’s most eloquent piece),<br />
its Whitman text subtly sung by Sanford Sylvan.<br />
It too ended quietly, but we were suddenly<br />
jolted out of our seats by the violent timpani<br />
and howling low brass of Britten’s Sinfonia da<br />
Requiem. After the break, the orchestra erupted<br />
into a cathartic, go-for-broke performance<br />
of Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 4. The<br />
composer insisted it was not really a wartime<br />
testament, but this explosive reading suggested<br />
otherwise. The Toledo Symphony will play<br />
this same program as part of their 2011-12 season.<br />
The new works at the festival, 18 by my<br />
count, were a decidedly mixed bag. The most<br />
glamorous premiere, Carlos Drummond de<br />
Andrade Stories by the jazz crossover celebrity<br />
Maria Schneider (who conducted the concert),<br />
sounded like air-brushed Villa-Lobos. It was<br />
certainly pleasant enough and was performed<br />
with silky authority by Dawn Upshaw and the<br />
St Paul Chamber Orchestra. Upshaw, who<br />
plans to be regular in the “Spring for Music”<br />
series, made a similar impression in Bartok’s<br />
Five Hungarian Folk Songs. Her unrelenting<br />
earnestness, combined with a smooth arrangement<br />
for string orchestra by Richard Tognetti,<br />
drained these songs of Bartokian color and<br />
charm. This program, the only one without a<br />
theme, included an elegant performance of<br />
Stravinsky’s Concerto in D and a vigorous<br />
account of Haydn’s Symphony No. 104.<br />
Melinda Wagner’s Little Moonhead, an<br />
impressionist palette of seductive moods and<br />
colors, was by far the best of the “New Brandenburgs”<br />
presented by the Orpheus Chamber<br />
Orchestra. As demonstrated by her recent<br />
Trombone Concerto for the New York Philharmonic,<br />
Wagner is an eloquent, poetic voice in<br />
contemporary music. Also on the program<br />
were Aaron Jay Kernis’s charming Concerto<br />
with Echoes (inspired by Brandenberg Concerto<br />
No. 6), Peter Maxwell Davies’s dour and<br />
dreary Sea Orpheus, and Christopher Theofandis’s<br />
gushy, minimalist Muse, which got a loud<br />
ovation from an otherwise frosty New York<br />
crowd (such a contrast to the heartland<br />
whoopers). Only Stephen Hartke and Paul<br />
Moravec, in the finales of Brandenburg<br />
Autumn and Brandenburg Gate, supplied the<br />
requisite neo-classical fizz for a Brandenburg<br />
evening. This was a long, difficult program to<br />
bring off, but Orpheus played with their usual<br />
finesse and authority. The Albany Symphony<br />
will pair the Kernis with the Bach No. 6 on an<br />
October concert.<br />
The other series of new pieces was the<br />
Albany Symphony’s “Spirituals Project” (not to<br />
be confused with Art Jones’s educational project<br />
of the same name, which has been promoting<br />
spirituals for a dozen years): nine new<br />
“spirituals” commissioned by David Alan<br />
Miller, one instrumental work by George Tson-<br />
<strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> Music in Concert 5
Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 6<br />
takis for orchestra and solo “fiddler”, and eight<br />
songs by John Harbison, Daniel Bernard<br />
Roumain, Bun-Ching Lam, Tania Leon, Donal<br />
Fox, Kevin Beavers, Richard Adams, and<br />
Stephen Dankner, all sung by the young<br />
African-<strong>American</strong> baritone De’Shon Myers.<br />
The fiddler, David Kitzis, stole the show in his<br />
procession from one end of Carnegie Hall to<br />
another, his violin resonating brilliantly and<br />
vanishing with ghostly shivers in Carnegie’s<br />
remarkable acoustic.<br />
In his announcement of this ambitious<br />
project, Miller complained about the lack of<br />
worthwhile symphonic spirituals besides Dvorak’s;<br />
yet there is a legacy of “sorrow song”<br />
masterpieces by Delius, Tippett, and Zemlinsky,<br />
not to mention chamber works by Korngold<br />
and Coleridge-Taylor. For the most part,<br />
these blandly meandering arrangements did<br />
little to advance the tradition. The best ones<br />
were Harbison’s playful ‘Ain’t Goin’ to Study<br />
War No Mo’, Adams’s soulful ‘Stan’ Still, Jordan’,<br />
and the finale, Dankner’s ‘Wade in de<br />
Water’, which concluded the series with brilliant<br />
wa-wa effects from the Albany brass.<br />
The final concert in this splendid festival<br />
was played by Kent Nagano and the Montreal<br />
Symphony, who appear with some regularity<br />
in Carnegie Hall. One expected them to be terrific,<br />
and they were. Their program, “The Evolution<br />
of the Symphony”, was no such thing<br />
but, rather, a non-chronological juxtaposition<br />
of textures: Gabrieli’s Symphoniae Sacre,<br />
Webern’s Symphony, and Stravinsky’s Symphonies<br />
of Wind Instruments, all interspersed<br />
with sinfonias by Bach lucidly played by<br />
Angela Hewitt, the whole thing culminating in<br />
a fast, gorgeously articulated Symphony No. 5<br />
by Beethoven. It might seem odd to conclude<br />
an adventurous series with this chestnut, but<br />
we should remember that the Fifth was once<br />
regarded as the most adventurous symphony<br />
of all.<br />
Joseph Dalton<br />
The Dallas Symphony’s May 11 concert at<br />
Carnegie Hall was the only one in the<br />
“Spring for Music” Festival that relied on<br />
a single work. August 4, 1964 by composer<br />
Steven Stucky and librettist Gene Scheer was<br />
premiered in Dallas in September 2008. Best<br />
described as an oratorio, it commemorated the<br />
centennial of President Lyndon Johnson by<br />
centering on two pivotal events: the discovery<br />
in the Mississippi River of three murdered civil<br />
rights workers and a spurious “attack” on two<br />
<strong>American</strong> warships in the Gulf of Tonkin—<br />
they both occurred on the same day.<br />
While the sheer scale of the work must<br />
surely be a point of pride for the DSO, the<br />
piece itself seemed a curious choice for a festi-<br />
val that served as a showcase for orchestras.<br />
With the huge all-volunteer Dallas Symphony<br />
Chorus and four vocal soloists, the orchestra,<br />
led by Music Director Jaap Van Zweden, was<br />
hardly prominent.<br />
Over-arching, though, were the themes of<br />
race, war, and corruption that are still a long<br />
way from being resolved in the <strong>American</strong> psyche.<br />
Granted that’s big stuff for an orchestra to<br />
take on; still, I never felt that the 80-minute<br />
piece elevated the discussion.<br />
Scheer’s libretto, drawing extensively on<br />
historical documents, deals with prejudice and<br />
murder in the south and cataclysmic events in<br />
southeast Asia, all amidst the mundaneness of<br />
a busy day in the White House. Almost none of<br />
it called out for music. Stucky’s settings were<br />
either literal and obvious or melodramatic and<br />
overwrought.<br />
For a tribute to LBJ, the creators didn’t give<br />
the guy many points, casting him as someone<br />
at the mercy of events beyond his control and<br />
making decisions based on incomplete and<br />
inaccurate intelligence. A short scene early on<br />
nicely depicted several aspects of Johnson’s<br />
persona, including his confident swagger, distaste<br />
for intellectuals, and slight paranoia.<br />
Baritone Rod Gilfrey used erratic bits of a<br />
Texan accent. Yet, as the piece progressed, the<br />
role seemed to fall uncomfortably into the<br />
upper reaches of his range. This, combined<br />
with a slow cadence to the words, shrank the<br />
president into someone uncomfortable in his<br />
office, if not his own skin.<br />
Contrast this with tenor Vale Rideout as a<br />
shrieking, hysterical Chicken Little of a defense<br />
secretary (Robert McNamara). The other<br />
soloists, soprano Indira Mahajan and mezzo<br />
Kristine Jepson, portrayed the mothers of slain<br />
civil rights activists who mostly grieved and<br />
sobbed. All four principals were attired in dignified<br />
clothes from the early 60s. The text was<br />
projected, line by line, onto the wall above the<br />
stage.<br />
It fell to the chorus and orchestra to briefly<br />
infuse the evening with poetry and eloquence.<br />
Near the opening, the chorus sang portions of<br />
a poem by Stephen Spender, set in a conservative<br />
style reminiscent of Randall Thompson.<br />
They were prepared by Donald Krehbiel, and<br />
they sang with outstanding clarity and<br />
warmth.<br />
Less moving was a lengthy elegy for<br />
orchestra positioned at the dead center of the<br />
work. Though hushed and deftly scored, its<br />
modest melodic contours felt like little more<br />
than a respite amid the hollow frenzy of the<br />
night.<br />
The 2012 “Spring for Music” Festival, May<br />
7-12, will present the Alabama, Edmonton,<br />
Houston, Milwaukee, Nashville, and New Jersey<br />
orchestras.<br />
6 Music in Concert September/October 2011
Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 7<br />
Cracow’s Mahler Festival<br />
Discoveries Abound<br />
Gil French<br />
Last spring the Cracow Philharmonic commemorated<br />
the 100th anniversary of<br />
Mahler’s death by having eight Central<br />
European orchestras perform his 10 symphonies.<br />
Consider it a “Spring for Mahler” Festival,<br />
a parallel to Carnegie Hall’s “Spring for<br />
Music” festival (above). For me it was an occasion<br />
for a number of surprising discoveries.<br />
I was last in Poland in 1987 when the arts,<br />
Catholicism, and Solidarity were the only vital<br />
means of protesting Communism’s weakened<br />
but still firm grip on the country. While architectural<br />
restoration was advanced, cities were<br />
rather grey, tourism was strictly state-controlled,<br />
and alcoholism ravished 20-somethings<br />
still without hope of “a future”.<br />
What a change today! First, Poland is<br />
extremely prosperous. The middle class<br />
thrives. Cities are bright and impeccably clean<br />
(the Poles could teach the Chinese a thing or<br />
two about clean toilets!). Local and intercity<br />
public transportation is superb. Lodging is<br />
first-rate, with bounteous Central European<br />
breakfasts. Tourist spots, rich in history, are<br />
counterpointed by superb museums that contrast<br />
the present with the war years. The arts<br />
are thriving. And from Warsaw to Zakopane<br />
the countryside is beautiful.<br />
The second major discovery: don’t believe<br />
the guidebooks about Warsaw (“Warsaw can<br />
be hard work. It may not be the prettiest of<br />
Polish cities”, says Lonely Planet). The restored<br />
Old Town-New Town tourist area speaks for<br />
itself, though prosperity has forced out street<br />
musicians, hawkers’ stalls, and folk art. The<br />
superb tram and bus system gets you everywhere<br />
(a three-day pass costs only $5.80). The<br />
city is orderly and blessedly quiet—no horns,<br />
no loud music. A new interactive Chopin<br />
Museum can finally be visited without<br />
advanced reservations. The profundity of the<br />
Warsaw Uprising Museum can reduce anyone<br />
to tears. The Museum of the History of Polish<br />
Jews will open in 2012 (until 1939 Poland had<br />
the world’s largest Jewish population). The<br />
Polish National Opera is world-class. And<br />
Antoni Wit closed the Warsaw Philharmonic’s<br />
season with Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, a concert<br />
I had to miss because of the festival three<br />
hours south.<br />
The major discovery at the Mahler Festival<br />
was Pawel Przytocki (PAH-voh Psheh + TROTsky<br />
without the R), general and artistic director<br />
Pawl Przytocki<br />
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of the Cracow Philharmonic and world-class<br />
Mahler <strong>conductor</strong>. When asked where his idea<br />
for the festival came from, he said, “From<br />
Mahler’s biography”. By selecting orchestras<br />
from Central European cities where Mahler<br />
himself conducted, Przytocki also created a<br />
platform to boost the reputation of his own<br />
orchestra that he has directed since March<br />
2009, taking it thrice to Vienna’s Musikverein<br />
and twice to Paris’s Theatre du Chatelet.<br />
The concluding June 19 concert of Symphony<br />
No. 8 was unquestionably the high<br />
point of the festival that began May 10. With<br />
the audience facing the rear of the cathedrallike<br />
St Catherine’s Church in Cracow’s Kazimierz<br />
(Jewish) quarter, Przytocki had the<br />
magnificent Cracow and Czech Philharmonic<br />
Choirs (165 singers) facing each other in stalls<br />
left and right, with the Cracow Philharmonic<br />
Boys’, Leipzig MDR Children’s, and Puellae<br />
Orantes Girl’s Cathedral Choir (120 total)<br />
across the back facing him from under the<br />
choir loft where the organist and seven brass<br />
players were found. In front of the Cracow<br />
Philharmonic (expanded from 100 to 120) were<br />
the seven soloists, each so tonally rich and<br />
warm, broadly dynamic yet never strained,<br />
free of uncontrolled vibrato, and perfectly<br />
blended that they deserve listing: sopranos<br />
Barbara Kubiak (Polish), Urska Arlic Gololicic<br />
(Slovenian), and Iwona Socha (Polish); altos<br />
Jadwiga Rappé (Polish) and Ewa Marciniec<br />
(Polish); tenor Roman Sadnik (Viennese), baritone<br />
Adam Kruzel (Polish), and bass Peter<br />
Mikulas (Slovak).<br />
Wide-screen monitors hidden behind massive<br />
pillars aided the coordination, but what<br />
clinched it was Przytocki’s total intellectual<br />
grasp of the score’s form, his attention to fine<br />
orchestral details otherwise easily lost in the<br />
resonant acoustics, his Gergiev-like awareness<br />
and eye-contact with each group, and, above<br />
all, his flexible forward thrust and tight rhythmic<br />
pulse. It took only about two minutes for<br />
ensemble to solidify. By the ends of both the<br />
‘Veni, Creator Spiritus’ and Faust sections, the<br />
emotional effect was quite shattering, as I<br />
learned how to breathe again.<br />
I had learned earlier to approach the festival’s<br />
orchestras with trepidation, and this was<br />
my only chance to hear the Cracow Philharmonic.<br />
Not amorphously subsumed beneath<br />
the vocal forces and resonant acoustics, its<br />
intonation, quality of tone, tight ensemble,<br />
and the superb quality of its principal players<br />
justified its Vienna and Paris invitations.<br />
Before I arrived in Cracow, Przytocki led<br />
his orchestra in Symphony No. 6, and Israeli<br />
Lior Shambadal led it in the Resurrection Symphony.<br />
A week before Mahler’s Eighth, Przytocki<br />
substituted for the Wroclaw Philharmonic’s<br />
Music Director Jacek Kaspszyk in Symphony<br />
No. 7. In the first two movements the<br />
orchestra itself seemed weak. Violins were<br />
lean, the seven growly string basses were hardly<br />
audible, trumpets and French horns had frequent<br />
clams, winds were exposed, and ensemble<br />
wasn’t confident.<br />
Suddenly in the third movement, with<br />
Przytocki’s clarity, dynamism, consummate<br />
communications skills, and tight rhythmic<br />
control, this regional orchestra found its legs.<br />
Tight ensemble and accurate playing yielded<br />
delicate transparecy and flexibility that heaved<br />
and sighed—the same in the fourth as Przytocki<br />
shifted styles mid-measure, drawing ecstatic<br />
playing. By the finale the Wroclaw Phil was like<br />
a sports team that has found its groove, could<br />
do no wrong, and was sure of victory.<br />
I didn’t understand the degree of Przytocki’s<br />
accomplishment until a week later when<br />
Kaspszyk appeared with his orchestra for the<br />
Cooke-Matthews version of Symphony No. 10.<br />
It sounded like a different orchestra; in fact, it<br />
was to some extent—certainly different string<br />
players and without No. 7’s superb concertmaster.<br />
From the very opening unison viola<br />
line, I translated “Kaspszyk” as “joke”. Every<br />
note was detached, almost every horn<br />
entrance was a fart, brass was crass, ensemble<br />
was a mess, and fortes screamed, as Kaspszyk<br />
buried his head in the score, gave jerky highlow<br />
gestures, and proved his lack of familiarity<br />
with and feeling for the score’s magnificent<br />
scope and poignant lines. Judging from his<br />
biography and performance, Kaspszky, now<br />
59, reached the down side of the mountain<br />
very early in his career.<br />
In Symphony No. 5, Jiri Belohlavek, who<br />
becomes music director of the Czech Philharmonic<br />
for the second time in 2012, showed<br />
that he has firmly returned that great organ of<br />
an orchestra (in managerial and player turmoil<br />
for over a decade) to Rolls Royce status. Violas,<br />
cellos, and string bass sections each sound<br />
with one sumptuous tone. There must be a<br />
body-language code to belong to this still overwhelmingly<br />
male ensemble, their intense concentration<br />
and passion is so strong! Belohlavek’s<br />
contrasts in the first two movements<br />
were devastating; the third was a bit heavy,<br />
especially with the Mack truck force of the<br />
principal French horn. The slow Adagio was as<br />
transparent and deeply moving as I’ve ever<br />
heard it. Only in the finale did the orchestra<br />
become so taken with its own weighty sound<br />
that it began to overwhelm the bright acoustics<br />
of Szymanowski Hall.<br />
Another discovery was the work Belohlavek<br />
opened with, Sinfonietta, a graduation<br />
piece by 22-year-old Karel Ancerl, probably the<br />
most precocious, mature student work ever<br />
written. With the style, profundity, and counterpoint<br />
of Martinu’s Double Concerto, plus<br />
the CPO’s sonics and commitment, I couldn’t<br />
understand the audience’s barren response.<br />
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The other orchestras at the Festival all<br />
failed to compensate for the hall’s brightness,<br />
illustrating the difference between power<br />
(Czech Phil) and loudness, caused by inferior<br />
instruments forced beyond their capacities by<br />
unsubtle musicians. Judging from his interpretation<br />
of Songs of a Wayfarer and Symphony<br />
No. 4, Aleksander Marcovic, born in Belgrade<br />
in 1972 and chief <strong>conductor</strong> of the Brno Philharmonic,<br />
has reached the down side of the<br />
mountain exceptionally early. Under his<br />
extremely angular conducting style, the<br />
orchestra looked bored, was poorly tuned, and<br />
had flatulent horns, unsubtle winds, weak<br />
ensemble, and a bashing timpanist. Marcovic<br />
attended only to the melody line, ignoring<br />
Mahler’s wonderful counterpoint and inner<br />
details.<br />
In Wayfarer Lithuanian baritone Vytautas<br />
Juozapaitis, with strained top notes and bottom<br />
notes beyond his range, must have<br />
thought he was at the Met, not in a bright 697seat<br />
hall. Only Polish soprano Anna Pehlken,<br />
deliciously floating as she sang about a heavenly<br />
feast, drew quality out of Marcovic in the<br />
symphony’s final movement.<br />
In Symphony No. 1, despite mellow horns,<br />
Budapest’s Hungarian National Philharmonic<br />
had wiry strings, hollow flutes, weak string<br />
basses, and a timpanist who absolutely bashed<br />
his instruments. None were helped by Music<br />
Director Zoltan Kocsis (the pianist), whose<br />
matter-of-factness seemed indifferent as he<br />
rushed through the work—with a six-minute<br />
‘Blumine’ movement to boot—in 55 minutes.<br />
He didn’t have a clue what this emotional<br />
masterpiece is all about.<br />
In Symphony No. 9, despite raw percussion,<br />
harsh cymbals, awful bass drum, somewhat<br />
blatant French horns, and weak string<br />
basses, the Slovak Philharmonic (another<br />
mostly male bastion) had solid strings. What<br />
they really needed was a <strong>conductor</strong> sensitive to<br />
tone color, who could tame them in the hall’s<br />
bright resonance. Instead, Alexander Rhabari,<br />
a short butterball Iranian and the only festival<br />
<strong>conductor</strong> who worked from memory, was all<br />
large, obvious gestures (two fingers means<br />
this, one point down means that, etc.) and<br />
details, details, details without forward<br />
motion. This has to have been the longest<br />
Mahler Ninth: the first movement took 33 minutes,<br />
the second 20. All trees, no forest. His<br />
metronomic pacing fit the third movement<br />
well enough. Only in the finale did he begin to<br />
develop some long arching lines.<br />
Italian <strong>conductor</strong> Daniele Callegari is<br />
worth keeping an eye out for, especially if he<br />
returns to the Met. Aside from Przytocki, he<br />
was the only other festival <strong>conductor</strong> to get an<br />
orchestra to play “beyond itself”. In Symphony<br />
No. 3 the Slovenian Philharmonic’s lower<br />
strings were raw, woodwinds had a number of<br />
glitches, the principal trombone’s tone wasn’t<br />
secure—nor was the trumpet’s. Yet textures<br />
were transparent, and, even with quick tempos,<br />
Callegari’s forward flexible flow was well<br />
aimed and often buoyant. Ensemble was<br />
excellent. And by the end of the first and last<br />
massive movements, Mahler’s emotional<br />
statement was delivered so powerfully that any<br />
glitches didn’t count.<br />
My other discovery was that most <strong>American</strong><br />
regional orchestras (Buffalo, Rochester,<br />
the ones in the Carnegie “Spring for Music”<br />
Festival) far outclass most of the Central European<br />
orchestras I heard both in technical execution<br />
and musicality. Nor did the festival feel<br />
like one: the concerts weren’t social events at<br />
all—people arrived, heard music, and left.<br />
They were also ritualistic: applause, followed<br />
by standing, followed by unison rhythmic<br />
clapping, and five curtain calls, even for Kaspszyk’s<br />
excruciating Symphony No. 10. De<br />
gustibus.<br />
Yet where other than in Poland is an airport<br />
(Warsaw’s) named for a composer<br />
(Chopin)!<br />
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MTT and the San Francisco<br />
Symphony<br />
Mahler Recapped Before European Tour<br />
Jason Victor Serinus<br />
During the centenary of Gustav Mahler’s<br />
death, Michael Tilson Thomas and the<br />
San Francisco Symphony have gone to<br />
great lengths to bolster their reputation as a<br />
world-class “Mahler Orchestra”. Following the<br />
recording of all the symphonies and song<br />
cycles in concert, which they released in<br />
hybrid SACD format, they’ve issued complete<br />
box sets on disc and (soon) vinyl. In addition,<br />
they prepared a two-part “Keeping Score” documentary,<br />
broadcast nationally in June on PBS<br />
and then released in DVD and Blu-Ray formats.<br />
They also programmed Mahler for their<br />
May 19-June 6 European tour of Prague, Vienna,<br />
Brussels, Essen, Luxembourg, Paris,<br />
Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon.<br />
As a pre-tour “warm-up”, the orchestra<br />
performed three of Mahler’s symphonies in<br />
early May at their home base, Davies Symphony<br />
Hall. Starting with Symphony No. 9, SFS<br />
launched an ambitious nine-day mini-cycle<br />
that also included the glorious No. 2 and tragic<br />
No. 6.<br />
The orchestra was in top form. My companion<br />
for No. 9, Raymond Bisha, Naxos’s<br />
director of media relations for North America,<br />
has heard many an orchestra in his years as a<br />
classical musician and media professional. Yet<br />
he was struck by the uniform strength of the<br />
ensemble and the fact that he could hear no<br />
weak links. The playing was all of a piece.<br />
It was also, in typical MTT fashion, bright,<br />
bold, filled with color, and impeccably controlled.<br />
The sound may not have that burnished<br />
aged-in-wood patina of some European<br />
orchestras, but neither is it “theatrical”,<br />
as Gramophone suggested when it rated SFO<br />
as No. 13 in its survey of great orchestras<br />
(December 2008). Perhaps they consider “theatrical”<br />
anyone who follows in the footsteps of<br />
Leonard Bernstein, loves Stravinsky and Copland,<br />
and has championed the music of Gershwin<br />
and Jewish theatre.<br />
If there is any truth in the assertion, it may<br />
refer to the fact that MTT, in his concern for<br />
structural coherence, does not always probe<br />
the emotional depths. That was certainly not<br />
the case with his emotionally riveting performance<br />
of No. 9. In no short order, a sense of<br />
tragedy overcame the Andante’s lyrical opening.<br />
After an especially strong statement from<br />
offstage horns, startling drums and cymbals<br />
revealed Mahler at his most emotionally con-<br />
Michael Tilson Thomas<br />
flicted. The up-and-down topsy-turvy nature<br />
of his writing, cogently conveyed, so seized the<br />
audience that you could feel the relief as people<br />
caught their breath and adjusted themselves<br />
at the movement’s conclusion.<br />
In the second movement MTT skillfully<br />
conveyed the manic aspects of what Mahler<br />
termed the “comfortable l„ndler”; despite the<br />
beauty of more pastoral passages, it was<br />
impossible to escape the impression that happiness<br />
was fleeting. The biting horn opening of<br />
the Rondo-Burleske third movement paved<br />
the way for increasingly disturbing music.<br />
Even its most lyrical passages—the magical<br />
harp glissandos, for example—were soon overwhelmed<br />
by angst.<br />
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The beautiful, expansive opening of the<br />
final Adagio brought welcome but transitory<br />
relief. When Thomas (in a gesture I’ve rarely<br />
seen him use) opened his arms wide, the<br />
orchestra responded in kind, sounding as if<br />
they had fully opened their hearts to Mahler’s<br />
plight. The emotion on the faces of many players<br />
further reflected their complete identification<br />
with the composer’s struggle. Rather than<br />
the “grief gives way to peace, music and<br />
silence become one” ending that Michael<br />
Steinberg described in the program notes, the<br />
orchestra seemed to fade into nothingness. It<br />
was as though Mahler had totally surrendered<br />
to inevitable tragedy.<br />
Although the beginning of the Resurrection<br />
Symphony sounded less self-consciously contrived<br />
than on SFSO’s recording of it, the marcato<br />
cello attacks as the music got underway<br />
were precise to a fault. By contrast, the Andante<br />
Moderato (II) was so slow that it lacked<br />
lift. Music that wanted for a smile remained<br />
straight-faced. The third movement, which<br />
Mahler designated “in quietly flowing<br />
motion”, built rapidly to a noisy conflagration.<br />
In the Urlicht, mezzo-soprano Jill Grove,<br />
replacing Sasha Cook, sang beautifully until<br />
the very end, which she cut a mite short.<br />
The final choral movement was another<br />
mixed bag. Although the orchestra played as<br />
beautifully as ever, and the chorus sounded<br />
glorious, the passages denoting the coming of<br />
the light (the “resurrection”) fell short of the<br />
The San Francisco Orchestra<br />
mark. Soprano Karina Gauvin, who seemed ill<br />
at ease in the extremely long wait for her<br />
entrance, began exquisitely, then momentarily<br />
veered far off pitch. She recovered nicely, sang<br />
the repeat perfectly, and proceeded to open<br />
her voice in her duet with Grove to deliver<br />
some of the most beautifully impassioned,<br />
vibrant singing I’ve heard in a long time.<br />
In the tremendous conclusion, the gates of<br />
heaven opened wide and blazing light poured<br />
forth. When I last heard Thomas perform this<br />
symphony at one of the recording sessions, the<br />
climax was a major disappointment. It felt as<br />
though, even with a huge chorus propelling<br />
him forward, he paused at the gates, averted<br />
his eyes, and declared, “I’m not yet ready.”<br />
This time he moved forward, but without the<br />
orgasmic tension and release that make the<br />
Bernstein and Rattle recordings so thrilling.<br />
Everyone onstage seemed to give their all, but<br />
the effect was more visceral than uplifting.<br />
The letdown continued at the performance<br />
of Symphony No. 6. When MTT conducted<br />
and recorded the symphony in September<br />
2001, immediately after 9-11, we could feel the<br />
emotional involvement from first note to last.<br />
This time, the symphony’s happier passages<br />
were more convincing than the tragic ones.<br />
Was he simply unwilling to revisit that week of<br />
intense shock and pain? For whatever reasons,<br />
the Sixth of 5-12 felt more beautifully played<br />
than deeply felt.<br />
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San Francisco Opera’s<br />
Ring Cycle<br />
Three Views<br />
[With the Music Critics Association holding<br />
its annual meeting last June during the first<br />
of San Francisco Opera’s three Ring cycles,<br />
I asked three of ARG’s writers to share their<br />
impressions. Susan Brodie covers opera<br />
often for ARG in her trips to Europe. Jason<br />
Victor Serinus, who lives in the Bay Area,<br />
knows the SF Opera well, including the single<br />
productions leading up to the complete<br />
cycle. And Richard S Ginell gave<br />
complete ARG coverage to Wagner’s four<br />
operas in Los Angeles Opera’s 2010-11 season.<br />
—Editor]<br />
Susan Brodie<br />
Andrea Silvestrelli (Hagen) with members of the San Francisco Opera chorus<br />
Francesca Zambello’s Ring Cycle was originally<br />
a Washington National Opera production<br />
billed as a “Ring for America”,<br />
but the company had to abandon the project<br />
for financial reasons before the final installment.<br />
San Francisco Opera seized the opportunity<br />
to complete the cycle for its first new<br />
production since 1999. It was a very good one,<br />
especially for <strong>American</strong> audiences, with just<br />
enough updating and topical relevance to<br />
tickle the intellect without thrusting the viewer<br />
into confusion or outrage.<br />
Zambello has chosen <strong>American</strong> times and<br />
places for the settings and situations of the<br />
Nibelung myth. The Rhinemaidens were Gay<br />
90s wenches and Alberich a gold prospector<br />
(Nibelheim is a gold mine). The gods, gathered<br />
in front of a construction site, were<br />
dressed like characters from The Great Gatsby<br />
(with hard hats), and their rainbow bridge to<br />
Valhalla is the gangplank to the Titanic. Hunding<br />
dwelled in a wood-frame hunting cabin<br />
straight out of Deliverance. Wotan was outargued<br />
by Fricka in a corporate boardroom.<br />
Brunnhilde’s rock was modeled after fortifications<br />
at San Francisco’s Presidio. Mime raised<br />
Siegfried in a camping trailer amply stocked<br />
with Coca-Cola and Rheingold beer. Fafner’s<br />
lair was a chop shop, where Alberich, now a<br />
homeless off-the-grid terrorist living out of a<br />
shopping cart, kept watch while assembling<br />
Molotov cocktails. Gibichung Hall was a glasswalled<br />
Trump-worthy penthouse overlooking<br />
a polluted industrial skyline.<br />
These settings served as cultural references<br />
to heighten an <strong>American</strong> viewer’s connection<br />
with the themes of the work. There<br />
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was almost nothing in Zambello’s staging that<br />
could be considered directorial excess. Beyond<br />
the redwood forests and parachuting WW I<br />
valkyries, this was a very traditional Ring.<br />
Zambello’s only major changes from the<br />
aborted Washington production involved a<br />
reworking of the projections, which for me<br />
proved to be the strongest cohesive element of<br />
the staging and probably the most <strong>American</strong><br />
element, designed for a public accustomed to<br />
watching a screen. Most of the film imagery<br />
came from nature—clouds, rippling waves on<br />
the water’s surface, rocks, forest—or from<br />
man-made urban or industrial scenes. Video<br />
was projected onto two full-stage-wide<br />
screens, one a scrim at the front of the proscenium<br />
that was raised during each scene to<br />
draw the audience closer to the action.<br />
The dual-screen projections created depth<br />
and texture. Variations in the speed of movement<br />
increased Zambello’s control of the<br />
viewer’s experience. Projections were sometimes<br />
static, sometimes subtly moving, like a<br />
movie camera’s slow close-up to suggest emotion.<br />
Orchestral intervals become background<br />
music for panoramic fly-over shots of movement<br />
through space or change of scenery, like<br />
the descent from the gods’ domain to Nibelheim.<br />
As the story progressed, the projections<br />
underlined the environmental subtext with<br />
concrete imagery: the spilling of oil, the progressive<br />
despoiling of river or forest, the death<br />
of nature.<br />
The film also leapt off the screen onto the<br />
stage in the form of special effects: a dazzling<br />
arc of sparks when Donner summoned thunder<br />
and lightning in Rheingold, a lightning<br />
strike as Siegmund pulled the sword from the<br />
tree in Walkure, an explosion when Siegfried<br />
broke the Wanderer’s spear. The Magic Fire at<br />
the end of Walkure was the most stunning I’ve<br />
ever scene: real fire (requiring flame-retardant<br />
costumes and the presence of a fire marshal)<br />
surrounded Brunnhilde’s rock, and projections<br />
of fire on both screens gave depth to the<br />
illusion. Dramatic shifts of stage lighting further<br />
clarifed Zambello’s reading of the text<br />
with great specificity.<br />
Even though this Ring was often staged in<br />
semi-abstract ways, Zambello dug to the emotional<br />
heart of every encounter, establishing<br />
intimacy and teasing out fresh feeling from<br />
small moments via carefully gauged small gestures<br />
and reactions. Each character interacted<br />
physically with the others, from a simple touch<br />
on the arm or clasping of hands to full<br />
embrace. This is by far the most touchy-feely<br />
Ring I’ve ever seen.<br />
Wotan and Fricka were physically affectionate<br />
from their first appearance in Rheingold<br />
until the thwarted, angry Wotan flinched<br />
at his wife’s touch in Walkure. Freia at first suffered<br />
the caresses of the smitten Fasolt with<br />
great unease but returned from captivity blissfully<br />
embracing him, clearly unhappy to return<br />
to the gods. Hunding and Sieglinde groped<br />
one another like teenagers. Brunnhilde<br />
breached the barrier between gods and men to<br />
embrace Siegmund at the moment she understood<br />
his love for Sieglinde. Fafner, once<br />
stabbed, descended from his trash compacter<br />
to express his (ultimate) pity and compassion<br />
for the fate of the uncomprehending Siegfried<br />
with a touch. Even Alberich and Wotan tussled<br />
mano a mano when they met in Siegfried. The<br />
constant physical engagement along with<br />
other aspects of Zambello’s detailed direction<br />
infused humanity into these sometimes<br />
abstract mythological characters.<br />
The theatrical and cinematic details were<br />
fascinating, but the success of a Ring cycle<br />
depends on the musical values. San Francisco’s<br />
forces were solid but rarely rose to a<br />
thrilling level. Rheingold started with a lurch,<br />
as though someone had clumsily dropped the<br />
needle onto a vinyl record, and the pacing and<br />
dynamics showed limited nuance. The brass<br />
had difficulties in all four operas, and at least<br />
from my seat in the rightmost orchestra section<br />
there were strange balance problems.<br />
Things did improve, however, over the<br />
course of the cycle. By the middle of Walkure’s<br />
Act I the pacing became more expressive, with<br />
an urgency to the Siegmund-Sieglinde dialog<br />
that suggested lovemaking. By Siegfried the<br />
orchestra participated dramatically to a much<br />
greater degree. But the brass often weren’t up<br />
to the task, and I heard a surprising number of<br />
intonation problems, not to mention a lack of<br />
coordination between stage and pit. The Gotterdammerung<br />
I heard in Paris three days later<br />
showed much greater precision and clarity of<br />
sound from the orchestra.<br />
Casting was strong, given the voices available<br />
today. Nina Stemme was a fine and feisty<br />
Brunnhilde, though some signs of strain gave<br />
the impression of a singer not at her best. Mark<br />
Delavan’s impetuous and detailed Wotan<br />
couldn’t be bettered dramatically (most chilling<br />
moment: when he embraced the victorious<br />
Hunding and then nonchalantly broke his<br />
neck), but too often he was inaudible. Gordon<br />
Hawkins as Alberich was stronger both vocally<br />
and dramatically in Siegfried than Walkure.<br />
Both Siegfrieds—Jay Hunter Morris in Siegfried<br />
and Ian Storey in Gotterdammerung—looked<br />
and acted the part but had vocal problems.<br />
Brandon Jovanovich contributed youthful<br />
good looks and a strong tenor sound as Froh;<br />
in his role debut as Siegmund, he showed<br />
potential to become a Siegmund for our time.<br />
Andrea Silvestrelli was perhaps the most<br />
impressive voice in the production, a booming<br />
Fasolt (why not Fafner?) and a menacing<br />
Hagen. Melissa Citro played a knockout<br />
blonde-bimbo Gutrune (also Freia), though<br />
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vocal glamor was lacking. The Rhinemaidens—Stacey<br />
Tappan, Lauren McNeese, and<br />
Renee Tatum—sounded absolutely glorious.<br />
Jason Victor Serinus<br />
From June 14 to 19 San Francisco Opera<br />
presented the first of its three complete<br />
cycles of Wagner’s Ring. Despite a lessthan-perfect<br />
cast, the power of stage director<br />
Francesca Zambello’s production, Michael<br />
Yeargan’s sets, Jan Hartley and Katy Tucker’s<br />
all-important projections, and the enveloping<br />
waves of Donald Runnicles’s occasionally<br />
overpowering orchestral eloquence made for a<br />
haunting experience.<br />
Much of the effectiveness of Zambello’s<br />
production came from the sets and projections.<br />
All images were drawn from America’s<br />
past and present. The production’s unified<br />
vision owed much to its ever-engrossing projections,<br />
which contrasted the beauty of<br />
forests, canyons, water, and clouds with the<br />
ugliness of railroad tracks and soot-spewing<br />
smokestacks. What some conservative critics<br />
decried as a heavy-handed attempt to saddle<br />
Wagner’s Ring with contemporary relevance<br />
instead brilliantly tapped into the audience’s<br />
collective unconscious, bringing Wagner’s<br />
messages of unbridled greed and abuse of the<br />
natural order to the fore.<br />
Zambello’s Ring remains, by her own<br />
admission, a work-in-process. The cycle’s first<br />
three operas had their production premieres<br />
in Washington DC. Since then, she has<br />
changed emphasis. While the DC productions,<br />
taking their cue from the role the city plays in<br />
world affairs, centered on the misuse of political<br />
power, San Francisco’s remounting drew<br />
on California’s consciousness of nature and<br />
the environment to place more emphasis on<br />
despoliation.<br />
In addition to reconceiving video and<br />
choreography for Act III of Walkure, Zambello<br />
also beefed up the conclusion of Gotterdammerung,<br />
which was first given in a standalone<br />
performance on June 5. That performance’s<br />
very short-lived fizzle of a fire, which<br />
left cast members gazing off into the darkness<br />
of a bare, black stage, was given a much-needed<br />
boost of metaphorical lighter fluid by the<br />
time the opera reappeared in the complete<br />
cycle.<br />
Zambello’s meticulousness let no one get<br />
by with “stand and sing”. Besides such wonders<br />
as the three perfect cartwheels and hilarious<br />
dance of Mime (the sensational David<br />
Cangelosi), Zambello’s constant attention to<br />
the interplay of men and women added extra<br />
dimensions of meaning. Especially delicious<br />
were the ever-changing, often-hilarious facial<br />
expressions of Gutrune (Melissa Citro), whose<br />
droll Anna Nicole Smith-like posing compensated<br />
for wild upper notes. Just as notable<br />
were Sieglinde’s (Anja Kampe) fluctuation<br />
between revulsion for Hunding (Daniel Sumegi)<br />
and futile attempts to turn him around<br />
through loving embrace, Gutrune’s surprising<br />
interplay with Hagen in their brief TV-watching<br />
bed scene, and Wotan’s brutality with Erda<br />
(Ronnita Miller) in their final interaction.<br />
At the conclusion of the Immolation Scene,<br />
women briefly held the stage. After the Rhinemaidens<br />
and a very sympathetic Gutrune<br />
brought Siegfried’s body to the unseen funeral<br />
pyre, the Rhinemaidens suffocated Hagen as a<br />
chorus of women watched Brunnhilde (Nina<br />
Stemme) descend to her death. Zambello’s<br />
heart-touching testament to the transcendent<br />
power of sisterhood and later surprising affirmation<br />
of future resurrection linger in the<br />
memory as much as Stemme’s astounding<br />
artistry.<br />
A major vocal rebalancing act occurred<br />
between SFO’s stand-alone premieres of<br />
Siegfried (May 29) and Gotterdammerung<br />
(June 5) and their complete cycle productions.<br />
Jay Hunter Morris, whose hardly-the-hero<br />
Siegfried had difficulty projecting over the<br />
orchestra on May 29, noticeably beefed up his<br />
sound for the cycle without running out of<br />
steam. Concurrently, the magnificent Stemme,<br />
who sang him into the ground on May 29, held<br />
her voice back until Gotterdammerung’s climactic<br />
Immolation Scene. Only then did she<br />
sing with the breathtaking power and generosity<br />
of glorious tone of the individual premieres<br />
a few weeks before. Stemme’s modulation was<br />
especially important on June 19 in Gotterdammerung,<br />
where Ian Storey as Siegfried<br />
progressively lost power owing to illnessinduced<br />
dehydration. Only after treatment by<br />
a physician was he able to return to something<br />
resembling the heroic form he displayed on<br />
June 5.<br />
Volumes could be written about Stemme’s<br />
achievement. Despite short-shifting a few top<br />
notes and fudging her trills, her string of high<br />
Cs in her ‘Hijatoho’ entrance were dispatched<br />
with the carefree impetuosity of youth. The<br />
contrast with Delavan’s performance—wellnuanced,<br />
but lacking in volume and physically<br />
congested—was unfortunate.<br />
Just as disappointing was Brandon<br />
Jovanovich’s deliciously hunky, initially<br />
promising Siegmund, which failed to build<br />
tension; his crucial interplay with Kampe had<br />
all the intimacy of lovemaking by cell phone.<br />
Indeed, besides Stemme, it was Stefan Margita’s<br />
ever-insinuating Loge, Cangelosi’s<br />
superbly sung and acted Mime, Silvestrelli’s<br />
towering dark-voiced Hagen, Stacey Tappan’s<br />
endearing Forest Bird, and the superbly bal-<br />
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anced Rhinemaidens trio (including Tappan)<br />
that deserve the most accolades.<br />
Richard S Ginell<br />
Last year, Los Angeles made its first homegrown<br />
attempt at staging a complete<br />
Wagner Ring cycle, beating upstate rival<br />
San Francisco to the punch, even though the<br />
SF Ring was launched a year before LA’s. But<br />
in the end, San Francisco Opera, whose Ring<br />
performance tradition dates back to 1935, had<br />
the last word in almost every way. Here was a<br />
screwball concept with a huge emotional payoff<br />
because stage director Francesca Zambello<br />
took the trouble to develop her ideas along the<br />
lines of what Wagner wrote (what a novel<br />
notion!).<br />
Whereas the LA stage director Achim Freyer<br />
didn’t particularly care about Wagner’s<br />
characters—or whether you cared about them,<br />
Zambello had her cast probe deeply into their<br />
personalities, virtues, faults, passions, and<br />
capacities for growth. Whereas Freyer set his<br />
Ring on some kind of cold, alien planet populated<br />
by hideous caricatures, Zambello’s<br />
Ring—with its <strong>American</strong> settings from the 19th<br />
Century to the present and near future—connected<br />
with its intended audience on a familiar<br />
human level. Whereas Freyer’s cast was<br />
hamstrung and straitjacketed by his rigid staging—sometimes<br />
no better than a concert performance<br />
with pictures, Zambello’s singing<br />
actors were encouraged to develop all kinds of<br />
physical actions and nuances, large and small,<br />
that illuminated the storyline and libretto.<br />
Zambello has said that her Ring conception<br />
evolved over time into a fable about the<br />
destruction of the environment. Indeed,<br />
Rheingold looked different from and felt more<br />
unified than the stand-alone performance in<br />
2008. I sensed less emphasis on the California<br />
Gold Rush origins of the tale and more on the<br />
pristine natural world that is gradually darkened<br />
by civilization’s pollution and waste as<br />
the cycle proceeded. There were cinematic references<br />
(the West Side Story Siegmund-Hunding<br />
street fight under a crumbling freeway<br />
overpass stands out), lots of weird humor<br />
(Siegfried slaying the 2-1/2-ton scrap-metalcompactor<br />
“dragon” by short-circuiting it with<br />
his sword; Gutrune and Alberich playing with a<br />
TV remote control in a modern, super-sleek<br />
Marriott-like hotel; the parachuting Valkyries),<br />
and recurring social themes (people who lost<br />
control of the ring often ended up homeless,<br />
when not dead).<br />
Granted, Zambello indulged in a speculative<br />
agenda of having no less than three female<br />
characters (Freia, Sieglinde, and Gutrune) feeling<br />
attracted to dangerous men (Fasolt, Hunding,<br />
and Hagen). Yet, in Gutrune’s case, I<br />
found that it contributed to the power of the<br />
production, as it set the stage for Gutrune’s<br />
unusual development from a bored wanton<br />
vamp into a high-minded handmaiden to<br />
Brunnhilde’s and the Rhinemaidens’ redemption<br />
of the world. Indeed Zambello’s conclusion<br />
to Gotterdammerung was quite touching—a<br />
small child planting a single sapling<br />
after the end of the gods, which, unlike Freyer’s<br />
sickening dismantling of his set, meshed<br />
with what Wagner’s music says. Zambello<br />
made us feel good walking out of the opera<br />
house, whereas with Freyer one regretted not<br />
packing those stale tomatoes one was saving<br />
for just the proper occasion.<br />
Beyond the staging, there were two triumphant<br />
performances in this Ring that will<br />
be remembered for a long time. One came<br />
from the pit. While Rheingold was considerably<br />
better-paced and more emphatic in<br />
rhythm than the 2008 performance, Donald<br />
Runnicles kicked things into an even higher<br />
gear in the closing minutes of Act II of<br />
Walkure, and he rode that wave through the<br />
rest of the cycle. Probably his greatest moment<br />
occurred at the closing heights of the<br />
Brunnhilde-Siegfried love duet in Gotterdammerung;<br />
he took off in recklessly thrilling<br />
overdrive, nearly losing control, but his excellent<br />
orchestra saw it through. He was more of a<br />
racehorse than a brooding philosopher in this<br />
Ring, but there are few that are as good at it as<br />
he is these days.<br />
The other big triumph was Nina Stemme<br />
as Brunnhilde, where the promise she showed<br />
in 2010s SFO Walkure blossomed in her first<br />
complete cycle. Here was a strong, amplevoiced,<br />
steady heldensoprano in a compact<br />
body, a playful tomboy Brunnhilde who never<br />
entirely lost that aspect even as she acquired<br />
wisdom and maturity.<br />
Mark Delavan’s now-and-then powerful<br />
Wotan did not eclipse memories of James<br />
Morris and Thomas Stewart from the 1985 SFO<br />
Ring; nor could either of the Siegfrieds (Jay<br />
Hunter Morris in Siegfried and the -indisposed<br />
Ian Storey in Gotterdammerung) keep pace<br />
with Stemme’s Brunnhilde. But there were<br />
ample compensations elsewhere: Andrea Silvestrelli’s<br />
genuine bass Hagen, Gordon<br />
Hawkins’s burly bullying Alberich, David Cangelosi’s<br />
almost lyrical Mime, and Anja Kampe’s<br />
pointed, lustrous Sieglinde.<br />
One could also single out Brandon<br />
Jovanovich’s youthful Siegmund for cheers;<br />
but Los Angeles easily trumped San Francisco<br />
with its incomparable Placido Domingo as<br />
Siegfried. It was one of only a few instances<br />
where the LARing wasn’t outpointed by the<br />
gripping competition from the Bay Area.<br />
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Ascension’s New Pascal<br />
Quoirin Organ<br />
French and Baroque Traditions on Display<br />
Susan Brodie<br />
Manton Memorial Organ, 3-Manual Mechanical Action Core Console<br />
With the installation of the Manton<br />
Memorial Organ, the Church of the<br />
Ascension in Manhattan’s Greenwich<br />
Village has enhanced its long tradition of<br />
musical and artistic excellence. On May 5<br />
<strong>American</strong> Jon Gillick, a Messiaen specialist<br />
long associated with this church, inaugurated<br />
the new instrument with a concert of 19th and<br />
20th Century French music on the larger of its<br />
two component organs.<br />
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The design was developed by the firm of<br />
Pascal Quoirin of St-Didier, France, in conjunction<br />
with Gillock and Ascension Music<br />
Director Dennis Keene, who sought an instrument<br />
suitable for the widest possible repertoire.<br />
It is a novel two-in-one: a large electricaction<br />
four-manual French 19th-Century one<br />
and a smaller tracker-action three-manual<br />
baroque style organ. They share pipes. (A<br />
technical description with registration details<br />
and photographs are available on the<br />
builder’s website: www.atelier-quoirin.com.)<br />
The handsome consoles and pipes, at the<br />
front of the church, are decorated with stylized<br />
art nouveau trim that harmonizes with<br />
the sober yet rich Gothic revival interior of the<br />
church (a national historic landmark), remodeled<br />
in the 1880s by McKim, Meade, and<br />
White. Hand-carved birds decorating the pipe<br />
cases honor Olivier Messiaen, who drew inspiration<br />
from birdsong.<br />
This concert was a good survey of music<br />
conceived for the classic French organ as<br />
developed by 19th-Century maker Aristide<br />
Cavaille-Coll, with its greatly expanded sound<br />
palette. The tradition is rigorous in the musical<br />
and instrumental skills demanded, dynastic in<br />
the succession of the most important organist<br />
jobs (giving access to the best instruments),<br />
and, with much of the music written for the<br />
Catholic church, rooted in faith. Composers<br />
represented on the program formed a roll call<br />
of the most important practitioners of this art.<br />
For the concert the large, curved fourmanual<br />
console was moved from its normal<br />
position at the front of the left aisle to sit in<br />
front of the altar with the keyboard facing the<br />
pews at a slight angle. Most organ recitalists<br />
play seated in an organ loft, almost invisible,<br />
so it was an unusual view. Gillock walked out,<br />
bowed modestly, turned his back, removed<br />
his jacket (revealing a spiffy brocade waistcoat),<br />
and slipped onto the bench to play.<br />
Marcel Dupré’s Cortege and Litany started<br />
softly, sounding like a processional heard<br />
through the doors of a country church. An<br />
opening four-note bell-like motif expanded to a<br />
folk-like theme that lent itself to shifting meters<br />
and an array of tone colors showing off the registrations,<br />
as the sound swelled to a powerful<br />
finish. It was followed by the more formally<br />
structured Prelude, Fugue, and Variation by<br />
Cesar Franck, which gave a fuller sense of the<br />
symphonic capabilities of the instrument as<br />
well as Gillock’s nimble control of the pedals.<br />
A trademark of the French organ school is<br />
improvisation; Conservatoire students still get<br />
a thorough grounding in keyboard harmony<br />
and counterpoint that enables them to improvise<br />
for unpredictable amounts of time during<br />
church services. Past masters of this art drew<br />
large audiences eager to hear their extended<br />
improvisations on a theme supplied to the<br />
soloist at the last minute. Transcriptions of<br />
two such improvisations, notated from<br />
recordings, gave the nod to Notre Dame<br />
organist Pierre Cochereau (1924-84), who<br />
crafted boldly dissonant variations on a lullaby<br />
by the organist Louis Vierne, and to Charles<br />
Tournemire (1870-1939), titulaire at St-<br />
Clothilde, whose colorful, episodic improvisations<br />
on the Te Deum were transcribed by his<br />
famous student Maurice Duruflé.<br />
A second, longer piece from Franck’s Opus<br />
18, Priere, showed the more improvisational<br />
and expressive side of the disciplined contrapuntalist.<br />
A hymn-like opening moved into<br />
more lyrical rising figures; after a solo recitative<br />
on a trumpet stop, the opening theme returns,<br />
with more perfumed harmonies and embellishments.<br />
Its harmonies have a kinship with<br />
Fauré’s sinuous but stable progressions, but<br />
Franck’s more flamboyant colors were<br />
undoubtedly developed during his tenure as<br />
organist at St-Clothilde, home to a major<br />
Cavaille-Coll instrument. In this repertoire,<br />
those who have it flaunt it, and the composers<br />
who played major instruments took full advantage<br />
of their possibilities. Even more than other<br />
composers, Franck allowed the listener to taste<br />
the brass and reeds in a range of octaves, but all<br />
for expressive ends. With its careening emotional<br />
highs and lows and its wall-of-sound finish,<br />
this music puts the lie to the notion of<br />
French restraint. Gillock, to his credit, mixed<br />
registrations with taste as well as exuberance.<br />
The final two pieces were excerpts from La<br />
Nativité du Seigneur by Olivier Messiaen, an<br />
inspiration for this organ’s design. This relatively<br />
early collection already shows the composer’s<br />
musical language, with palindromic<br />
rhythmic figures, bird-like twitterings, and<br />
polytonal harmonic progressions celestial in<br />
flavor. The music was well served by the<br />
instrument.<br />
In some respects a large symphonic organ<br />
is overkill in a relatively small church like<br />
Ascension, only a fraction of the size of the<br />
Cathedral of Notre Dame or Messiaen’s<br />
Trinité. In this space even a fortissimo climax<br />
with a long-held final chord lacks the thunderous,<br />
bone-tingling amplitude and the ethereal<br />
after-buzz of clashing overtones that linger in<br />
a larger, more resonant space (Ascension’s<br />
reverberation time is only three seconds). But<br />
it’s a gorgeous instrument that will have no<br />
shortage of recitalists eager to play it.<br />
Organ music may never again see the rock<br />
star prestige enjoyed by the flamboyant Virgil<br />
Fox; but the Manton Memorial Organ, the first<br />
French symphonic organ built in New York in<br />
more than 50 years, should spark plenty of<br />
interest among people already steeped in this<br />
relatively esoteric world. The Bach concert<br />
later in the month on the smaller console<br />
should offer an interesting contrast.<br />
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Leslie Kandell<br />
In the life of a church, a new organ is a<br />
momentous and costly venture, calling for<br />
time-intensive study and choice of styles,<br />
fundraising, and introductory booklets with<br />
elegant photographs. The Church of the<br />
Ascension made significant indoor and outdoor<br />
renovations before the instrument’s<br />
arrival and assembling; the organist world<br />
buzzed.<br />
Ascension is Fifth Avenue’s oldest church,<br />
dedicated in 1841. Its organist, Dennis Keene,<br />
insisted that the instrument’s stature, pipes,<br />
and sound fit with Richard Upjohn’s architecture,<br />
John Lafarge’s huge altar mural, and windows<br />
of stained glass by Lafarge and Louis<br />
Comfort Tiffany. Churchgoers pay attention to<br />
surroundings because usually the console and<br />
player can barely be seen from the pews.<br />
The Manton Memorial Organ is named for<br />
Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, philanthropic<br />
British parishioners and next-door neighbors.<br />
After scouring the United States and Europe<br />
for a builder, Keene chose the firm of Pascal<br />
Quoirin, near Dijon, France. The organ is the<br />
first French-built one in the United States, and<br />
a series of inaugural recitals and choral concerts<br />
took place in May and June.<br />
The second recital—and first New York<br />
appearance by Francis Chapelet—was on the<br />
tracker. It was a program of baroque works<br />
from France, Spain (where Chapelet was a<br />
professor), and Germany. Germany won in a<br />
walk—how could it not, represented by Bach<br />
and Buxtehude?<br />
Chapelet had a young assistant in tow<br />
(Bach always had a boy to help with registra-<br />
tion—so did they all, really). The Livre<br />
d’Orgue, by Bach’s contemporary Pierre<br />
Dumage, was instructive rather than inspired,<br />
but it displayed the instrument, starting with a<br />
commandingly full plein jeu. Each movement<br />
was preceded by a verse of the Magnificat in<br />
Gregorian chant, sung by the men of Cerddorion,<br />
a volunteer chorus.<br />
The imposing Fugue revealed the lower<br />
manual trumpet stop; the trio, the upper manual<br />
small high stop. Other movements<br />
demonstrated ornaments, ostinatos with<br />
hands and feet, bass trumpet stop range, and<br />
breathy treble effects on manuals without<br />
pedals. It ended with predictable grandeur.<br />
Musically, Tiento par Alamire by Juan<br />
Cabanilles didn’t hold me at all, but it did<br />
show off brilliant reed overtones and horizontal<br />
trumpet.<br />
The bar doesn’t get any higher than Bach’s<br />
late Prelude and Wedge Fugue, as well as the<br />
concert’s concluding Prelude and St Anne<br />
Triple Fugue. I was transported to another<br />
world that had nothing to do with music criticism,<br />
except to suggest, “Why don’t those<br />
other composers just go home?”<br />
Registration in Buxtehude’s Come Holy<br />
Spirit exposed an assertive nasal melody over<br />
a low muted accompaniment. Though the<br />
tremblant was audible, the fugue had<br />
immense clarity. Played again as an encore<br />
after the mighty Bach, it somehow sounded<br />
more French; Chapelet was having a master’s<br />
good time.<br />
So, thanks to devoted and varied contributors<br />
for a gift that doesn’t so much usher in a<br />
new era for this church as it does a new<br />
dimension.<br />
Manton Memorial Organ, 4-Manual Electric Action Console (left), 3-Manual<br />
Mechanical Action Core Console (right)<br />
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Spoleto USA<br />
Renewed Venues, Renewed Spirit<br />
Perry Tannenbaum<br />
The Magic Flute<br />
Marie Arnet as Pamina and Fabio Trumpy as Tamino<br />
Just a few years ago, the venues at Spoleto<br />
Festival USA and the men leading their<br />
choral and chamber music programs had<br />
one glaring similarity: they were elderly and<br />
showing their age. Historical preservation is an<br />
ancient article of faith in Charleston, but when<br />
temperatures topped 95 degrees, keeping the<br />
faith could be oppressive for festival goers,<br />
particularly at Memminger Auditorium and<br />
Dock Street Theatre.<br />
Then a refreshing wave of renovations<br />
began. In 2006 Memminger closed for two<br />
years. It returned with a sensational salvage of<br />
Anthony Davis’s Amidstad in an arena staging<br />
that surrounded the infamous slave ship with<br />
audience and orchestra. Memminger’s versatility<br />
also made it the home of the lunchtime<br />
chamber music series while the Dock Street<br />
venue underwent renovation. Dock Street, the<br />
hub of Spoleto’s chamber music, small-scale<br />
opera, and theatre, returned in 2010 with quieter<br />
air conditioning and more comfortable<br />
seats. In 2012 Gaillard Auditorium will under-<br />
go a three-year remodeling, steering it in a radically<br />
retro course by shedding its airplane<br />
hangar ambiance and hearkening back to the<br />
rounder, more ornate opera halls of the Victorian<br />
Era with aisles in the middle and boxes on<br />
the sides, praise God!<br />
Meanwhile, there has been an infusion of<br />
youth in the musical leadership. Geoff Nuttall,<br />
the flamboyant first violinist of the festival’s<br />
resident string quartet, the St Lawrence, has<br />
succeeded the beloved Charles Wadsworth as<br />
director of chamber music. And John Kennedy,<br />
once confined to hosting the contemporary<br />
Music in Time series, has become the resident<br />
Festival Orchestra <strong>conductor</strong>, following<br />
<strong>Emmanuel</strong> Villaume’s departure. Although<br />
Joseph Flummerfelt continues as director of<br />
choral activities, he no longer presides over the<br />
Westminster Choir concerts. Yet his participation<br />
actually increased this year. He led the<br />
choral-orchestral concert of Bruckner’s Te<br />
Deum and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and<br />
authoritatively conducted The Medium by festival<br />
founder Gian Carlo Menotti.<br />
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Mozart’s Magic Flute offered a respite from<br />
the modernistic tilt of this year’s Spoleto lineup.<br />
Emphasizing the comic, stage directors<br />
Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier tossed in liberal<br />
dollops of discordant Eurotrash. Baritone<br />
Ruben Drole made his entrance as Papageno<br />
accompanied by trained uncaged birds—and<br />
with appropriately-named soprano Audrey<br />
Luna flying in as the Queen of the Night<br />
perched on a crescent moon. And when<br />
Tamino formally took his magic flute, die<br />
zauberflöte actually floated magically through<br />
the air.<br />
Drole and Luna also sang better than Fabio<br />
Trümpy and Marie Arnet as Tamino and Pamina.<br />
Thanks to a supersized pair of platform<br />
shoes, bass-baritone Kevin Short was a 12foot-tall<br />
Sarastro; his Masonic cult uniforms<br />
were sinister gray business suits. In Act II Leiser<br />
and Caurier poured on the dark magic, calling<br />
on Flying by Foy to give the Three Spirits<br />
flashier roles and supplying Pamina with a<br />
special lift when the trio visited her in her<br />
despondency.<br />
Sottile Theatre, a College of Charleston<br />
property, had been out of the Spoleto mix<br />
since 2008. Now in mid-renovation, Leiser and<br />
Caurier made heavy use of its wonders by<br />
using the trapdoors through which the Queen<br />
of the Night vanished and Tamino re-entered<br />
and exited during his climactic trials. In his<br />
farcical despair Papageno was handsomely<br />
furnished with a rope that dangled comically<br />
from the fly loft; he was relieved by the arrival<br />
of a transformed Papagena clinging to the<br />
other end of that rope as she rose from below.<br />
Despite its drab Eurotrash detour and <strong>conductor</strong><br />
Steven Sloane’s lack of freshness, this staging<br />
was very human and much fun.<br />
The Menotti peace offering at the renovated<br />
Dock Street Theatre showed off the facility’s<br />
technical assets to better advantage than the<br />
theatrical productions mounted there. In fact,<br />
Flummerfelt’s work with the Spoleto Orchestra,<br />
paired with John Pascoe’s direction and<br />
production design, amounted to near-ideal<br />
advocacy of The Medium, the composer’s most<br />
dramatic piece. Pascoe’s set, with all sorts of<br />
surreal furnishings floating high above it, presented<br />
Madame Flora’s seance parlor as a<br />
huge, dark warehouse space, lavishly rimmed<br />
with mirrors and ripe for haunting. Where the<br />
ghosts might come from became clear enough<br />
when the huge warehouse door slid open, and<br />
a bombed-out cityscape loomed Dresden-like<br />
in the background.<br />
Pascoe’s costumes faithfully picked up the<br />
postwar ambience, and the work’s most<br />
notable aria, ‘Monica’s Waltz’, chimed well<br />
with the gumbo of gothic and film-noir scenic<br />
elements.<br />
Mezzo Barbara Dever combined the fire<br />
and harrowing vulnerabilities of Flora so natu-<br />
rally that, sometimes, it seemed Stephanie<br />
Blythe was performing. As Flora’s daughter,<br />
soprano Jennifer Aylmer’s delivery was short<br />
on youthful vitality or ruefulness. So was her<br />
rapport with her mother and mute pseudosibling,<br />
Toby. Menotti apparently had a weakness<br />
for delicate, debilitated boys like Toby;<br />
but this servant lad, infused with pathos by<br />
Gregg Mozgala, put an ice-pack on any romantic<br />
flames between him and Monica. The two<br />
teens worked best together in helping to dupe<br />
Flora’s clientele in the opening scene. Stephen<br />
Bryant and Caitlin Lynch sang well enough as<br />
the couple that communes with their lost twoyear-old<br />
son, but there was too little music or<br />
character development for them to excel. Even<br />
less was written for Jennifer Feinstein as Mrs<br />
Nolan, but I appreciated what she brought to<br />
the table when her gullibility was fed by<br />
Aylmer’s sotto voce impersonation of her<br />
daughter. The message of The Medium could<br />
hardly have been better served, except that,<br />
English or not, the production screamed for<br />
supertitles.<br />
Even more definitive was soprano Elizabeth<br />
Futral’s performance in the title role of<br />
Kaija Saariaho’s opera, Emilie. After a moody<br />
overture, adroitly led by Kennedy, Futral took<br />
the stage at Memminger and dominated it for<br />
the full 75 minutes. With a luxurious chaise on<br />
one side of the stage and a writing desk on the<br />
other, we were offered generous samplings of<br />
Emilie du Chatelet’s amorous career and intellectual<br />
powers. She would soon die in childbirth,<br />
but her instincts told her she must complete<br />
her translation of Newton’s Principia<br />
without delay. That’s about all the tension that<br />
this monodrama can produce, except for all<br />
the beauties of Saariaho’s sometimes turbulent,<br />
mesmerizing score.<br />
The visuals by video designer Austin<br />
Switser lifted the lyricism of the spectacle to an<br />
even loftier realm. Projected onto a modernistic<br />
array of canvas triangles that set<br />
designer Neal Wilkinson brashly contrasted<br />
with period furnishings, these visuals ranged<br />
from Emilie’s writings to male-female interactions,<br />
physics formulas, and Newton’s calculations<br />
of solar bodies—a heady mix of powerpoint<br />
and movie. Switching abruptly from spoken<br />
to sung passages, and even from French to<br />
English, Futral was never upstaged by the light<br />
show that enveloped her. Truly exciting.<br />
Now in his second year as chamber music<br />
director, Nuttall is doing things more his way.<br />
For the first time, the complete set of 11 programs<br />
was printed, but still without the performers’<br />
names. In a gray suit jacket that conjured<br />
up Robert E Lee, the dapper Nuttall also<br />
displayed a nuanced grasp of tradition. While<br />
his attire reminded us that Charleston was<br />
commemorating the opening of the Civil War<br />
150 years ago, his introductory remarks lin-<br />
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gered on the festival’s celebration of Menotti’s<br />
centennial, reminding us that the concluding<br />
piece of the day, Schubert’s String Quintet,<br />
was Menotti’s invariable choice for concluding<br />
the festival he founded.<br />
With Saariaho and composer-in-residence<br />
Osvaldo Golijov in the audience, Nuttall<br />
stamped Spoleto 2011 as the richest ever in<br />
modern chamber music. Four programs<br />
included at least one piece by Golijov, building<br />
up to the majestic Dreams and Prayers of Isaac<br />
the Blind, played by clarinetist Todd Palmer<br />
and the St Lawrence Quartet. And if Emilie and<br />
a full Music in Time concert devoted to Saariaho<br />
weren’t enough, another macabre peep at<br />
her work was offered in Program 2 with Oi Kuu<br />
(For the Moon), a duo where cellist Christopher<br />
Constanza had Palmer squeezing forth<br />
challenging multiphonics on a bass clarinet.<br />
The 11 programs also had works by<br />
Shostakovich, Cage, Barber, Britten, Ricky Ian<br />
Gordon, and Tom Johnson.<br />
Program 10 was the most emblematic of<br />
the five I attended. It began with a piano quintet<br />
by Louise Farrenc (1804-75) that double<br />
bassist Anthony Manzo suggested because it<br />
has the same lineup as Schubert’s Trout Quintet<br />
that he’d be playing on the final program.<br />
Each of Farrenc’s four movements was a pleasant<br />
discovery, though the Scherzo, beginning<br />
with a Mendelssohnian thrust and culminating<br />
with Beethovenian agitation, was the most<br />
memorable.<br />
Then Manzo was thrust into the spotlight<br />
with Johnson’s Failing: A Very Difficult Piece<br />
for Solo String Bass and its entertaining recipe<br />
for failure: Manzo was not only obliged to play<br />
increasingly difficult music but was also<br />
required to read an increasingly dense text<br />
printed like song lyrics in his score, meditating<br />
with absurdist self-regard on the success he<br />
was having in achieving the failure that Johnson<br />
had ordained for him.<br />
In the performance I had most eagerly<br />
awaited, violinist Livia Sohn and pianist Pedja<br />
Muzijevic took on Beethoven’s Kreutzer<br />
Sonata. In the opening sturm und drang, the<br />
duo matched up well against the magisterial<br />
account I had heard at the Savannah Music<br />
Festival ten weeks earlier from Daniel Hope<br />
and Sebastian Knauer. Sohn’s phrasing was<br />
somewhat clipped by comparison, contrasts<br />
less keen, but her attack had its own noble<br />
ardor. In the Andante, Sohn seemed to lose the<br />
conviction necessary to sustain the movement.<br />
Even though Muzijevic grew in strength<br />
behind her, Sohn showed little sign of recovering<br />
her confidence and joy in the closing<br />
Presto.<br />
Muzijevic’s fire was unalloyed the following<br />
afternoon in Schubert’s Trout, where he<br />
and Nuttall dominated in a zesty partnership.<br />
EMILIE<br />
Elizabeth Futral as Emilie du Chatelet<br />
Beforehand baritone Tyler Duncan and pianist<br />
Inon Barnatan performed Schubert’s song,<br />
basis for the quintet’s fourth movement. Duncan’s<br />
work was not done until he taught the<br />
melody to the audience and had us stand up<br />
and hum it.<br />
If he hadn’t put in that extra effort, Duncan<br />
would have been upstaged by bravura cellist<br />
Alisa Weilerstein (with Barnatan) performing<br />
Paganini’s Moses Phantasy on a single string,<br />
achieving every effect possible from such scant<br />
means. Nuttall’s colorful introduction—how<br />
Paganini composed it on a broken-down<br />
instrument while incarcerated, cunningly rigging<br />
it to spontaneously lose its strings in performance—immensely<br />
increased the pleasure.<br />
Our amazement might have increased if he<br />
had mentioned that the Phantasy had originally<br />
been composed for the more easily traversed<br />
violin. Maybe Weilerstein had kept that<br />
little secret to herself.<br />
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Boston Early Music Festival<br />
Dart and Deller Would Be Proud<br />
John Ehrlich<br />
The Boston-area air crackles with palpable<br />
anticipation in the days before each<br />
biyearly Boston Early Music Festival, and<br />
so it was last June at this world-class meeting<br />
of early music minds and artists.<br />
There were the expected premiere of a<br />
long-neglected baroque opera, soloists and<br />
ensembles of many stripes, revivals of past<br />
performances, and exhibitions of instrument<br />
builders, music publishers, and other ancillary<br />
early music operations. There were late-night<br />
concerts for diehard connoisseurs intent on<br />
discovery. In short, from the June 12 opening<br />
night to the June 27 out-of-town final performance<br />
in Great Barrington, there was nonstop<br />
activity. The overall high level of proficiency<br />
and variety of repertoire would stagger<br />
a Thurston Dart or Alfred Deller, though they<br />
would have been pleased.<br />
This year’s North <strong>American</strong> baroque opera<br />
premiere was Agostino Steffani’s Niobe, Regina<br />
de Tebe. The hero of the opera, whose story<br />
actually upstages the title queen, is her husband<br />
Anfione, a musician whose utterances<br />
are so potent that they charm the rocks of the<br />
countryside to form a protective phalanx<br />
about the city of Thebes. Philippe Jaroussky,<br />
the countertenor of prodigious vocal gifts who<br />
played Anfione, was particularly effective in<br />
the remarkable scene where he envisions a<br />
“palace of harmony” where he would retire<br />
from his kingly responsibilities, imagining the<br />
music of the spheres and the planets in their<br />
heavenly orbits. In a particularly telling musical<br />
gesture, Steffani offers an offstage consort<br />
of viols as the ethereal accompaniment. This<br />
stopped the show—a tribute to singer and<br />
composer both.<br />
Soprano Amanda Forsythe handily performed<br />
the dramatically unsympathetic role of<br />
Niobe, who is vain and impolite to her courtly<br />
associates and thinks she is superior to the<br />
gods, which leads to her undoing. For her<br />
impertinences, the gods impassively hurl bolts<br />
of lightning earthward that fatally strike her<br />
three hapless children and turn Niobe into<br />
stone.<br />
I was astonished by the melodic and dramatic<br />
gifts of this relatively unknown composer.<br />
It was handsomely staged by the very gifted<br />
designer Gilbert Blin, whose work seems only<br />
to improve with each festival (an interview<br />
with Blin can be viewed at http://classicalscene.com/2011/06/18/scene-for-bemf’sniobe/)<br />
and so well projected by the BEMF<br />
Amanda Forsythe<br />
Orchestra. The production was a testament to<br />
Stephen Stubbs and Paul O’Dette, who led the<br />
ensemble and continue to unearth worthy<br />
baroque operas.<br />
The other baroque opera was Handel’s<br />
1718 chamber version of Acis and Galatea,<br />
which BEMF had first presented to great<br />
acclaim in 2009. Galatea, the wood nymph, is<br />
in love with the shepherd Acis. But the jealous<br />
one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, wants Galatea<br />
for himself. As happens so often when mortals<br />
dally with gods or seductive woodland creatures,<br />
tragedy ensues when the heatedly jealous<br />
Polyphemus hurls a large rock at Acis, who<br />
promptly expires. All is not lost, though, as<br />
Galatea, reminded that she has divine powers,<br />
grants Acis immortality, transforming his mortal<br />
remains into a burbling stream.<br />
Soprano Teresa Wakim sang the role of<br />
Galatea elegantly and gracefully. She assumed<br />
positions on stage that looked as if they were<br />
lifted directly from an oil painting of the period.<br />
Tenor Aaron Sheehan sang and acted<br />
handsomely as Acis. Both had pleasingly light,<br />
lyric voices that were ideally suited to their<br />
roles and blended perfectly in duets. Baritone<br />
Douglas Williams was the amusing, terrifying,<br />
blustery Polyphemus, yet he sang with a pleasing<br />
elegance. Jason McStoots and Michael<br />
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Kelly, tenors of uncommon accomplishment<br />
in baroque style and tonal beauty, were the<br />
shepherds Damon and Corison. The costumes,<br />
designed by Anna Watkins, were sumptuous<br />
and richly adorned. Once again, Gilbert Blin’s<br />
simple yet very artful stage set, rustically pastoral<br />
yet Versailles-like in its richness of clouds<br />
above and woods below, was a model of creating<br />
lushness with modest means.<br />
It would be hard to imagine a tighter and<br />
more colorful band of early instrumentalists<br />
than violinist Cynthia Roberts, cellist Phoebe<br />
Carrai, violonist Robert Nairn, bassoonist<br />
Mathieu Lussier, harpsichordist Avi Stein,<br />
archlutenist Paul O’Dette, and the extraordinary<br />
Gonzalo Ruiz and Kathryn Montoya playing<br />
oboes and recorders, all co-led by baroque<br />
violinist Robert Nealy and Stephen Stubbs,<br />
master of all things strummed and plucked<br />
from theorbo to guitar. And, what music! One<br />
gorgeous aria or chorus after another! The<br />
sheer fecundity of Handel’s gifts of melody and<br />
drama was amazing.<br />
Fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout and<br />
three members of the Freiburg Baroque<br />
Orchestra played Mozart at Jordan Hall with<br />
dazzling results. After a thoughtful, well-paced,<br />
deeply felt performance of the Fantasia, K 475,<br />
Bezuidenhout was joined by violinist Petra<br />
Müllejans, violist Gottfried von der Goltz, and<br />
cellist Kristin von der Goltz for Mozart’s two<br />
piano quartets. Their joy was audible as well as<br />
visible; their ensemble was the product of one<br />
creative mind. The exquisite, richly voiced<br />
fortepiano, built by Rodney J Regier of<br />
Freeport, Maine, had an especially delectable<br />
pianissimo.<br />
Two superb English vocal ensembles presented<br />
fascinating programs. The latest iteration<br />
of the King’s Singers elicited the following<br />
well parsed statement from the Boston Globe’s<br />
Matthew Guerrieri: “The King’s Singers have<br />
been around for over 40 years, the Boston<br />
Early Music Festival for 30, but it took until<br />
Tuesday (June 14) to bring the two together.<br />
Though famous as free-range omnivores,<br />
crossing styles and genres, at the core of the<br />
Singers’ sound is renaissance music, the basis<br />
of their BEMF debut.”<br />
Indeed! Their fascinating program interlaced<br />
the 1592 Italian collection of vocal works<br />
called Il Trionfo di Dori with madrigals drawn<br />
from the 1601 British publication The Triumphs<br />
of Oriana assembled by the great English<br />
madrigalist Thomas Morley. The works<br />
share an approach to their refrains: each of the<br />
Italian works closes with “Viva la bella Dori”,<br />
while the parallel British refrain is “Long live<br />
fair Oriana”.<br />
The concert’s second half brought forth<br />
Janequin’s earthy Cris de Paris and his onomatopoetic<br />
La Guerre, where the singers recreated<br />
the sounds of battle to great and<br />
Philippe Jaroussky<br />
amusing effect. A King’s Singers’ specialty,<br />
Alessandro Striggio’s Gioco di Primiera, was<br />
offered as a substantial encore, a tour de force<br />
where a vigorous Italian card game is theatrically<br />
reenacted with props.<br />
Offering a completely different sonority,<br />
Peter Philips’s Tallis Scholars, with their<br />
honed, chaste, and pure sound, presented a<br />
program of the great Spanish renaissance master<br />
Tomas Luis de Victoria, including the O<br />
Magnum Mysterium Mass, the first three<br />
Lamentations for Good Friday, and—what for<br />
me was the evening’s high point—the exquisite<br />
Salve Regina. They also performed music by<br />
Sebastian de Vivanco, a contemporary of Victoria:<br />
the Magnificat Octavi Toni and the<br />
motet ‘Sicut Lilium’. I am not among those<br />
who think the Tallis Scholars the holy grail of<br />
renaissance choral singing. Too much straighttoned<br />
vocal production began to wear on me<br />
after an hour or so.<br />
BEMF has already announced its next<br />
baroque opera for June 2013: Christoph<br />
Graupner’s Antiochus und Stratonica. O’Dette,<br />
Stubbs, and Blin will return.<br />
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Mighty Los Angeles<br />
Master Chorale<br />
Triumphing in Brahms to Ellington<br />
Richard S Ginell<br />
The mighty Los Angeles Master Chorale<br />
does double service at Walt Disney Concert<br />
Hall, both as the chorus-of-choice<br />
for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and on its<br />
own concert series. Sometimes both functions<br />
coincide, and so Disney Hall was the place to<br />
hear the Master Chorale in two almost completely<br />
different settings in May.<br />
One concert was part of a concept that the<br />
Phil’s Gustavo Dudamel inherited from Esa-<br />
Pekka Salonen, the “Unbound” series, where<br />
complete symphonic cycles by the big names<br />
are juxtaposed with present-day works for<br />
contrast and context. But Dudamel’s first<br />
attempt at this kind of programming, “Brahms<br />
Unbound”, came unbound through no fault of<br />
his own. All three world premieres by bluechip<br />
composers were cancelled: Henryk<br />
Gorecki died before he could finish his Symphony<br />
No. 4; Peter Lieberson lost his battle<br />
with lymphoma, leaving his Percussion Concerto<br />
unfinished; and Osvaldo Golijov couldn’t<br />
meet the deadline for his Violin Concerto.<br />
That left only Sofia Gubaidulina’s strange,<br />
sprawling percussion concerto, Glorious Per-<br />
cussion (a US premiere), and Steven Mackey’s<br />
Beautiful Passing from the originally<br />
announced contemporary lineup. And it was<br />
Mackey’s work that was coupled with Brahms’s<br />
German Requiem on May 12 for an eveninglong<br />
meditation on the theme of death.<br />
Mackey originally intended to write a riproaring,<br />
rock-em-sock-em violin concerto for<br />
Leila Josefowicz, but his mother’s death in<br />
2008 turned his muse inward. “Please tell<br />
everyone I had a beautiful passing” were his<br />
mother’s last words, and, after Josefowicz was<br />
given serene multiple-stops and trills against<br />
jazzy, raucous orchestral backtalk based on the<br />
six-note New Jersey Transit ticket machine jingle<br />
(!), Mackey eventually managed to unite<br />
everyone into a lovely mellow reverie that<br />
gradually faded away. We weren’t given a<br />
chance to find out if Mackey’s music could<br />
stand on its own without hearing his touching<br />
story about the motivation for the piece. So in<br />
this stacked emotional deck, the concluding<br />
reverie went down best. The remarkable Josefowicz,<br />
increasingly our go-to person for new<br />
violin pieces, was in full command.<br />
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Then Dudamel made a powerful case for<br />
the Requiem, conducting without a score as he<br />
does for just about every large-scale romantic<br />
work. When Brahms wanted the tempos slow,<br />
Dudamel added the word “molto” and slowed<br />
things down even more, while kicking up the<br />
pace in appropriate passages with an infectious<br />
vigor that drew parallels with Beethoven.<br />
There was even some wildness in the third<br />
movement fugue and the central rallying point<br />
of the sixth movement, held together by a firm<br />
rhythmic underpinning. There were a few idiosyncratic<br />
hesitations in the first two movements<br />
(one might have wanted more compassion<br />
and Zen there), but things evened out the<br />
rest of the way. Matthias Goerne’s sonorous,<br />
solid, Rock-of-Ages baritone was in great form;<br />
while soprano Christine Schäfer sounded<br />
luminous in timbre but a bit uncertain in pitch<br />
at first. While the Philharmonic played well,<br />
and the organ pedals produced a satisfying<br />
deep rumble that vibrated pleasantly through<br />
Disney Hall’s wood surfaces, the real star of<br />
this performance was the Master Chorale,<br />
rich-textured, dynamically sensitive, and outstanding<br />
in every department.<br />
Shifting into a more life-affirming gear on<br />
its own series ten days later, the Master<br />
Chorale turned to Duke Ellington. In his last<br />
decade, feeling the tug of his sincere religious<br />
faith and impending mortality, Ellington<br />
assembled three “Sacred Concerts” from a pile<br />
of newly-composed pieces plus bits of this and<br />
that from various stages of his long career.<br />
These “Concerts” are an inimitable <strong>American</strong><br />
goulash of many things—hot big-band jazz,<br />
gospel, Afro-Cuban rhythms, a cappella<br />
chorales, solo ruminations on piano or drums,<br />
even a concerto for tap dancer—all tied<br />
together with Ellington’s harmonic and tonecolor<br />
signatures, a brace of good tunes, and a<br />
big serving of showbiz.<br />
Fusing jazz with Christianity was a hot<br />
industry in the mid-1960s, triggered in part by<br />
all of the “Is God dead?” talk and queries about<br />
whether the church was “relevant” anymore,<br />
so Ellington caught flak from both the jazz corner<br />
and hard-line religious figures.<br />
The attacks left their mark. The trilogy was<br />
still one of the better-kept secrets of the Ellington<br />
catalog when Master Chorale Music Director<br />
Grant Gershon and jazz composer-<strong>conductor</strong>-Ellington<br />
buff James Newton presented<br />
their first Sacred Concert at Disney Hall in<br />
March 2004. For me, that concert was the high<br />
point of Gershon’s tenure. When he and Newton<br />
did another last May, it was just as spinetingling,<br />
exuberant, and emotional the second<br />
time.<br />
Ellington himself probably never encountered<br />
a chorus as unified, flexible, and glowing<br />
in sound as the Master Chorale—and they can<br />
really swing. They were driven by a power-<br />
house rhythm section with the same personnel<br />
as in 2004. The big band on hand, which Newton<br />
led with leaping gestures alongside Gershon’s<br />
command of the voices, was stocked<br />
with skilled jazzers who played with wild abandon.<br />
Maybe this wasn’t quite the authentic<br />
Ellington sound (it never could be, for the<br />
Duke wrote specifically for the quirks of his<br />
casually-curated collection of oddball soloists),<br />
but it could come amazingly close. And without<br />
a doubt, it was strong enough to rock the<br />
house.<br />
This combination made every selection<br />
sound like a stand-alone masterpiece; a visibly<br />
awed Gershon exclaimed after three numbers,<br />
“We go from mountaintop to mountaintop.”<br />
In some cases, they were able to surpass the<br />
performances on Ellington’s own recordings.<br />
One in particular was the lyrically preachy<br />
‘Something ‘Bout Believing’ where the Master<br />
Chorale could illuminate inner harmonies that<br />
transformed the song into something sublime.<br />
There is a lot more from the Sacred Music concerts<br />
that this concert didn’t cover, but Gershon<br />
and Newton chose most of the best stuff<br />
the first time out in 2004, and, with the exceptions<br />
of one deletion and two additions, they<br />
didn’t tamper with success in 2011. As a result,<br />
there is now a second twin mountaintop in the<br />
Gershon era.<br />
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Buffalo Phil: Premieres<br />
Without Pain<br />
Tyberg Symphony, Hagen Concerto<br />
Herman Trotter<br />
The Buffalo Philharmonic’s 75th anniversary<br />
season (Mar/Apr 2011) has been a<br />
festive one where Music Director JoAnn<br />
Falletta opened brilliantly with Midori in<br />
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, followed by<br />
Elgar’s Cello Concerto in Lynn Harrell’s heartwarming<br />
performance, an electrifying Concerto<br />
for Orchestra by Lutoslawski, a spectacular<br />
Planets by Holst with projections of each planet,<br />
and Verdi’s Requiem to conclude the season.<br />
But what left the most indelible memories<br />
in my mind was Falletta’s quite remarkable<br />
feat of presenting, in consecutive programs,<br />
premieres of a significant symphony rediscovered<br />
and a new violin concerto that did not<br />
cost the orchestra a nickel.<br />
Here’s how: regular readers of ARG know<br />
that for several years Falletta and the BPO have<br />
been at the center of the emergence from total<br />
obscurity of works by Vienna-born composer<br />
Marcel Tyberg, who was put to death at<br />
Auschwitz on December 31, 1944, despite<br />
being a practicing Catholic with only 1/16th<br />
Jewish ancestry. His entire life’s work, however,<br />
had been entrusted to the family of one of<br />
his composition students, Enrico Mihich, who<br />
eventually moved to Buffalo and became a<br />
world-renowned cancer researcher, all the<br />
while safeguarding Tyberg’s scores in his attic.<br />
When he shared this trove with JoAnn Falletta,<br />
it marked the beginning of Tyberg’s emergence.<br />
She led the world premiere of his Symphony<br />
No. 3 (1943) in 2008 and recorded it for<br />
Naxos (Nov/Dec 2010). For the 75th anniversary<br />
Falletta chose to unveil his Symphony No.<br />
2 (1931) on April 30.<br />
Tyberg was by nature introverted and retiring,<br />
desperately concerned with composing<br />
but quite oblivious to any need to have his<br />
music published or even performed. After <strong>conductor</strong><br />
Rafael Kubelik, a friend of the Tyberg<br />
family, saw his Symphony No. 2, he performed<br />
it in Prague sometime in the early 1930s with<br />
the Czech Philharmonic. Shortly before Kubelik<br />
died, he confirmed to Mihich that it was the<br />
world premiere, but any printed trace of the<br />
performance seems to have been obliterated<br />
by World War II. The BPO’s performances constituted<br />
the Western hemisphere premiere,<br />
and the music fully justified Kubelik’s high<br />
opinion of it.<br />
Tyberg was a no-nonsense composer. His<br />
musical ideas are cogent, often absorbing, and<br />
are developed with a clear sense of logic that<br />
leads the listener, almost effortlessly, to their<br />
conclusion. Once Tyberg has stated his case,<br />
the music, without extraneous pomp or<br />
grandiosity, just says goodbye with a succinct,<br />
fascinating coda. This is warm, bracing music<br />
from the trailing edge of romanticism.<br />
Symphony No. 2 is more expansive and<br />
perhaps a bit more from the heart than the<br />
more concise and pointed No. 3. The opening<br />
Allegro Appassionato speaks first in pianissimo<br />
spiccato strings, answered by brusque lower<br />
strings, and seems largely propelled by an elevated<br />
sense of ceremony. The rhythms and<br />
voicing seem pleasantly Brucknerian, and as<br />
the music unfolds there are lovely quiet connecting<br />
interludes in the winds and brassy<br />
declamations that develop into extended<br />
ruminations, capped by a quick quiet close.<br />
The slow movement is the quintessence of<br />
its marking, “langsam”. It is searchingly meditative<br />
with a mellow, pensive theme and some<br />
adventurous harmonies. It radiates a sense of<br />
purpose or direction and is guided by a strong<br />
inner voice and superbly balanced instrumental<br />
colors. A surprising descending string glissando<br />
leads to warm horn commentary and<br />
another aptly prompt conclusion.<br />
The Scherzo has the overall feeling of a<br />
jolly, percolating piece that reaches a full boil,<br />
then signs off with a decisive flourish. It has a<br />
lilting five-note theme with a countering idea<br />
in high twittering winds, an interesting oompah<br />
effect in low winds that acts like a ground<br />
bass, and propulsive triplet rhythms that give a<br />
sense of continuous, inventive change.<br />
The Finale is an athletic, energetic piece<br />
whose pensive prelude in warm strings leads<br />
to dramatic declamations and flourishes that<br />
break out first in a rather episodic fugal passage<br />
punctuated by unexpected pauses and<br />
later in full-fledged counterpoint that reflects<br />
Tyberg’s love of the organ. It’s music with a<br />
great striding tread, sweeping horn interjections,<br />
and dense orchestration that is never<br />
showy but always seems imaginative and just<br />
right. Tyberg’s absolute assurance generates a<br />
toe-tapping excitement that finally yields to a<br />
quick pause, as if the orchestra were taking a<br />
deep breath before the joyous F major coda.<br />
Falletta and the BPO seemed to project this<br />
conservative, engrossing symphony with an<br />
authority and complete conviction that sug-<br />
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gest it is well worth adding to the repertory.<br />
She speaks of Tyberg’s music as belonging to<br />
the sound world of Schubert, Bruckner, and<br />
Mahler. While there is a clear allegiance to<br />
those composers, there is nothing plagiaristic<br />
in what we hear 67 years after Tyberg’s death.<br />
Viewed another way, Tyberg’s output was<br />
relatively slight: four orchestral works, two<br />
each of chamber works, piano sonatas, and<br />
Masses, plus some 35 lieder. But as these<br />
works progressively emerge, they strike me as<br />
radiating a sure sense of conventional late<br />
19th- and early 20th-Century style not too different<br />
from what listeners might experience if,<br />
say, the music of Dohnanyi, Reger, or Pfitzner<br />
had been lost and suddenly rediscovered in<br />
the 21st Century.<br />
Two weeks later Falletta followed with the<br />
May 13 world premiere of a Violin Concerto by<br />
<strong>American</strong> composer Daron Hagen simply<br />
called Songbook, with Concertmaster Michael<br />
Ludwig as soloist. The title derives from the<br />
fact that the themes for each of the four movements<br />
were taken from two Irish and two<br />
<strong>American</strong> folk songs that Hagen’s wife sang<br />
nightly to their young son at bedtime. Scored<br />
for solo violin, strings, harp, and percussion,<br />
the structure sounds complicated. The movements<br />
are listed as Variations, Chaconne, Passacaglia,<br />
and Variations, but most of the music<br />
falls quite easily on the ear.<br />
It opens with a plaint to the tragic 1798<br />
Irish uprising called ‘The Croppy Boy’, whose<br />
heart-warming, slow, melancholy theme on<br />
the violin is far more beautiful than the subject<br />
matter might suggest. Often underscored by a<br />
marimba, the violin leads the way through<br />
nine variations that are wholly tonal with only<br />
mild dissonance, but with increasingly dense<br />
textures, gradually subsiding to the original<br />
calm.<br />
The brief Scherzo is a delight, based on a<br />
song about the great potato famine called ‘The<br />
Praties’. Here the violin, harp, and snare drum<br />
almost play tag as they skitter with great animation<br />
and captivating rhythmic pulse<br />
through the hop-skipping variations to a quick<br />
but very satisfying conclusion.<br />
The heart of this concerto is the Passacaglia<br />
on the <strong>American</strong> song ‘Over Yandro’.<br />
Here the percussion is tacit, which helped me<br />
attend to the central importance in the overall<br />
structure. The violin limns a supplicating,<br />
reaching theme that manages to radiate both<br />
tenderness and angst over the course of the<br />
variations and their peaceful resolution.<br />
The more complex Finale teases the listener<br />
with an extended violin solo leading to an<br />
agitated allegro where bits and pieces of the<br />
ubiquitous ‘Amazing Grace’ emerge, only<br />
gradually falling in place as the fully realized<br />
theme. Over restless orchestral and percussion<br />
JoAnn Falletta<br />
support, the variations grow in intensity and<br />
then, seemingly without preparation, just stop.<br />
The performance seemed even more convincing<br />
on second hearing. As soloist Ludwig<br />
was absolutely secure and comfortable in the<br />
music’s overall texture, which largely presented<br />
the violin as a true soloist but sometimes in<br />
more of a concertante role. The central movements<br />
were completely satisfying, but there<br />
were moments in the outer movements where<br />
the composer might want to reconsider some<br />
of the percussion-string balances and contrasts.<br />
Of special note is the fact that Songbook<br />
was not a commissioned work but the fallout<br />
from a conversation among Ludwig, Hagen,<br />
and Falletta following the BPO’s 2006 concert<br />
performance of Hagen’s opera Shining Brow<br />
about Frank Lloyd Wright. Ludwig and Falletta<br />
in effect said “Hey, write us a violin concerto<br />
and make it tuneful.” The result was Songbook.<br />
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Schwarz’s<br />
26-Year Seattle Legacy<br />
Au Revoir But<br />
Not Good-Bye<br />
Melinda Bargreen<br />
They’ve named a block of a downtown<br />
Seattle thoroughfare “Gerard Schwarz<br />
Place”. They’ve named Schwarz an honorary<br />
one-star general. Marvin Hamlisch has<br />
written and performed a witty song in<br />
Schwarz’s honor; 18 top composers have written<br />
short works for him to premiere; the Seattle<br />
community has penned congratulations in<br />
several big “autograph books”; and the array of<br />
pre- and post-concert galas, parties, and other<br />
events would challenge the stamina of a<br />
marathoner.<br />
What a coda to Gerard Schwarz’s 26 years<br />
as Seattle Symphony music director! His long<br />
tenure, which officially concluded with a set of<br />
June concerts that included Mahler’s Symphony<br />
No. 2 (Resurrection) along with a Philip<br />
Glass premiere, is all the more remarkable<br />
because no one ever expected Schwarz to stay<br />
in Seattle for more than a short sojourn.<br />
When he first came to Seattle as music<br />
advisor in 1983, Schwarz arrived to a shellshocked<br />
orchestra and music community, following<br />
the death of the Seattle Symphony’s<br />
Music Director Rainer Miedel from cancer.<br />
The orchestra and its finances were in disarray;<br />
the performance space (the former Seattle<br />
Opera House) was an acoustically diffuse barn<br />
of a hall that wasn’t exactly conducive to a<br />
refined orchestral sound. Schwarz was hired to<br />
lead the orchestra during the search for<br />
Miedel’s successor, but it became immediately<br />
clear to the orchestra and the community that<br />
the best successor just might be Schwarz himself.<br />
“He’ll never stay in Seattle!” was the<br />
mantra of knowledgeable observers on both<br />
coasts. After all, Schwarz was a New Yorker,<br />
originally a trumpet phenomenon who in 1972<br />
became the New York Philharmonic’s<br />
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youngest co-principal trumpet at age 25, and<br />
who left the orchestra five years later to pursue<br />
a conducting career. And pursue it he did, with<br />
tremendous energy. At the time he came to<br />
Seattle, Schwarz was the director of six organizations:<br />
the Mostly Mozart Festival, the New<br />
York Chamber Symphony (originally the New<br />
York “Y” Symphony), the contemporary Music<br />
Today series, New Jersey’s Waterloo Festival,<br />
the Eliot Feld Dance Company, and the Los<br />
Angeles Chamber Orchestra.<br />
Nobody expected Schwarz to spend much<br />
time in the Northwest corner of the country;<br />
nor did Schwarz himself. But gradually things<br />
changed. He married the former Jody Greitzer<br />
(daughter of New York Philharmonic principal<br />
violist Sol Greitzer), a flutist of considerable<br />
charm who became an immediate favorite in<br />
the Seattle music community. The couple settled<br />
into a condo overlooking the Seattle<br />
waterfront and the Pike Place Market, and in<br />
due course they welcomed two children,<br />
Gabriella, who now works for CNN, and Julian,<br />
now an increasingly busy solo cellist. (Schwarz<br />
also has two children, Alysandra Lal and<br />
Daniel Schwarz, from an earlier marriage.)<br />
Though Schwarz continued his globe-trotting<br />
ways (with music directorships as far afield as<br />
Liverpool and Tokyo), somehow the New Yorkers<br />
had become Seattleites.<br />
Thanks to the trumpeter’s earlier relationship<br />
with the Delos label, his new orchestra<br />
recorded a highly praised series of discs in that<br />
exciting new medium, the compact disc. More<br />
than 140 CDs on Delos and other labels were<br />
to follow, with 14 Grammy nominations and a<br />
lasting mark particularly in the repertoire of<br />
20th Century symphonists (Hanson, Piston,<br />
Schuman, Diamond, and Hovhaness, among<br />
others).<br />
It took many years for Schwarz to get his<br />
orchestra out of the old Opera House (increasingly<br />
gridlocked with concert dates by the<br />
Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and<br />
visiting artists) and into a new concert hall.<br />
Schwarz’s friends, philanthropists Jack and<br />
Becky Benaroya, launched that project with a<br />
$15 million gift; the result, Benaroya Hall,<br />
opened in 1998 to national acclaim for its<br />
acoustics and amenities. The hall, along with<br />
the gradual advent of several gifted new players,<br />
allowed Schwarz to raise significantly the<br />
quality of the orchestra.<br />
It wasn’t all a consistent hymn of praise,<br />
however. Discord gradually grew between the<br />
music director and several players who objected<br />
initially to what they considered his highhanded<br />
hiring of John Cerminaro as principal<br />
horn, over objections of the players’ selection<br />
committee. A group of increasingly vocal dissident<br />
musicians expressed displeasure later,<br />
when the board voted in 2006 to renew<br />
Schwarz’s contract through 2011. One violinist<br />
filed suit against the orchestra and music<br />
director (the suit was later dismissed, but not<br />
before drawing considerable attention in the<br />
New York Times). Two outspoken Schwarz loyalists<br />
in the orchestra reported vandalism incidents.<br />
When Schwarz announced his decision to<br />
leave at the end of his contract in 2011, plans<br />
were set in motion for a blockbuster final season.<br />
Chief among the innovations was an<br />
unprecedented set of 18 short commissions by<br />
some of the country’s finest composers,<br />
underscoring Schwarz’s commitment to new<br />
<strong>American</strong> music: Augusta Read Thomas,<br />
Joseph Schwantner, Aaron Jay Kernis, Daron<br />
Hagen, Samuel Jones, David Stock, Bernard<br />
Rands, Gunther Schuller, Bright Sheng, Daniel<br />
Brewbaker, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Robert Beaser,<br />
Chen Yi, George Tsontakis, David Schiff,<br />
Richard Danielpour, Paul Schoenfield, and<br />
Philip Glass.<br />
Many of these curtain-raisers, including<br />
the festive Zwilich work and the jazzy Schiff<br />
piece, used lots of brass as a tribute to this former<br />
trumpeter. The longer Samuel Jones work,<br />
Reflections: Songs of Fathers and Daughters,<br />
was an effective and evocative set of vignettes<br />
displaying Jones’s imaginative harmonic structure<br />
and virtuoso scoring. The last of the commissions,<br />
Philip Glass’s Harmonium Mountain,<br />
was in his familiar motive-oscillations<br />
minimalist style, breaking no ground but<br />
entertaining the audience well.<br />
The finale’s big piece, Mahler’s Resurrection<br />
Symphony, demonstrated the feisty good<br />
health and the resounding brass section of the<br />
orchestra, as well as the <strong>conductor</strong>’s ability to<br />
shape the score’s smaller-scale, more intimate<br />
moments. Sustained and lengthy ovations<br />
before and after the program made it clear that<br />
the maestro had also connected powerfully<br />
with his audience.<br />
People who worry about how the Seattle<br />
Symphony—which, like most orchestras<br />
today, is struggling with a deficit and the difficulty<br />
of fundraising in a tough economy—will<br />
fare in Schwarz’s absence may be relieved to<br />
discover that he won’t disappear entirely: he is<br />
staying on for several weeks each season as<br />
“<strong>conductor</strong> laureate”. Also the artistic director<br />
of the Eastern Music Festival, Schwarz will<br />
devote his considerable energies to composition<br />
(he is currently working on a band piece<br />
for Cornell). He is also director-<strong>conductor</strong> of<br />
an educational TV-DVD series with an “All-<br />
Stars Orchestra” of the country’s best players<br />
in great concert repertoire, in eight hour-long<br />
annual programs with many other enhancements.<br />
Don’t look for any moss to grow on his<br />
baton.<br />
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Edmonton’s Summer<br />
Solstice Festival<br />
Chamber Music for All Tastes<br />
Bill Rankin<br />
Edmonton is the most northerly city in<br />
North America with a population over a<br />
million, and those million people endure<br />
some of the harshest winter weather on the<br />
continent. So when the short summer season<br />
arrives, Edmontonians revel in festivals that<br />
recognize the resurrection of the human spirit.<br />
In late June alone, there is a cluster of<br />
opera, visual arts, jazz, and improvisational<br />
theater festivals; but until four years ago, classical<br />
music fans felt deprived. University of<br />
Alberta piano professor Patricia Tao, a member<br />
of the Edmonton Chamber Music Society<br />
board, which brings renowned musicians to<br />
the city during the cold, dark winters, filled the<br />
classical music void with a three-day Summer<br />
Solstice Festival in 2008. This year’s festival,<br />
June 24-26, included some of Canada’s most<br />
distinguished musicians, several of whom won<br />
Junos (Canada’s Grammys) in April.<br />
Canadian ex-pat Lara St John, now running<br />
a thriving, eclectic violin career from New<br />
York, including her own record label, was this<br />
year’s festival headliner. St John’s affinity for<br />
the music of Romania and Hungary made her<br />
a natural for the first of three concerts with<br />
gypsy-inspired themes. Sounding anything<br />
but gypsy, the concert began with Haydn’s<br />
Trio in G, with its Gypsy Rondo, played by<br />
Tao’s Trio Voce, with cellist Marina Hoover<br />
and violinist Jasmine Lin, both of whom live in<br />
Chicago. The Haydn choice was clever<br />
because by the third movement a little of an<br />
ersatz Roma mood was established, opening<br />
up all sorts of possibilities.<br />
Roman Borys, the Gyphon Trio’s cellist,<br />
then joined Edmonton pianist Michael Massey<br />
for a slightly labored performance of Bartok’s<br />
Rhapsody No. 1. Bartok will never make such a<br />
musical challenge feel more like play than<br />
work, but the result was professional and the<br />
control admirable. The Gryphon Trio’s violinist,<br />
Annalee Patipatanakoon, and Tao then<br />
performed Ravel’s Tzigane, showing that<br />
chamber music players are always happy to<br />
find a release for their inner soloist. Patipatanakoon<br />
delighted the audience of about<br />
300 with the virtuosic flair and lyrical playfulness<br />
Ravel built into his display of gypsy fiddling.<br />
Following a polished performance of<br />
Brahms’s first five Hungarian Dances in their<br />
original piano four-hands version, played by<br />
husband and wife Angela Cheng and Alvin<br />
Chow, both Oberlin profs, St John took the<br />
stage with Massey to play two sections of New<br />
York composer Gene Pritsker’s Russian<br />
Evening Suite, one of them ‘Song’, a world premiere.<br />
St John, for whom Pritsker wrote the<br />
suite, brought the necessary intensity and<br />
abandon to the Slavic-inspired music. Her<br />
performance of ‘Falling’, a jazz-tinged, rhythmically<br />
erratic movement with just enough<br />
melody on top to keep its Eastern European<br />
folk foundation in sight, set up nicely the<br />
evening’s finale, a Michael Atkinson transcription<br />
of cimbalomist Toni Lordache’s scintillatingly<br />
theatrical Ca la Beaza. The notions of<br />
chamber music covered by the program were<br />
vast and quite thrilling.<br />
Saturday’s program reflected two sides of<br />
Franz Liszt’s musical personality, the betterknown<br />
showman and the religious contemplative.<br />
In between the fiery opening ‘Campanella’<br />
from the Paganini Etudes and the Mephisto<br />
Waltz No. 2 in Liszt’s arrangement for piano<br />
four hands (Cheng and Chow), we heard<br />
music that soothed and saddened. The string<br />
quartet arrangement of Angelus with Patipatanakoon,<br />
St John, Borys, and local violist<br />
Charles Pilon, satisfied Tao’s ambition to<br />
bring an assortment of excellent players<br />
together for some quickly prepared chamber<br />
music. The cohesion of the impromptu<br />
ensemble was impressive.<br />
Tenor Anthony Flynn opened the second<br />
half with Liszt’s Three Petrarch Sonnets. So<br />
huge was Flynn’s sound that these love songs<br />
would have found the beloved’s ear if she had<br />
been several villages away. His robust projection<br />
and warm timbre were impressive but not<br />
subtle enough—he had vocal heft to spare.<br />
Thousands of singers would kill, though, to fill<br />
a room like he can. (On Sunday in several<br />
songs from Schubert’s Schwanengesang, he<br />
showed that he can tone it down for smaller<br />
effects.)<br />
For me Saturday’s highlight was Borys and<br />
Tao in Liszt’s Lugubre Gondola. All weekend<br />
Borys demonstrated that music should not<br />
only sound fine. but that artists should look<br />
like they are moved by it. Lin too has a style<br />
that draws the listener into her performances<br />
without ostentation.<br />
Sunday afternoon’s program was the most<br />
conventional: the Schubert, Arensky’s Trio No.<br />
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1, and another demonstration of professional<br />
aplomb with St John, Patipatanakoon, Pilon,<br />
Borys, and Cheng giving a vivid performance<br />
of Schumann’s Piano Quintet. While the fourth<br />
Lara St. John<br />
Summer Solstice Festival ended with music<br />
that appeals to chamber music fans everywhere,<br />
the treats were the less known repertoire,<br />
some of it written “just yesterday”.<br />
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Fayetteville Chamber Music<br />
Festival The World Comes to Central Texas<br />
Gil French<br />
In Orzak’s Cafe, a family restaurant in Fayetteville,<br />
Texas (population 258), while lunching<br />
on some southern fried chicken amidst<br />
scores of family photos, beer, street signs,<br />
antlers, cowboy hats, a bow and arrow, and<br />
folk crafts, I noticed a sign that said, “In a small<br />
town, there ain’t much to see, but what you<br />
hear sure makes up for it.”<br />
What I was hearing May 17-21, across the<br />
street from Orzak’s, was the second of two<br />
weeks of the fifth annual Fayetteville Chamber<br />
Music Festival in the Country Place Hotel, a<br />
restored 111-year-old building now on the<br />
National Register of Historic Places. Concerts<br />
are held in the Moravian Room, which measures<br />
37 by 41 feet, with wood floor, 12 foot<br />
wood ceiling, windows on three sides, and one<br />
brick, one wood, and two plaster walls, decorated<br />
with nine large oil paintings by the owner. 99<br />
padded folding wood chairs were two-thirds to<br />
four-fifths full for the concerts I heard.<br />
Fayetteville, half-way between Houston<br />
and Austin in Texas’s hill country—wide<br />
rolling hills festooned with trees, song birds,<br />
cattle ranches, and pickup trucks—was settled<br />
at the turn of the 20th Century by Germans<br />
and Czechs. But, as it was with our European<br />
ancestors, it is the recent “immigrants”—<br />
wealthy oilmen, lawyers, and bankers from<br />
Houston and other parts of the country, some<br />
with second homes, many with permanent<br />
ones—who import the art, music, paintings,<br />
sculpture, literature, and other pleasures they<br />
enjoyed before moving here, along with their<br />
penchant for conservation.<br />
The movement began 40 years ago when<br />
pianist James Dick founded the Round Top<br />
Festival (Nov/Dec 2010) 17 miles north, transforming<br />
the area surrounding Texas’s smallest<br />
town (Round Top, population now up to 90)<br />
into a community where the arts flourish and<br />
real estate prices are more than double what<br />
they are in Rochester NY (where I live).<br />
Compared to the larger <strong>American</strong> summer<br />
festivals, Fayetteville’s is an intimate affair<br />
with only five musicians the first week and six<br />
the second (three of them staying on), performing<br />
two weekends of Friday night, Saturday<br />
afternoon, and Saturday evening concerts.<br />
They lived, had breakfast, rehearsed, and performed<br />
under the same roof; the quiet and<br />
freedom from having to run someplace were<br />
perfect stress relievers for them.<br />
The week I attended, Swedish clarinetist,<br />
festival founder, and Artistic Director Hakan<br />
Rosengren, 47, who became a resident of<br />
Round Top as a result of that festival, made his<br />
own festival a truly international affair.<br />
Returning Hungarian pianist Peter Nagy (“gy”<br />
like the “z” in “azure”), who turns 52 this year,<br />
was the festival’s workhorse, playing in eight<br />
major works and becoming the principal negotiator<br />
about form, balance, style, and other<br />
details. His own performing style was intellectual<br />
rather than rapturous, with relatively low<br />
use of pedals.<br />
Polish cellist Andrzej Bauer, 48, also a<br />
Fayetteville veteran, usually contributed to<br />
discussions last, always asking for more<br />
expression and blend. His broad range of tone<br />
colors, warmth, and remarkable combination<br />
of lyricism and articulation illuminated Bach’s<br />
Solo Cello Suite No. 3, making it compelling<br />
and engaging. Those qualities plus a kaleidoscope<br />
of techniques, from huge portamentos<br />
and strings struck with the bow’s wood to<br />
quick-stroked harmonics and two-handed<br />
pizzicatos, were on parade in his composition,<br />
Duotone, which seemed like 10 minutes of<br />
aimless noodling to me (the highly responsive<br />
audience disagreed).<br />
The others were new to the festival, reflecting<br />
Rosengren’s need to widen his own musical<br />
experiences by engaging some musicians<br />
he’s never performed with (he’s also the rare<br />
artist who devours new recordings). German<br />
violinist Tanja Becker-Bender, 33, dominated<br />
not just by virtuosic technique but by sheer<br />
volume. When the Moravian Room wasn’t at<br />
least three-quarters full, the acoustics created<br />
an oppressive wall of sound, with her metallic<br />
tone the main offender (that flat 12-foot ceiling<br />
was the chief culprit). I was dumbfounded<br />
when told she was playing a Guarneri. But<br />
when the room was mostly full, she blended<br />
nicely with the others, though, like Nagy, her<br />
low-vibrato approach was more intellectual<br />
than rapturous.<br />
Juan Miguel Hernandez, 26, whose father is<br />
half-black half-Dominican and mother is<br />
French Canadian, is a big-boned, long-armed,<br />
lean 6’4” Canadian with a viola custom-built to<br />
comfortably fit his frame. It’s big and fat and<br />
produces a mellow, rich, well-projected sound<br />
that fits his romantic, expressive approach. He<br />
is a founding member of the Harlem Quartet,<br />
and he cares about balance and practicality.<br />
After others discussed possible approaches to<br />
passages, he was the one who would say, “So<br />
what are we going to do?” At one point, given<br />
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the room’s acoustics and the soloistic tendencies<br />
of a few others, he amiably joked, “Should I<br />
go out and get some Q-tips so we could listen to<br />
one another?” Restraint and balances followed.<br />
DaXun Zhang, born 29 years ago in Harbin,<br />
China, into a family with eight other string<br />
bass players connected to the city’s symphony<br />
orchestra that was conducted for years by Gary<br />
Graffman’s father, has lived in Austin for the<br />
past four years. He brought two instruments to<br />
the festival, one two months old and made in<br />
Cincinnati. One afternoon, rehearsing for a<br />
June concert, he used it as he played for me<br />
from memory his arrangement of Bach’s Solo<br />
Cello Sonata No. 5. I recall only one error<br />
amidst a performance that had the same stunning<br />
attributes Bauer brought to Sonata No. 3.<br />
So I was surprised when his superb musicality<br />
failed him in Schubert’s Trout Quintet as his<br />
older instrument merely grunted, giving no<br />
shape whatever to the repetitive, boring bass<br />
line. It takes a rare artist to make it truly<br />
expressive.<br />
Earlier when Zhang performed his<br />
arrangement of the ‘Meditation’ from Thais<br />
with Nagy, he had severe intonation problems<br />
on his new bass. But then so did everyone at<br />
the afternoon concert. Even the avant-garde<br />
techniques in Bauer’s Duotone couldn’t disguise<br />
his bad intonations. And Rosengren, a<br />
sensitive, meticulous romanticist, was sharp<br />
most of the time in Schumann’s three<br />
Romances. By performance time, he and Nagy<br />
had analyzed away his instinctive musicality<br />
heard at the first rehearsal, resulting in an<br />
angular, conjured interpretation.<br />
The afternoon began with Bach’s Sonata<br />
No. 4, S 1017, made excruciating by Becker-<br />
Bender’s low use of vibrato and non-resonant<br />
metallic tone; Nagy put not an ounce of buoyancy<br />
into Bach’s written-out keyboard part.<br />
The concert concluded with Brahms’s Piano<br />
Quartet No. 1. After opening with shabby<br />
ensemble, the players were all afflicted with<br />
more sour tuning. True, it was humid, but tuning<br />
beforehand might have helped. Tempos<br />
were rushed. The violin and cello veritably<br />
screamed in the half-filled room; I had to concentrate<br />
to hear the viola. Only in the finale did<br />
they finally become a balanced “quartet”, as<br />
they played the hell out of its Hungarian<br />
rhythms!<br />
Big works made up the Friday and Saturday<br />
evening concerts. In Brahms’s Violin<br />
Sonata No. 1 Becker-Bender and Nagy were<br />
equal partners. In the first movement phrases<br />
were perfectly peaked and very emotional,<br />
though they didn’t play with abandon. It was<br />
their business-like efficiency and narrow use<br />
of tone color that made me lose interest in the<br />
other two movements.<br />
I had never heard a good performance of<br />
any of Bruch’s eight Pieces for clarinet, viola,<br />
and piano until now. In Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 7<br />
Rosengren emerged from the ether, shaping<br />
lines with breathtaking nuance and lyricism,<br />
as Hernandez let his gorgeous dark tones (even<br />
in the treble register) melt into the clarinet<br />
line. The ‘Romanian Melody’ was moody with<br />
gypsy soul. And the fast movements were crisp<br />
and swift but never rushed, perfect music<br />
before intermission, when patrons enjoyed<br />
two kinds of German beer, compliments of<br />
Round Top Mercantile.<br />
Maybe it was the beer, but Beethoven’s<br />
Archduke Trio never sounded better! The playing<br />
was full-throated, yet balances were<br />
superb because the room was almost full and<br />
the players were truly a “trio”. Bauer’s cello<br />
was rich and warm. And Nagy was at his very<br />
best—one could tell that Beethoven is his soul<br />
brother as he made the piano ring with a richer<br />
use of pedal. Indeed, he was the one who in<br />
rehearsals shaped it so that the flow was totally<br />
engaging with just the right touch of rubato<br />
and integral transportation across Beethoven’s<br />
seams. The second movement was a veritable<br />
Viennese waltz. In the Andante Cantabile the<br />
piano, the work’s principal instrument, was<br />
supremely poetic. In the finale Nagy led with a<br />
rare moment of playfulness.<br />
Saturday night Bauer’s Bach solo was follow<br />
by Bartok’s Contrasts. This was where<br />
Becker-Bender’s strident tone paid off, as the<br />
violin and clarinet’s contrary lines crossed<br />
each other, reaching for the lowest and high<br />
ends of their registers. The terraced, unrushed<br />
‘Verbunkos’ was truly love. In the ‘Piheno’<br />
Rosengren was utterly secure, but the violin<br />
had trouble with bowing pressure, and Nagy<br />
was too direct, never creating a gauze over his<br />
tone. The finale was unexpectedly too careful,<br />
lacking sufficient weight on the dance beats.<br />
Nagy was very dry; creating atmosphere is simply<br />
not his style.<br />
The festival ended with a superb performance<br />
of Schubert’s Trout Quintet. Becker-<br />
Bender, Hernandez, Bauer, and Nagy were all<br />
really “hot” and playful in the opening movement,<br />
hitting on just the right tempos. Nagy<br />
made the piano ring, though the forward<br />
tempo in the second movement did miss the<br />
underlying feeling of a lullaby. They gave<br />
rhythmic bounce to the next movement. The<br />
cello solo in one of the variations was very<br />
comforting. And the finale had a bright, easy,<br />
upturned, top-tapping style.<br />
Here I was, in the middle of nowhere in a<br />
town where there is absolutely nothing to do,<br />
yet there was no spoon-feeding this festival’s<br />
sophisticated audience. As I always say, if anyone<br />
thinks classical music is dying, the chamber<br />
music festivals, large and small, that sweep<br />
across America each summer (plus the 500<br />
CDs reviewed in each issue of ARG) put that lie<br />
firmly to rest.<br />
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Bang! You’ve Won<br />
Montreal Music Competition<br />
Robert Markow<br />
The 24 competitors at the Tenth Montreal<br />
International Musical Competition, held<br />
from May 23 to June 3, included the<br />
usual lineup of candidates from Russia (3), the<br />
US (3), and Asian lands (8); but there was also<br />
representation from a few countries not often<br />
associated with top winners in the piano<br />
world, such as Switzerland, Australia, Israel,<br />
and Italy.<br />
The Italian, Beatrice Rana, made it to the<br />
final round (with orchestra), and eventually<br />
went on to become not only the First Prize<br />
winner ($30,000) but also to win the People’s<br />
Choice Award ($5,000) and the Award for the<br />
Best Performance of the Imposed Canadian<br />
Work (another $5,000). Rana thus walked away<br />
with a cool $40,000 plus a career development<br />
program worth another $20,000—not bad for<br />
an 18-year-old. But then, she was already an<br />
experienced hand at winning prizes at international<br />
events; this has been part of her life<br />
since she was 11.<br />
There were other surprises. No Russian or<br />
Asian won any of the top prizes (Second and<br />
Third Prizes both went to <strong>American</strong>s, Lindsay<br />
Garritson and Henri Kramer). Of the 24<br />
pianists originally chosen to participate, four<br />
were Canadian but three of these were of Asian<br />
background (one was later replaced by a non-<br />
Asian—more on that later).<br />
If you like statistics, there were 161 applications<br />
from 30 countries. Nearly a third of<br />
these were from South Korea (27) and China<br />
(24) together, with Canada (21) and the US (19)<br />
close behind. The total number of candidates<br />
in the course of the competition’s ten years of<br />
existence stands at 2,000, or an average of 200<br />
per year.<br />
“Off-contest” activities included master<br />
classes with Jean-Philippe Collard and Arnaldo<br />
Cohen, “My First Piano Lesson” where total<br />
novices could give it a try, a “Piano Bar Happy<br />
Hour” at a local wine bar, and workshops for<br />
children called “Hammer Away!” that might<br />
have served as the theme for the entire competition.<br />
In stark contrast to the jury’s choices at last<br />
year’s competition (for violin), the contestants<br />
who most impressed the judges this year<br />
seemed to be the ones who made the most<br />
noise. Artistic maturity, a hallmark of all of last<br />
year’s winners, appeared to have little place in<br />
this year’s line-up. In the semi-finals, banging<br />
was part of nearly every contestant’s playing to<br />
some extent. The jury members were André<br />
Beatrice Rana<br />
Bourbeau (Canada, jury president), Arnaldo<br />
Cohen (Brazil), Jean-Philippe Collard (France),<br />
Mari Kodama (Japan), James Parker (Canada),<br />
Benjamin Pasternack (US), Imre Rohmann<br />
(Austria), and Lilya Zilberstein (Russia).<br />
The sole pianist to avoid this pitfall entirely,<br />
Canada’s Lucas Porter (the last-minute<br />
replacement), did not advance to the finals.<br />
Two others who brought more beauty than<br />
bang to their playing, Zheeyoung Moon and<br />
Jong Ho Won (both Koreans), got to the final<br />
round but were not top prize winners. Moon’s<br />
performance of Schumann’s Humoresque<br />
brimmed with elegance and poetry in a wellstructured<br />
approach. Won too brought musical<br />
logic, a beautiful tone, and a wealth of<br />
dynamic nuance to Beethoven’s Sonata No. 3,<br />
contrasting these qualities with an appropriately<br />
febrile Sonata No. 5 by Scriabin. In both<br />
works there was musicality in every note.<br />
But the real artist in the group was Porter,<br />
who turned 20 just days before the competi-<br />
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tion opened. His program alone deserves comment:<br />
two modest, technically simple pieces<br />
(Egon Petri’s arrangement of Bach’s ‘Sheep<br />
May Safely Graze’ and a Haydn sonata) played<br />
with grace, poise, and delicate touch but without<br />
even a suggestion of the firestorm he<br />
would unleash in the Liszt sonata, where he<br />
poured forth great torrents of sound—without<br />
banging!—that truly enthralled; but he also<br />
reveled in the most exquisite pianissimos that<br />
nevertheless carried to the back of the hall. His<br />
double octaves may have been the fastest since<br />
Horowitz’s, and even cleaner. Perhaps since<br />
Porter is also an accomplished composer,<br />
shape and structure were always evident in his<br />
playing. Why the jury knocked him out of the<br />
finals is anyone’s guess.<br />
I tried hard to find what so many others<br />
(not just the jury) liked about Rana’s playing.<br />
But to me she made Chopin’s Sonata No. 3<br />
shapeless; Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit lacked<br />
color and imagination; Bartok’s Out of Doors<br />
was willfully crude. And Tchaikovsky’s Concerto<br />
No. 1 was all sound and fury, played with<br />
too much pedal and not enough lyricism. The<br />
tone Rana drew from the instrument was hard<br />
and brittle. And could this lady ever bang!<br />
BANG! BANG! BANG! Not my kind of Tchaikovsky.<br />
Rana is still just 18, so she has time to<br />
develop as a musician; one hopes she will find<br />
the time and the desire to do so. An indication<br />
that she has the potential was her repeat performance<br />
of the imposed Canadian work,<br />
David McIntyre’s Wild Innocence, at the final<br />
gala concert. The five-minute piece, in the<br />
composer’s own words, “makes room for the<br />
performer to display a world of touches, from<br />
warm to brilliant; various qualities of energy<br />
from light to driving; and a broad emotional<br />
palette”. And so Rana did. There were passages<br />
of clanky, toccata-like playing, but also some<br />
beautifully managed lyrical episodes, charming<br />
and coy.<br />
Overall it was a disappointing lot this year.<br />
Most of the candidates were quite obviously<br />
trying too hard; they looked and sounded like<br />
they were desperately competing: too much<br />
tension, too little spontaneity; too much noise,<br />
too little sensitivity. Some simply weren’t<br />
ready for a major international competition.<br />
Here and there sparks of genuine talent<br />
showed through, such as Dorel Golan’s tastefully<br />
rendered Clementi and the lovely singing<br />
lines she brought to Chopin’s Ballade No. 4, or<br />
the charm Yulia Chaplina evoked from<br />
Tchaikovsky’s little gem of a ‘Berceuse’. These<br />
gave hope that three years from now, when the<br />
next MIMC for piano rolls round (2012 is for<br />
voice, 2013 for violin), some of these same<br />
pianists will be back, but not banging.<br />
Osaka’s<br />
Competitions<br />
and<br />
Orchestras<br />
<strong>American</strong>, Dutch,<br />
French, and Russian<br />
Winners<br />
Robert Markow<br />
When earthquakes shook buildings in<br />
eastern Japan last March (Japan’s<br />
“3/11”), they also shook travelers’<br />
confidence in visiting a country where resulting<br />
radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant<br />
in Fukushima made daily headlines for weeks.<br />
But Fukushima is some 300 air miles from<br />
Osaka, where neither earthquake damage nor<br />
radiation occurred, so plans continued for the<br />
Seventh Osaka International Chamber Music<br />
Competition and Festa (May 17-25).<br />
This triennial event, organized by the<br />
Japan Chamber Music Foundation and supported<br />
by big business and government (Panasonic,<br />
Suntory, Sumitomo, the Ministry of Foreign<br />
Affairs, etc.) is quite possibly the most<br />
comprehensive in the world. It encompasses<br />
three independent, interlocking components,<br />
each with its own jury, its own set of prizes,<br />
and its own follow-up tour of ten Japanese<br />
cities for the first-prize winners. The three<br />
components are string quartets (“Section 1”),<br />
wind ensembles (“Section 2”: woodwind quintets,<br />
brass quintets, and saxophone quartets),<br />
and a Festa (more on this later).<br />
Cellist Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi presided over<br />
the juries for Sections 1 and 2. For nine days in<br />
May, Sections 1 and 2 underwent three rounds<br />
each, the Festa two. The prize money was generous:<br />
three million yen ($US 37,000) for the<br />
first prize winners in Sections 1 and 2, two million<br />
for the second prize winners, and one million<br />
for the third. Festa winners got a bit less.<br />
Normally ten string quartets compete,<br />
though this year only six showed up owing to<br />
radiation worries. No clear winners or losers<br />
emerged from Round 1, so the jury sent all six<br />
on to Round 2. Four quartets made the cut to<br />
the final round, but there were still no clear<br />
choices to be made. Most quartets excelled in<br />
20th Century repertory where youthful enthusiasm<br />
and an almost palpable energy were<br />
much in evidence, but their Haydn sometimes<br />
lacked formal structure, their Mendelssohn<br />
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Attacca Quartet<br />
Two saxophone quartets in particular<br />
stood out, the Melisma from<br />
Holland and the Morphing from<br />
France, but it was the Morphing<br />
Quartet that towered above all others<br />
and deservedly won a first prize. It is<br />
almost impossible to describe the<br />
perfection of their blend, balance,<br />
outstanding sensitivity, and huge<br />
range of dynamics from pppppp to<br />
ffffff. Their arrangement of Haydn’s<br />
Quartet Op. 20:5 outclassed performances<br />
by string quartets in Section<br />
1. The Morphings played as a single<br />
musical organism, and the effect was<br />
often mesmerizing. More amazing<br />
still, the ensemble was formed just<br />
eight months ago. Two woodwind<br />
quintets and three brass quintets<br />
also competed, but none came close<br />
to generating the excitement of the<br />
Morphings.<br />
But what makes Osaka’s competition<br />
really special is its unique<br />
Festa. While many competitions<br />
include an audience prize, it is usually<br />
a sideshow. In Osaka, it takes center<br />
stage and attracts the largest<br />
elegance, their Beethoven Opus 18 proper<br />
audience. One hundred or more<br />
phrasing. On the plus side, though, all the local music lovers constitute the jury. The<br />
quartets had well-balanced sound, excellent competitors are miscellaneous groups of two<br />
ensemble, and unanimity of conception.<br />
to six players and, unlike the ones in Sections 1<br />
Then in the final round something clicked and 2, are unrestricted in age or in repertory.<br />
for the New York-based Attacca Quartet, This year generated nearly 150 applications<br />
formed at the Juilliard School in 2003. Their from 29 countries, and 20 groups from 11<br />
glowing account of Beethoven’s Quartet No. 15 countries were invited to attend. (Four can-<br />
gave them the clear edge, and the otherworldly celled owing to “3/11”.) By far the most appli-<br />
aura that emanated from the slow movement cations came from Russia (37), followed by<br />
alone might have won them a first prize. Here Japan (27) and the US (17).<br />
was musical magic, the kind of playing that “Finding 100 jury members from the pub-<br />
bespoke true artistic maturity and left me lic at large is more difficult than you might<br />
breathless.<br />
imagine”, says Megumi Morioka, manager of<br />
The Attacca Quartet also gave the most public relations at Izumi Hall, the competi-<br />
searching interpretation of the required Japantion’s venue. “You need to be in a position to<br />
ese work, Toshiro Saruya’s Aither, the Beorht, set aside three full days of your time, a luxury<br />
which offered ample opportunities for widely not given to many in workaholic Japan.” Yet so<br />
differing approaches. But only the Attacca dis- effective has Festa become that a record 130<br />
covered its inherent lyricism while also under- jury members participated this year.<br />
scoring the conversational tone that some- The motley array of competitors included<br />
times approached acrimonious debate. The folk ensembles from Korea, Lithuania, Russia,<br />
Attacca thus became the first <strong>American</strong> string and Poland; duos (piano, guitar, saxophone<br />
quartet at the Osaka competition to win a first and piano, violin and guitar); and various larg-<br />
prize.<br />
er ensembles. Half a dozen of these easily<br />
This competition is one of the few in its qualified for first prize. I would not have<br />
class to include both string quartets and wind wished to cast a ballot myself, so rich were the<br />
ensembles (though only in certain years). The choices.<br />
range of talent in Section 2 was considerably In the end, though, the jury handed the<br />
wider, the opportunities for discovery greater. two million yen ($US 25,000) Menuhin Gold<br />
The wind component was dominated by saxo- Prize (Yehudi Menuhin conceived the Festa<br />
phone quartets (five of the ten ensembles), format) to Classic Without Borders, a stunning<br />
which collectively supplied both the most Russian trio of piano and two domras (lute-like<br />
interesting repertory and the most outstanding plucked instruments). In their own arrange-<br />
performances.<br />
ments of the finale of Mendelssohn’s Italian<br />
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Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien,<br />
and other works, they combined flair and<br />
showmanship with superb control and genuine<br />
musicianship. The virtuoso pianist (Dmitry<br />
Krivonosov) could easily sustain a solo<br />
career.<br />
Festa’s Silver Prize went to the Czech<br />
Republic’s Nepomuk Quintet, an unorthodox<br />
assemblage of two violins, cello, double bass,<br />
and piano. They too create their own arrangements.<br />
Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Dvorak’s<br />
Slavonic Dances, and other pieces gave the<br />
audience a taste of what well-established professionals<br />
from central Europe can sound like<br />
(they play in the Vienna Philharmonic, Dresden<br />
Staatskapelle, etc)—sleek, elegant,<br />
supremely sensitive to niceties of phrasing,<br />
and boasting a pianist (Christian Pohl) who<br />
might well be a clone of Rudolf Serkin.<br />
The Bronze Prize was won by an also<br />
engaging group with a difference, a woodwind<br />
quintet from Denmark called Carion (don’t<br />
ask). This one has come up with the innovative<br />
idea of literally choreographing the music they<br />
play (all memorized), physically interacting<br />
with each other in a manner that visually<br />
expresses the music’s structure. (Move over,<br />
Schenker.) Their intelligent and tasteful style<br />
definitely added a new dimension to Ligeti’s<br />
playful, fascinating Six Bagatelles. Carion is<br />
considering bringing their visual insights even<br />
to Schoenberg’s thorny, 12-tone Woodwind<br />
Quintet. Now that’s something I’d like to see.<br />
Festa was not only unique; it was fun,<br />
informal, lighthearted, and yielded a continuous<br />
succession of surprises. One never knew<br />
what to expect next. I heard The Rite of Spring<br />
played as thrillingly on two pianos as by any<br />
orchestra; I heard a soprano saxophone and<br />
piano duet that gave a whole new range of<br />
hues to ‘Clair de Lune’; I heard a passionate<br />
piano trio by Arno Babadjanian played by an<br />
<strong>American</strong>-Armenian group that left me gasping.<br />
Yes, there was big money to be won at<br />
Festa, but absent was the stress of the string<br />
quartet and wind ensemble competitions. The<br />
level was uniformly so high that there was<br />
scarcely an ensemble I would not eagerly go to<br />
hear in a full-length recital. Many are worldclass<br />
acts.<br />
800-seat Izumi Hall, where the competition<br />
was held, is unquestionably one of the<br />
world’s most acoustically perfect concert<br />
venues, a hall that should win a first prize<br />
itself. All the more reason to look forward to<br />
the Eighth Osaka International Chamber<br />
Music Competition and Festa in 2014<br />
(www.jcmf.or.jp).<br />
Music critics can be incorrigible when it<br />
comes to taking busman’s holidays. So for<br />
three of my nine days in Osaka, I also covered<br />
what I was told are the three leading orches-<br />
tras in the area. The Osaka Philharmonic (one<br />
of four in the city itself) did not make a good<br />
showing, burdened with an inept German<br />
guest <strong>conductor</strong>, Alexander Liebreich. On his<br />
May 19 program of Prokofieff’s Classical Symphony<br />
and Alexander Nevsky, he proved more<br />
adept at tracing beautiful gestures in the air<br />
than at keeping his forces balanced, taming<br />
the rough sound, or maintaining rhythmic<br />
control. Pianist Piotr Anderszewski saved the<br />
day with a ravishing account of Mozart’s Concerto<br />
No. 20.<br />
An altogether different experience awaited<br />
me in nearby Kyoto, exactly 29 minutes—not<br />
30—from Osaka by fast train. The Kyoto Symphony<br />
gave its 546th subscription concert<br />
(they’ve been counting since 1956) with its<br />
much-loved music director Junichi Hirokami,<br />
who led one of the finest performances of<br />
Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 I have ever<br />
heard. Technically it was spotless; musically it<br />
was awe-inspiring. From the opening notes of<br />
the sumptuous, dark, velvety cellos and basses,<br />
Hirokami shaped each phrase, episode, and<br />
movement with inexorable logic and forward<br />
motion, weaving the lines into a seamless,<br />
rich-textured web. Any western orchestra<br />
seeking a new music director could do no better<br />
than snap up this outstanding musician.<br />
(In fact, Hirokami served briefly as music<br />
director of the Columbus Symphony until a<br />
political brawl forced him out.)<br />
My third busman’s holiday took me to the<br />
Hyogo Prefecture Performing Arts Center<br />
Orchestra, which plays in the center’s Grand<br />
Hall found in Nishinomiya, a kind of Japanese<br />
Beverly Hills nestled in the foothills between<br />
Osaka and Nara. The center, a symbol of<br />
renewal, opened a decade after a huge 1995<br />
earthquake killed more than 6,400 people in<br />
the city of Kobe.<br />
The orchestra is a good, entry-level professional<br />
ensemble, much like the New World<br />
Symphony, consisting mostly of Japanese but<br />
also a handful of foreigners (the Osaka Philharmonic<br />
and Kyoto Symphony were fully Japanese).<br />
The highly charismatic Michiyoshi Inoue<br />
led a program of Shostakovich Firsts, the Violin<br />
Concerto and the Symphony. What the<br />
orchestra lacked in polish it compensated for<br />
in youthful enthusiasm. As in Osaka and<br />
Kyoto, strings, especially violins, generally<br />
constituted the orchestra’s finest players.<br />
Women greatly outnumbered men. Audiences<br />
were alert and quiet to a degree almost<br />
unknown in <strong>American</strong> concert halls. Dress was<br />
casual—surprising in a land where nearly<br />
every male office worker wears a dark suit.<br />
At all three concerts in halls seating about<br />
2,000, seats were almost sold out, and the<br />
complete gamut of age ranges was about also<br />
represented.<br />
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Glyndebourne’s First<br />
Meistersinger<br />
Dressing Well (and Warmly) at Garsington<br />
Edward Greenfield<br />
Chorus ensemble<br />
The great event at Glyndebourne this<br />
summer has been the company’s first<br />
ever production of Wagner’s grandest,<br />
most lyrical opera, The Mastersingers of<br />
Nuremberg. The prime concern of stage director<br />
David McVicar was to eliminate any Nazi<br />
associations, not least in avoiding the portrayal<br />
of Beckmesser in anti-Semitic terms. He<br />
made Hans Sachs a beardless, handsome man,<br />
no longer a greybeard advocating “Holy German<br />
Art”, but still a deeply thoughtful character.<br />
McVicar updated the opera to the post-<br />
Napoleonic period represented in music by<br />
Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert. It<br />
worked well, with enough color in Vicki Mortimer’s<br />
architecturally arched set to make you<br />
forget the updating and concentrate on the<br />
music—not hard when Gerald Finley made<br />
such a fine, sensitive Sachs, well matched by<br />
Johannes Martin Kranzle as Beckmesser—far<br />
from being a clown, he was more affecting for<br />
being a worthy member of the Masters’ fraternity.<br />
The irony is that, though some may feel<br />
that Glyndebourne has bitten off more than it<br />
can chew in tackling Meistersinger, it was Act<br />
III Scene 1 of this very piece that, in an intimate<br />
semi-amateur performance with piano in<br />
1928 in the Organ Room, first gave John<br />
Christie, the festival’s founder, the idea of presenting<br />
opera in the great country house he<br />
had recently inherited. He was wooed off his<br />
original idea of Wagner in favour of Mozart as<br />
the principal composer, particularly when he<br />
married the pretty young Eva of that first performance,<br />
Audrey Mildmay, who in 1934<br />
became Glyndebourne’s first Susanna in<br />
Figaro.<br />
Glyndebourne has of course altered out of<br />
all recognition since those early days, particularly<br />
since Sir George Christie, son of the<br />
founder, had the bold idea of building a totally<br />
new, far grander theater, probably the most<br />
attractive of its size in Britain. The company’s<br />
first essay in Wagner came with Tristan and<br />
Isolde in 2007 (counted a triumph) that saw the<br />
arrival of the leading Isolde of our time, Nina<br />
Stemme, who then was unknown outside her<br />
native Sweden. By contrast, the one disappointment<br />
in Meistersinger was Anna Gabler’s<br />
indifferent portrayal of Eva. Otherwise the<br />
casting was excellent. Marco Jentzsch was a<br />
handsome, upstanding Walther, proud of his<br />
uniform. And Vladimir Jurowski, the company’s<br />
long-standing music director, proved<br />
himself a splendid, urgent Wagnerian.<br />
The great event at Garsington Opera was<br />
quite different. After 10 seasons at the original<br />
venue, following the death of founder Leonard<br />
Ingrams in 2005, his widow urged the company<br />
to move, which it has now done with more<br />
success than anyone could have predicted.<br />
The move has been to another great countryhouse<br />
estate 20 or so miles from Garsington in<br />
Wormsley in Buckinghamshire to the estate of<br />
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Mark Getty (the most anglophile of the great<br />
Getty family), where you even find a full-scale<br />
cricket ground central to the 25,000 acre<br />
estate.<br />
For this new venue Robin Snell designed a<br />
removable pavilion, influenced by Japanese<br />
designs with glass walls that let the audience<br />
see the rolling countryside with many trees all<br />
around. Beautiful as the result is, the advice of<br />
early audiences was to dress as though for<br />
Scotland in winter, with heating totally inadequate,<br />
detracting from the sheer beauty of the<br />
place.<br />
Not that the very first production of<br />
Mozart’s Magic Flute (in English) was a complete<br />
success. Olivia Fuchs presented the<br />
opera in modern dress with Papageno in a ginger<br />
Mohican cut wearing a tartan kilt and<br />
entering on a bicycle. His arrival with attendants<br />
waving fishing lines with floating birds<br />
was one of the better effects, while Tamino in<br />
jeans and a flowered shirt was waylaid by a<br />
serpent represented by more extras, with a<br />
great red swathe of cloth swirling about.<br />
Monastatos, like Papageno, wore a kilt but<br />
in black leather, matching the costume of his<br />
mistress, the Queen of Night, portrayed as a<br />
dominatrix along with the three Ladies. The<br />
Three Boys arrived in striped pajamas, while<br />
the Speaker looked like a university professor.<br />
Sarastro was also unimposing. Vocally, the<br />
casting was mixed, with Tamino and Pamina<br />
well sung by Robert Murray and Sophie Bevan,<br />
with William Berger a strong Papageno and the<br />
Three Boys and Three Ladies all singing well.<br />
Kim Sheehan as Queen of Night was bright<br />
and clear enough to make you forgive a few<br />
missed top notes, while <strong>American</strong> bass Evan<br />
Boyer was fine, though his lowest notes tended<br />
to disappear. Martin André got crisp playing<br />
and singing from the Garsington Orchestra<br />
and Chorus.<br />
The second Garsington opera was Rossini’s<br />
Turk in Italy, again a production in modern<br />
dress, this time directed by Martin Duncan<br />
with designs by Frances O’Connor. The character<br />
whose voice aptly stood out from the rest<br />
of the cast was the superb baritone Mark Stone<br />
as the Poet who, Pirandello-like, sought to<br />
manipulate the other characters in a plot of his<br />
devising. In the designs too the Poet stood out,<br />
consigned most of the time to a little office<br />
with chair and table high above the main<br />
stage.<br />
First heard at La Scala in 1814, Turk was<br />
designedly quite differently from The Italian<br />
Girl in Algiers, which had preceded it, with the<br />
eponymous Turk of the title a rich Turkish<br />
prince on a voyage to Europe, here represented<br />
by a smooth character in blue blazer and<br />
turban, well sung by Quirijn de Lang. The principal<br />
heroine, the flirtatious Fiorilla, unhappily<br />
married to the elderly Geronio (Geoffrey<br />
Dolton), was Jennifer Nelsen, a bright, clear<br />
soprano precise in her coloratura, who in her<br />
acting overdid her attempts at seductiveness,<br />
squirming away in her bright scarlet form-fitting<br />
dress.<br />
The other heroine, Zaida, the abandoned<br />
fiancee of Selim, was dressed as a gypsy,<br />
singing very seductively despite being overshadowed<br />
by Fiorilla. Add to these the light<br />
Rossini tenor David Alegret as Narciso, coping<br />
well with the high tessitura if hardly with mellifluous<br />
tone, and the mixture was complete,<br />
with couples shuffling partners, not least in a<br />
colorful fancy-dress ball in Act 2. Needless to<br />
say, all ended well with Selim again partnering<br />
with Zaida, and Fiorilla with Narciso, with only<br />
the forlorn Geronio left out. As with previous<br />
Garsington productions of Rossini, it was a<br />
splendid romp, vividly conducted by David<br />
Parry, who also played the fortepiano in recitatives.<br />
The third Garsington opera was a rarity,<br />
Vivaldi’s Verita in Cimento, translated as<br />
“Truth Put to the Test”. First heard in 1720,<br />
this opera too has its Turkish flavor. David<br />
Freeman’s quirky production with designs by<br />
Duncan Hayler offered stylized trees and<br />
shrubs in silver and white, with a great central<br />
oak extending its branches. Central to the<br />
involved story is the decision of the Sultan<br />
(tenor Paul Nilon) to switch his two sons, one<br />
born to his wife Rustena, regal in silver and<br />
white, the other to his favorite concubine<br />
Damira, in crimson. The complications are<br />
endless.<br />
The two sons were both taken by countertenors:<br />
Zelim, son of Rustena, sung by<br />
James Laing, inoffensive in jacket of white<br />
teddy-bear fur, and the handsome Melindo,<br />
son of Damira, aggressive in tight black leather<br />
trousers, sung by Yaniv d’Or. Yet even with<br />
mezzo Jane Rigby as Rustena and soprano<br />
Diana Montague as Damira, both excellent<br />
singers, the member of the cast who shone out<br />
even more brightly was young Swedish soprano<br />
Ida Falk Winland as Rosana, heiress to a<br />
neighbouring sultanate. She dominated every<br />
scene where she appeared with her technically<br />
brilliant singing and charismatic acting.<br />
As for the music, Vivaldi’s invention is winning<br />
in its variety, not least in the many lively<br />
arias, plus one or two in tender minor keys,<br />
while descants from trumpet, recorder, or flute<br />
add colour. It makes you wonder why the<br />
piece has been so neglected over the centuries.<br />
Freeman’s production ended with a coup de<br />
theatre in the final ensemble (by tradition the<br />
only one in the opera), when flames suddenly<br />
burst forth from the branches of the central<br />
tree—a magical moment. The vigorous performance<br />
of the Garsington Festival Orchestra<br />
was conducted by Laurence Cummings.<br />
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JoAnn Falletta will become principal <strong>conductor</strong><br />
of the Ulster Orchestra in September with a<br />
three-year contract that includes concerts,<br />
recordings, broadcasts, and Proms appearances.<br />
In addition, she has renewed her contract<br />
for another three years (with an option<br />
for an additional two years) as music director<br />
of the Virginia Symphony in Norfolk, where<br />
she just completed her 20th season. Also, she<br />
recently extended her contract (begun in 1999)<br />
as Buffalo Philharmonic music director to<br />
2016.<br />
Ludovic Morlot, who succeeds Gerard<br />
Schwarz as music director of the Seattle Symphony<br />
this autumn, has also signed a five-year<br />
contract to become chief <strong>conductor</strong> of La<br />
Monnaie Opera in Brussels starting January 1,<br />
2012, with an option to extend until 2019.<br />
Violinist Joshua Bell has signed a three-year<br />
contract as the new music director of the<br />
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.<br />
Jonathan Crow, 33, has been appointed concertmaster<br />
of the Toronto Symphony. He was<br />
concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony<br />
from 2002 to 2006 and has performed often at<br />
the Montreal Chamber Music Festival<br />
(reviewed in this issue).<br />
Stefan Sandering has given a three-year<br />
notice, as required by his contract, that he will<br />
not continue as music director of the Tampa<br />
Bay-St Petersburg-based Florida Orchestra<br />
when his contract expires in 2014. He is also<br />
principal <strong>conductor</strong> of the Toledo Symphony.<br />
Jeffrey Kahane, music director of the Los<br />
Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 1997, has<br />
extended his contract for another two years<br />
until 2014.<br />
Jeff Tyzik, 60, principal pops <strong>conductor</strong> of the<br />
Rochester Philharmonic for the past 17 years,<br />
has extended his contract with the orchestra<br />
for another five years.<br />
Jack Everly, principal pops <strong>conductor</strong> of the<br />
Indianapolis Symphony since 2002, has<br />
extended his contract with the orchestra until<br />
2017.<br />
Patrick Summers, music director of the Houston<br />
Grand Opera since 1998, has also been<br />
Here & There<br />
Appointments, Awards, & News<br />
appointed the company’s artistic director, and<br />
Perryn Leech has moved from chief operating<br />
officer to managing director, following the<br />
departure of General Director Anthony Freud<br />
to head the Chicago Lyric Opera.<br />
Louis Langrée became chief <strong>conductor</strong> of the<br />
Camerata Salzburg this September with a fiveyear<br />
contract. He has been music director of<br />
Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival since<br />
2002 and recently extended his contract there<br />
to 2014.<br />
After 17 years <strong>Emmanuel</strong>le Boisvert, 47, has<br />
left her No. 1 position as concertmaster of the<br />
Detroit Symphony for the No. 4 associate concertmaster<br />
position with the Dallas Symphony,<br />
following Detroit’s six-month strike that<br />
resulted in significant pay cuts.<br />
Francesca Zambello has been appointed artistic<br />
advisor of the Washington National Opera.<br />
She holds the same post with the San Francisco<br />
Opera and is general and artistic director of<br />
the Glimmerglass Festival in upstate New York.<br />
Bill Lively, 67, who began as president of the<br />
Dallas Symphony part-time on April 1 and was<br />
to begin full-time June 1, resigned suddenly on<br />
April 29 for health reasons. Doctors advised<br />
him to give up all professional responsibilities<br />
due to stress-related symptoms and a family<br />
history of serious strokes. David Hyslop, former<br />
CEO of the Minnesota Orchestra, St Louis<br />
Symphony, and Oregon Symphony, has signed<br />
on as interim DSO president.<br />
Bruce Coppock has become managing director<br />
of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Miami Residency<br />
that combines subscriptions concerts<br />
with educational collaborations and community<br />
engagement. He succeeds Sandi Macdonald,<br />
who has become president and CEO of the<br />
North Carolina Symphony. Coppock was formerly<br />
president of the St Paul Chamber<br />
Orchestra and executive director of the St<br />
Louis Symphony.<br />
At the San Francisco Opera both General<br />
Director David Gockley and Music Director<br />
Nicola Luisotti have extended their contracts<br />
through 2016, which Gockley said will be his<br />
final year. He took firm aim at the “sleepdepriving”<br />
financial challenges facing the<br />
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company, whose contracts with its two principal<br />
unions expired in July.<br />
In June David Chambless Worters suddenly<br />
resigned as president and CEO of the Van<br />
Cliburn Foundation after only six months on<br />
the job. He cited personal reasons, adding, “I<br />
don’t have sufficient passion for this.”<br />
Anne Parsons, president of the Detroit Symphony<br />
and the object of much criticism during<br />
the orchestra’s recent long strike, has extended<br />
her contract for three additional years with no<br />
pay raise or cut.<br />
Michael Elliott, director of culture in London<br />
and former CEO of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,<br />
becomes CEO of the Royal Scottish<br />
National Orchestra on August 1, replacing<br />
Simon Wood, who became executive director<br />
of the Seattle Symphony in April. Elliott will<br />
work closely with Music Director Stephane<br />
Deneve and Peter Oundjian, who replaces<br />
Deneve in 2012.<br />
Pianists Conrad Tao, 17, and George Li, 15,<br />
have been awarded the 2012 Gilmore Young<br />
Artist Award. Each receives $15,000 to further<br />
his career and education plus $10,000 to commission<br />
a new work, and both will perform at<br />
the 2012 Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo,<br />
Michigan. Tao begins a combined degree program<br />
this autumn at Columbia University and<br />
the Juilliard School; Li attends the New England<br />
Conservatory’s Preparatory Division.<br />
At this year’s Tchaikovsky International Competition<br />
in Moscow, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov<br />
(a student at the Cleveland Institute),<br />
Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan (a student<br />
at the New England Conservatory), and<br />
two South Koreans, soprano Sun Young Seo<br />
and bass Jong Min Park, were gold medal winners.<br />
No violinist won gold; a Russian and an<br />
Israeli were awarded silver medals, and <strong>American</strong>s<br />
Nigel Armstrong and Eric Silberger<br />
placed fourth and fifth. Also, Korean Yeol Eum<br />
Son, who came in second at the 2009 Van<br />
CliburnCompetition, was second prize winner<br />
in Moscow.<br />
The Kronos String Quartet has been awarded<br />
two prizes: the 2011 Avery Fisher Prize of<br />
$75,000, given to <strong>American</strong> individuals or<br />
chamber ensembles for outstanding achievements<br />
and excellence in music; and in Sweden<br />
the 2011 Polar Music Prize of $155,000 “for revolutionizing<br />
the potential of the string quartet<br />
genre in both style and content”.<br />
reduction in the first year, a freeze the second,<br />
and a “wage opener” in the third. Also, retirement<br />
benefits have been changed for newer<br />
members, and there is more flexibility regarding<br />
electronic media.<br />
The Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas,<br />
founded by Alondra de la Parra in 2004, has<br />
suspended operations for the 2011-12 season.<br />
It finished the 2010-11 season with a balanced<br />
budget but found the fundraising outlook for<br />
the new season to be “highly uncertain”.<br />
Chairman Martin Lewis said the board considers<br />
this “the most responsible action when it<br />
comes to protecting the orchestra’s future.”<br />
Obituaries<br />
Czech violinist Josef Suk, 81, died on July 6 in<br />
Prague from prostate cancer. He was the<br />
grandson of the composer Josef Suk, who had<br />
married Dvorak’s daughter. In addition to a<br />
famed solo career and many recordings, he<br />
founded the Suk Trio with cellist Josef<br />
Chuchro and pianist Jan Panenka in 1952 and<br />
the Suk Chamber Orchestra in 1974.<br />
Bass Giorgio Tozzi, 88, who reigned at the Met<br />
from 1955 to 1975, died of a heart attack on<br />
May 30 in Bloomington IN, where he was on<br />
the faculty at Indiana University’s School of<br />
Music. Born in Chicago, he played the Doctor<br />
in the premiere of Barber’s Vanessa and also<br />
was the singing voice for Rosanno Brazzi in the<br />
movie South Pacific.<br />
Cellist Bernard Greenhouse, 95, died in his<br />
sleep on May 13 at his Massachusetts home on<br />
Cape Cod. Born in Newark NJ, he founded the<br />
Beaux Arts Trio in 1955 along with violinist<br />
Daniel Guilet and pianist Menahem Pressler,<br />
with whom he played until 1987. He then continued<br />
to play and teach into his 90s.<br />
Richard Holmes, 69, timpanist of the St Louis<br />
Symphony since 1969, died at home in Lake St<br />
Louis on June 5 from lung cancer. Music<br />
Director David Robertson said, “The timpanist<br />
precisely defines the rhythmic personality of<br />
the whole orchestra. Rick Holmes was perhaps<br />
the best rhythmic friend I ever had.” Leonard<br />
Slatkin added, “In my mind, virtually all timpanists<br />
are judged by Rick’s standards.”<br />
In June Pittsburgh Symphony musicians settled<br />
on a new three-year contract beginning<br />
this September that includes a 9.7% wage<br />
Johanna Fiedler, 65, daughter of <strong>conductor</strong><br />
Arthur Fiedler and author of Molto Agitato, a<br />
fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the Metropolitan<br />
Opera based on her experiences as<br />
the Met’s chief press liaison from 1975 to 1989,<br />
died at her home in Manhattan on May 27, following<br />
an extended illness.<br />
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Concerts Everywhere<br />
David Robertson<br />
St Louis Symphony<br />
Rouse: Symphony 3<br />
(world premiere)<br />
agonized atonal ruminations, or dramatic<br />
expressionism. Instead it stays resolutely tonal;<br />
even the dissonances seem stimulating rather<br />
than grating. Rouse also offers many islands of<br />
consonance so a listener’s musical GPS is<br />
always on target. The busy percussion section<br />
You’d never know it from the advertising, but<br />
there was something else on the program May<br />
5 at Powell Hall besides Carl Orff’s Carmina<br />
Burana. For the St Louis Symphony’s last concert<br />
of the season, Christopher Rouse was present<br />
for the world premiere of his Symphony<br />
No. 3, conducted by Music Director David<br />
Robertson.<br />
According to Rouse, the unusual form of<br />
his symphony was patterned after Prokofieff’s<br />
Symphony No. 2, which was inspired by<br />
Beethoven’s final piano sonata. All three works<br />
have two main parts, an aggressive, declarative<br />
opening movement followed by a theme and<br />
variations.<br />
Commentators on Rouse’s music often use<br />
words like “exciting” or “energetic”, and from<br />
the opening trumpet fanfare I heard what they<br />
mean. Unlike much new music, there are no<br />
extended excursions into serial techniques,<br />
offers a constant underlying rhythmic pulse<br />
that is picked up by other instruments from<br />
time to time, takes hold, and doesn’t let go.<br />
The five variations in the second part vary<br />
in mood and style, beginning with a gentle,<br />
romantic statement of the theme on the English<br />
horn floating over a soft cushion of strings.<br />
Then in between a couple of snappy swinging<br />
variations (that include a “killer” clarinet passage)<br />
is one for strings alone with low bluesy<br />
opening bass lines that gradually work their<br />
way up through the high violins.<br />
The final variation takes off like a rocket, as<br />
little flashes of texture from each section punctuate<br />
the orchestral fabric. The music eventually<br />
comes full circle, abruptly reprising the<br />
gentle English horn theme of the first variation,<br />
before charging to the end with the vigor<br />
of the first movement.<br />
Rouse said he had no extra-musical subtext<br />
in mind, and this symphony is just fine<br />
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without one. The unique orchestrations and circular sound screen around the orchestra<br />
breezy lyricism seemed fresh, playful, and and soloist.<br />
introspective rather than derivative, superfi- Violinist Jennifer Koh plunged into the<br />
cial, or coldly cerebral. The work, reminiscent music, making bold, decisive statements when<br />
of the formal clarity of Hindemith and at some the score called for them, and elsewhere going<br />
points of the gentler minimalism of John with the flow of dance rhythms, both earthy<br />
Adams, has the primal energy of, yes, Prokofi- and metaphysical. Koh, who performed Juggler<br />
eff and Beethoven, and could easily become a in 2009, was an experienced hand in how to<br />
programming staple.<br />
coexist with an oddly-equipped orchestra. The<br />
Speaking of staples, in Carmina Burana consummate multi-tasker Eschenbach and the<br />
soprano Cyndia Sieden had the right voice— NSO kept the textures clear, the tempos lively,<br />
clear and sweet with just the right touch of and the dynamics carefully balanced.<br />
vibrato. David Adam Moore’s rich baritone So why was the response disappointing?<br />
would have been even more impressive had he Start with the audience size, a mild turnout<br />
added a more confident personality to his despite Thomas’s reputation with the NSO.<br />
character. Tenor Richard Troxell did a perfect Perhaps the crowd expected a more dominant<br />
turn as the roasting swan. The St Louis Chil- violin presence; maybe they were caught off<br />
dren’s Choirs sounded properly sweet and guard by the way the concerto gradually<br />
innocent, and the St Louis Symphony Chorus expired. Concertos come with some precon-<br />
roared to life with crisp articulation and solid ceptions. A better designation for the piece<br />
intonation. With a great orchestra and conduc- would be “Juggler in Paradise for Violin and<br />
tor at the top of their form, and a full house Orchestra”. A pair of bracketing Schumann<br />
(including lots of enthusiastic young people), opuses, on their own, offered no guarantee of a<br />
the concert was a satisfying conclusion to a packed house.<br />
highly effective season.<br />
Eschenbach did at least supply another<br />
JOHN HUXHOLD “first”, the NSO’s maiden voyage with the<br />
Overture to Die Braut von Messina, a dramatic,<br />
Washington DC<br />
effective curtain raiser that Schumann wrote<br />
after his Symphony No. 2, the concluding and<br />
Thomas: Violin Concer-<br />
most substantial work on the bill. Whatever<br />
drama might have been lacking in Thomas’s<br />
to 3 (US Premiere)<br />
concerto, Eschenbach and the NSO compensated<br />
for it in their fiery Schumann collabora-<br />
The checklist of Christoph Eschenbach’s first<br />
season as music director of the National Symphony<br />
and the Kennedy Center for the Performing<br />
Arts included three themes: orchestral<br />
song, three weeks’ worth of material influenced<br />
by Indian culture, and new works commissioned<br />
by the NSO (a long-standing tradition).<br />
His final program of the 2010-11 season<br />
brought Augusta Read Thomas’s Violin Contions.<br />
It’s far too early to predict how their relationship<br />
will grow. Ask retiring NSO trumpeter<br />
Adel Sanchez, who was honored at the June 9<br />
concert for 42 years of dedicated service under<br />
six administrations. A single season is but a<br />
sprint for a marathon man.<br />
CHARLES MCCARDELL<br />
certo No. 3 (Juggler in Paradise), a NSO cocommission,<br />
to these shores for the first time. Berlin Philharmonic<br />
Thomas and the NSO have a history that<br />
extends back to the Rostropovich era in 1992, Fleming, Hampson, and<br />
when her Symphony No. 1 (Air and Angels)<br />
was given its world premiere. In less than 20 Thielemann<br />
years the NSO has presented eight Thomas<br />
works—impressive for such a forward-thinking<br />
composer still in her 40s.<br />
Juggler in Paradise, composed in 2008, is a<br />
challenging, engaging piece that, if anything,<br />
errs on the side of brevity. It is a single-movement<br />
arch barely 20 minutes in length, and it<br />
avoids empty bravura cliches from the soloist<br />
and assigns much of the orchestral color to six<br />
percussionists employing dozens of instruments,<br />
including nine triangles (the triangle<br />
gets the last word). Stravinsky and Varese are<br />
composers Thomas admires, and their inspiration<br />
was felt even in the bongo cadenza. Eight<br />
players in the back of the stage formed a semi-<br />
Richard Strauss occupies an ambiguous place<br />
in history that is all the more difficult to define<br />
when confronted with the breadth and versatility<br />
of his musical language. His somewhat<br />
pompous Festmusik der Stadt Wien for brass<br />
and timpani, premiered in 1943, inevitably<br />
conjures his complicity with the Nazi regime,<br />
while songs from his early period evoke an<br />
introspective, deeply musical individual who,<br />
after the war near the end of his life, may have<br />
looked at the world in despair from his Bavarian<br />
villa.<br />
The Berlin Philharmonic presented an all-<br />
Strauss concert on May 5 at the Philharmonie<br />
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with soloists Renee Fleming and Thomas<br />
Hampson and guest <strong>conductor</strong> Christian<br />
Thielemann. With much of this season’s program<br />
revolving around Russian repertoire, a<br />
return to the orchestra’s native roots, led by a<br />
<strong>conductor</strong> who specializes in the late German<br />
romantics and brought to life by two of the<br />
world’s most respected vocalists, made a<br />
musically probing evening.<br />
Fleming’s timbre has lost some of its luster<br />
and velvety sheen in recent years, but her<br />
interpretations of Strauss remain magnetically<br />
fresh and compelling. She created immediate<br />
intimacy with the audience for her first song,<br />
an orchestral adaptation of ‘Traum Durch die<br />
Dämmerung’, as she melted into the music’s<br />
dusky lyricism. Thielemann elicited an unusually<br />
sleek and intense pianissimo from the<br />
orchestra.<br />
In ‘Gesang der Apollopriesterin’, a dark,<br />
tormented work despite its celestial theme,<br />
Fleming revealed a lower range that has grown<br />
even richer in maturity, while her top notes<br />
were sometimes pinched. The swift, triumphant<br />
‘Winterliebe’ was more flattering to<br />
her as she opened the song with bell-like tones<br />
and then revealed untarnished metal as she<br />
and the BPO wandered through emphatic,<br />
craggy melodies. Following enthusiastic<br />
applause, she and Thielemann offered the<br />
dreamy ‘Waldseligkeit’ as an encore.<br />
Hampson gave just as gripping interpretations,<br />
sometimes inadvertently conjuring the<br />
spirit of Gustav Mahler. ‘Pilgers Morgenlied’,<br />
while glowing with romantic emotion, had a<br />
subtle touch of irony alongside the orchestra’s<br />
forceful playing. The baritone gave careful<br />
attention to the poetic arc of ‘Hymnus’, accentuated<br />
by finely-crafted harmonic turns in the<br />
orchestra. In the nightmarish ‘Notturno’, he<br />
evoked palpable torment and deathly shadows<br />
with booming, enveloping tones. Against<br />
Hampson’s impassioned singing, the eerie<br />
melodies of Concertmaster Daishin Kashimoto,<br />
while elegantly executed, left a somewhat<br />
cold impression.<br />
Following a vigorous prelude to the third<br />
act of Arabella, Hampson and Fleming shared<br />
the stage with natural chemistry for two duets<br />
from the opera. Hampson was a steadfast,<br />
seductive Mandrynka, while Fleming conveyed<br />
a touch of youthful innocence. The<br />
orchestra carried the singers with taut phrases.<br />
Just as the emotive melodies of “und du wirst<br />
mein gebieter sein” lingered in the hall, the<br />
performers reprised the final two stanzas with<br />
plangent affection.<br />
The concert, which opened with the Berlin<br />
Philharmonic’s first performance ever of Festmusik<br />
der Stadt Wien, ended with Strauss’s<br />
Festival Prelude for large orchestra and organ,<br />
written to inaugurate Vienna’s Konzerthaus in<br />
1913. The BPO’s consistently refined playing<br />
was even further polished under Thielemann,<br />
yet lacked the burnished quality one notices<br />
under Music Director Simon Rattle.<br />
As Berlin grows into an international city of<br />
the future, the concert was a throwback to<br />
another era.<br />
REBECCA SCHMID<br />
Hampton VA<br />
Danielpour:<br />
Inventions on a Marriage<br />
(world premiere)<br />
Some chamber musicians play together as<br />
married couples, but how many get to perform<br />
a piece written to celebrate their 35th wedding<br />
anniversary? That pleasure was enjoyed by violinist<br />
Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson<br />
(husband and wife) along with pianist<br />
Joseph Kalichstein on May 21 at the <strong>American</strong><br />
Theatre. The occasion, part of the Virginia Arts<br />
Festival, was the world premiere by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson<br />
Trio of Richard<br />
Danielpour’s Inventions on a Marriage.<br />
In pre-performance remarks, Danielpour<br />
called the short, seven-movement work “a set<br />
of musical snapshots of married life”. Each<br />
movement carried a title: Mirror Image, Heroics,<br />
As You Were Sleeping, Argument, Reconciliation,<br />
Celebration, and Good Night. The<br />
entire work seemed to define the arc of a relationship.<br />
Danielpour writes in a very accessible style<br />
with flashes of dissonance and an emotional<br />
accuracy that captured the different phases of<br />
a marriage. ‘Heroics’, with its rapid string passages,<br />
describes the frenetic pace of two people<br />
trying to balance busy lives with the<br />
responsibilities of marriage. ‘Argument’ with<br />
its tango-like melodies has the push-pull<br />
rough edge of two tempers sparring. And the<br />
violin melody in ‘Good Night’ brought out a<br />
dreamy, slightly sad quality, almost suggesting<br />
a couple in the final stages of their relationship<br />
looking back over a long life together.<br />
Danielpour said the piece was not specific<br />
to Laredo and Robinson, but it was fun to<br />
observe their gestures as they made their way<br />
through it. Laredo smiled briefly at the close of<br />
the ‘Argument’, and the couple seemed especially<br />
in tune with the bittersweet sounds of<br />
‘Good Night’ as the work drew to a close.<br />
As a couple, they played beautifully, especially<br />
when weaving together Danielpour’s<br />
melodic lines. Without any real fireworks, the<br />
piece has a comfortable, almost everyday feel<br />
that perfectly suggests what most marriages<br />
are all about.<br />
That certainly wouldn’t work for the tor-<br />
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mented personal life that Tchaikovsky lived;<br />
his more smber trio closed the program. Written<br />
as an elegy to his mentor, pianist and<br />
teacher Nikolai Rubinstein, the work is laid out<br />
in two large movements with the second a<br />
series of variations.<br />
Giving this sprawling work a cohesive<br />
framework fell to Kalichstein, who emerged as<br />
the unspoken leader of the trio in taming what<br />
he described beforehand to the audience as an<br />
“inspired, touching, and difficult” work. His<br />
firm hands harnessed the almost symphonic<br />
chords and thick passages that Tchaikovsky<br />
built into the piece. Especially in the set of<br />
variations, he brought out the individual qualities<br />
of each with remarkable attention to<br />
dynamics, adding weight in one part and playfully<br />
skipping across the keys in another.<br />
Laredo and Robison threw their own formidable<br />
abilities into this mix, and the results<br />
made for a riveting performance. Robinson<br />
pulled from her instrument a mournful tone<br />
that Tchaikovsky suggests as the theme of the<br />
work, and Laredo used carefully controlled<br />
playing to bring order to the composer’s effusiveness.<br />
The evening opened with Beethoven’s Trio<br />
No. 2, a piece that Tchaikovsky could not have<br />
imagined writing. Stately and clean, the work<br />
begins with a soft piano melody that is repeated<br />
in the violin and cello. The KLR Trio seemed<br />
to feel very much at home with Beethoven’s<br />
graceful work that gives each player an equal<br />
role. Kalichstein was a strong voice but playful<br />
as well, and the violin and cello took an almost<br />
reserved approach until all three players broke<br />
ahead like race horses in the final spirited<br />
movement.<br />
DAVID NICHOLSON<br />
Ojai Festival<br />
Crumb:<br />
The Winds of Destiny<br />
For over 50 years, the arched acoustical shell in<br />
Ojai’s Libbey Bowl hovered over the likes of<br />
Aaron Copland, Pierre Boulez, Michael Tilson<br />
Thomas, and other luminaries who made<br />
music at the venerable, lovable Ojai Music Festival.<br />
But the shell grew old and dilapidated,<br />
infested with termites, beyond easy repair. So,<br />
with remarkable speed this little town (pop<br />
8,226) managed to raise $3.93 million to build<br />
a new facility well in time for the 2011 Festival.<br />
For a longtime festivalgoer, entering the<br />
new Libbey Bowl came as a bit of a shock. The<br />
surrounding grounds were reconfigured,<br />
crowned by a spiked arch, designed by the<br />
composer-inventor Trimpin, that plays music<br />
when you enter. Gone are the rustic wooden<br />
benches set in uneven asphalt and dirt; they’re<br />
replaced by rows and rows of green plastic<br />
seats set in concrete. The sightlines are much<br />
better now owing to the steeper rake of the<br />
seating area and the relocation of obstructing<br />
tree trunks. The new shell is shaped like the<br />
old one, only bigger and turned slightly<br />
counter-clockwise so that it now faces the rear<br />
lawn directly instead of at an awkward angle<br />
(it’s still tough for lawn people to see the stage,<br />
but we’re told that the height of the lawn may<br />
be raised in the future). If you look straight<br />
ahead, the scene is familiar; but look around,<br />
and you are reminded of Ticketmaster and the<br />
other sterile encroachments of urban outdoor<br />
concert life.<br />
One thing that doesn’t change at Ojai is the<br />
adventurous bent of the programming. For the<br />
more-or-less official opening concert June 10,<br />
this year’s Music Director Dawn Upshaw<br />
brought her frequent collaborator, professional<br />
provocateur Peter Sellars, to stage George<br />
Crumb’s song cycle The Winds Of Destiny,<br />
where <strong>American</strong> folk songs and spirituals of<br />
the Civil War period and beyond are planted in<br />
Crumb’s ethereally twinkling, crashing, haunting<br />
sound world.<br />
Naturally, Sellars came with an agenda:<br />
protesting current US involvement in three<br />
wars. So he had Upshaw play the role of a<br />
returning Afghan war veteran whose sleep was<br />
constantly disrupted by flashbacks (with<br />
apologies to Esa-Pekka Salonen, the piece<br />
could have been retitled Insomnia). He also<br />
prefaced the long evening with a three-way<br />
discussion between himself, Crumb, and<br />
pianist Gilbert Kalish, and followed the Crumb<br />
cycle with an absorbing set of Afghani music<br />
by the Sakhi Ensemble (based in Fremont CA)<br />
that should have opened the concert.<br />
Yet, despite the heavy-handed politically<br />
correct concept, Upshaw was brilliant,<br />
immersing herself completely in the premise,<br />
panting and moaning as if in extreme pain but<br />
also singing luminously at the drop of a hat. So<br />
were Kalish and the percussion ensemble Red<br />
Fish Blue Fish as they played the score with an<br />
aggressive ferocity and wistful drifting quality<br />
that went beyond any other performance of<br />
this work that I’m familiar with.<br />
The performance was well amplified by the<br />
new sound system. And with the lights out, the<br />
dark night sky overhead, and the frogs and<br />
crickets adding to the night ambience that fed<br />
into the idea of disturbed dreams, the magical<br />
Ojai ambience took hold, undeterred by all<br />
that plastic and concrete.<br />
RICHARD S GINELL<br />
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Los Angeles Phil New Music Group<br />
Works by Kahane, Norman,<br />
and Mazzoli (world<br />
premieres)<br />
Steven Mackey<br />
John Adams, the creative chair for the Los<br />
Angeles Philharmonic’s new music activities,<br />
made only one appearance in Walt Disney<br />
Concert Hall in the 2010-11 season on May 24,<br />
and not a note of his own music was heard.<br />
Instead, he generously devoted a Los Angeles<br />
Philharmonic New Music Group “Green<br />
Umbrella” program to world premieres by a<br />
trio of young composers born between 1979<br />
and 1981, now clustered in Brooklyn, plus one<br />
work by Steven Mackey, an “oldster” at 55 who<br />
made the transition from rock ‘n roll guitar to a<br />
Princeton professorship in only a decade.<br />
Besides conducting the three premieres with<br />
encouraging enthusiasm, Adams gave us an<br />
ingratiating peek into the workshop, musing<br />
how performances of new music often begin in<br />
chaos and self-doubt at the first rehearsal,<br />
gradually increase in confidence by the dress<br />
rehearsal, and work out fine at the actual concert.<br />
The young composer who seemed to have<br />
the most self-confidence also had the most<br />
effective piece, perhaps even a breakthrough.<br />
He is Gabriel Kahane, whose bio doesn’t try to<br />
conceal the fact that he is the son of wellknown<br />
<strong>conductor</strong>-pianist Jeffrey Kahane.<br />
More important, in Orinico Sketches, his highly<br />
enjoyable song cycle based on his family history,<br />
he has figured out a way to merge credible<br />
classical music writing with a believable popmusic<br />
stance. The writing for a chamber<br />
ensemble was sophisticated, with beautifully<br />
formed inner voices constantly moving<br />
around, whether evoking the ocean waves of<br />
his grandmother’s voyage to the New World or<br />
the Afro-Cuban beat of Havana where she first<br />
landed. Kahane alternated between piano and<br />
guitar, singing in a pop tenor voice that summoned<br />
the timbres of figures like Sting or<br />
James Taylor. There was no condescension, no<br />
posing as “hip”; this felt genuine.<br />
Missy Mazzoli and Andrew Norman did<br />
not hide their initial forebodings about their<br />
assignments, Mazzoli because she was asked<br />
to expand on Bach’s ever-daunting Chaconne<br />
for solo violin, and Norman because he dearly<br />
wanted to write something worthy of a Disney<br />
Hall debut. Mazzoli’s Dissolve, O My Heart<br />
opened with the first stentorian Bach chord<br />
and continued agreeably in his spirit, with Jennifer<br />
Koh skillfully riding the frequent modern<br />
slides and Bachian multiple-stops. Norman’s<br />
Try opened with random craziness in search of<br />
a piece until the pianist, after a few tantrums,<br />
settled on a gentle downward motif and<br />
repeated it, but Try went flat. Perhaps he<br />
“tried” too hard.<br />
Mackey’s Four Iconoclastic Episodes<br />
amounted to a double concerto for his electric<br />
guitar, Koh’s violin, and a string ensemble.<br />
Much of the time, Mackey ran through his<br />
extensive vocabulary of rock guitar techniques,<br />
mellow and edgy but mostly mellow, while<br />
Koh’s part was mostly a showy display of traditional<br />
concerto virtuosity. The strings were<br />
often just along for the ride, not really engaged<br />
in the first three movements until the conclusions.<br />
As with Mackey’s Beautiful Passing [see<br />
Ginell’s article on the Los Angeles Master<br />
Chorale in this issue], the most inspired passage<br />
was the fade at the end.<br />
RICHARD S GINELL<br />
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Opera Everywhere<br />
Opera Theatre of St Louis<br />
Adams:<br />
The Death of Klinghoffer<br />
John Adams’s second opera, The Death of<br />
Klinghoffer, is based on the 1985 hijacking of<br />
the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro by four<br />
Palestinian Liberation Front terrorists who<br />
demanded the release of 50 Palestinians held<br />
in Israeli jails and murdered disabled <strong>American</strong><br />
Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer in the<br />
process. The Opera Theatre of St Louis’s June<br />
production, the work’s first major revival since<br />
its 1991 premiere, was one of the most compelling,<br />
emotionally involving performances<br />
I’ve ever seen. As Marilyn Klinghoffer sings in<br />
the opera’s final words, “I wanted to die.”<br />
Is Klinghoffer an opera or an oratorio? I<br />
think it really is an oratorio, but one of power-<br />
John Adams<br />
ful emotion and intellectual intrigue. Adams<br />
based its form on the great Bach passions<br />
where extensive choral sections alternate with<br />
more operatic-like scenes with arias. The choruses<br />
represent the Israeli and Palestinian<br />
points of view evenhandedly; neither side<br />
escapes criticism or sympathy. Just as the choruses<br />
are extensive, so are the arias, most of<br />
them taking up an entire page or more. My<br />
only criticism is of Alice Goodman’s extensively<br />
wordy libretto. Its complexity and the use of<br />
many unusual words make the text difficult to<br />
understand. The projected titles were a necessity.<br />
To call the music minimalist is not quite<br />
correct. True, it is repetitive, particularly in the<br />
orchestra; yet, unlike Philip Glass’s music, it is<br />
complex, melodic, and varied, more suited to<br />
the text and emotional situations. Tender<br />
emotion and violent outburst capture the ear.<br />
There is not a lot one can do in staging the<br />
work, but stage director James Robinson did<br />
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quite a bit. The opera began with a shocking<br />
coup de theatre. One sat a moment or two in<br />
complete darkness. A single shot rang out,<br />
then a brilliant light from above illuminated<br />
Klinghoffer’s empty wheelchair as water cascaded<br />
over it from above. Lights out. Two massive<br />
black panels giving the appearance of the<br />
sides of a ship formed the background. A<br />
broad panel for projections of sea water,<br />
waves, etc, spanned the stage. The massive<br />
choruses of Palestinian and Israeli refugees, all<br />
carrying luggage, were symmetrically arranged<br />
and static, then burst into complex patterns.<br />
The Act I finale was a startling vision of<br />
hate between the two choruses. When a small<br />
Israeli boy and a small Palestinian boy, both<br />
carrying peace branches, attempted to play<br />
together, they were violently separated with a<br />
wall of luggage built between them and the<br />
warring choruses. Also, the death of Klinghoffer<br />
was movingly portrayed by a terrorist slowly<br />
pushing the dead Klinghoffer in his wheelchair<br />
across the stage as the projection panel<br />
displayed a wheelchair submerged in water.<br />
The performances were flawless. Two massive<br />
voices dominated: Nancy Maultsby (Mrs<br />
Marilyn Klinghoffer) and Brian Mulligan (Leon<br />
Klinghoffer). The ship’s Captain was the capable<br />
Christopher Magiera. The Terrorists were a<br />
varied lot led by the rather subdued, creepy,<br />
Rambo-like Paul La Rosa. But it was tenor<br />
Matthew Di Battista (Molqi) who shattered the<br />
sonic sound barrier with his bright, brilliantly<br />
sung portrayal. Aubrey Allicock (as minor terrorist<br />
Maoud) and mezzo Laura Wilde (Omar)<br />
with her sensuous voice rounded out the<br />
group. A saucy British comedienne-dancer,<br />
Swiss grandmother, and Austrian women were<br />
delightfully portrayed by Lucy Schaufer.<br />
The only concern I had beforehand was<br />
how the chorus would do ,given their extensive<br />
involvement. Nothing to fear. The 29-member<br />
chorus was outstanding! It was the collective<br />
heart of the opera (and the story). Kudos to<br />
Chorus Master Robert Ainsley. Michael<br />
Christie, using the new reduced orchestration,<br />
led members of the St Louis Symphony with<br />
plenty of delicacy, power, sweep, and emotion.<br />
CHARLES H PARSONS<br />
Opera Company of Philadelphia<br />
Henze: Phaedra<br />
(US Premiere)<br />
The Opera Company of Philadelphia’s season<br />
closed in June with the US premiere of Hans<br />
Werner Henze’s Phaedra. Its initial run played<br />
mostly to full houses, with some audience<br />
members returning at two added performances.<br />
Director Robert Driver and his production<br />
team went for high-concept multi-media with<br />
sleek design elements. The results proved to be<br />
thrilling opera-theater very suited to OCP’s<br />
developing chamber series, presented here at<br />
the Verizon Center’s more intimate space, the<br />
Perelman Theater. In the initial Labyrinth<br />
scenes, Henze, using Greek oratorical conceits,<br />
has his characters singing directly to the audience<br />
instead of each other. This device could<br />
be shrill and worked against drawing one into<br />
the story. In contrast, Philippe Amand’s gliding<br />
set and lighting design with its projections of<br />
harrowing physical and psychic landscapes<br />
was completely absorbing.<br />
The high drama was drawn from the Phaedra<br />
plays by Euripides and Seneca, as well as<br />
symbolic allusions from Henze’s life. The composer<br />
and librettist Christian Lehnert shortened<br />
the convoluted and steamy tale of Phaedra<br />
into a challenging five scenes in 90 minutes<br />
that condenses the lurid tale of the vanquishing<br />
of a mythical Minotaur, Phaedra’s<br />
incestuous desire for her stepson Hippolyt,<br />
and the warring goddesses Aphrodite and<br />
Artemis. The death and rebirth of Hippolyt<br />
explores a universal story of outcasts that<br />
leaves sympathy even for the Minotaur. Indeed<br />
this is time-traveling, trans-cultural, androgynous<br />
Olympian soap opera.<br />
The opera was composed in 2007, the year<br />
that Henze’s partner of 40 years (Fausto<br />
Moroni) died. Driver interpreted part of the<br />
story from Henze’s struggle for personal freedom<br />
and boldly used subtexts that reflected<br />
the composer’s experience of being condemned<br />
by his father (a Nazi) for being gay<br />
and his self-liberation on the isle of Nemi,<br />
where he and Moroni lived.<br />
Mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford played<br />
Phaedra with clamorous vocal menace as she<br />
stalked Hypopolyt. She appeared in a nude<br />
body stocking with swirl piping around her<br />
breasts a la Theda Bara, and was pretty campy<br />
as she belted out Lehnert’s lusty German dialog.<br />
But Driver framed it all with a seductive,<br />
dreamy theatricality, floating the singers<br />
around each other.<br />
William Burden had a lot of tenor heavy<br />
lifting as Hippolyt, but started to reveal the<br />
“interiors” subtly, as he staggered from one<br />
torturous scene to another. He was most<br />
vibrant in his noble rejection of Phaedra and<br />
later in his transfiguration when, as the caged<br />
Virbius, he was freed with a kiss by Artemis.<br />
Elizabeth Reiter, a sultry soprano who just finished<br />
her training at the Curtis Institute, was<br />
just as commanding as the scheming, icy<br />
Aphrodite. Another winning touch by Driver<br />
had her shadowing Phaedra and mouthing her<br />
lines—an example of effective character counterpoint<br />
that added an unexpected emotional<br />
dimension.<br />
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The dreamscape was jarringly broken in<br />
Act II by the re-animation of Hippolyt into Virbius,<br />
which alludes to Henze’s actual emergence<br />
from a two-month coma he suffered in<br />
2005. Burden, now a zombie, was flopped<br />
around on a gurney as Monty-Python-esque<br />
visuals of body parts and grisly hardware<br />
loomed above him. This supplied some comic<br />
relief but seemed a bit loopy. Otherwise, the<br />
template of panels gliding in and out, or triangulating<br />
the projections of nature and of the<br />
scenes played out in silhouette, was fluidly<br />
executed—dazzling stagecraft achieved without<br />
overwhelming the music.<br />
Giving the most dimension to a character<br />
both vocally and dramatically was Anthony<br />
Roth Costanza. Alternating faux-castrato and<br />
countertenor, his performance was a labyrinth<br />
of interpretive vocal skills that powerfully dispatched<br />
the complexities of Artemis—in platform<br />
sandals no less.<br />
There are many stand-alone vocal passages,<br />
but too often they straight-jacket the<br />
singers with Henze’s circular vocal lines that<br />
retreat into barky resolutions. In contrast, the<br />
appearance of the serene bass Jeremy Milner,<br />
playing Minotauros (not the monster one<br />
anticipated) in the finale, was an unexpected<br />
delight.<br />
Compared to Henze’s vocal lines, his<br />
orchestral template was more liberated, having<br />
narrative scope even with seeming nonsequiters.<br />
The atmospherics included an array<br />
of haunting effects—dizzying vibes, an architectonic<br />
piano, a vaulted cello, shadowy violin<br />
or oboe lines, and Japanese Noh theater cymbals,<br />
just to mention a few, all cohesively<br />
brought together by <strong>conductor</strong> Corrado<br />
Rovaris.<br />
LEWIS WHITTINGTON<br />
Long Beach Opera<br />
Shostakovich: Moscow,<br />
Cherry Town<br />
Nikita Khrushchev, whose term as the boss of<br />
the Soviet Union now seems like a relatively<br />
enlightened time between the eras of Stalinist<br />
terror and gray Brezhnev conformity, had a<br />
scheme. Apparently concerned about the<br />
plight of the average comrade, Khrushchev<br />
ordered the mass construction of cheap, fivestory,<br />
concrete-block apartment buildings,<br />
whose units were doled out to the people amid<br />
tangles of red tape.<br />
This scheme became a ripe topic for entertainment<br />
purposes, and who should be asked<br />
to contribute a score to one such project but<br />
the newly-rehabilitated Dmitri Shostakovich.<br />
Moscow, Cherry Town (Cheromushki),<br />
Shostakovich’s first and only musical comedy,<br />
was the result; and Shostakovich fans who<br />
come to the score for the first time could be<br />
excused for wondering if the completion date,<br />
1958, is wrong. (Actually, the crazed galop that<br />
underpins a Moscow taxi ride was lifted from<br />
the 1935 ballet The Limpid Stream.) The opera<br />
is a delightful, madcap, sometimes silly, tuneful,<br />
quote-filled, often waltz-driven romp of a<br />
score—a throwback to the wacky Shostakovich<br />
of the 1920s and early 30s before Stalin cracked<br />
down. Some of Cheromushki is a wildly satirical<br />
poke at the bureaucracy, but there is also<br />
an innocence about the piece, the triumph of<br />
love over the corrupt guys in charge. It remains<br />
a rarity in the catalog. There is an abridged<br />
recording from the British premiere, a “complete”<br />
recording on Chandos, and the 1963<br />
Soviet film on DVD. So the intrepid iconoclasts<br />
at Long Beach Opera stepped into a large<br />
breach when they presented it. I caught a<br />
runout performance in Santa Monica’s Barnum<br />
Hall the afternoon of May 22.<br />
LBO general director-<strong>conductor</strong> Andreas<br />
Mitisek vigorously led a two-act, 13-piece pitband<br />
version of the score, with some numbers<br />
deleted. Stage director Isabel Milenski resisted<br />
the temptation to update, setting the piece<br />
squarely in 1959 Moscow with an abstract allpurpose<br />
set of Soviet-constructivist architecture<br />
and symbols (including a large all-pervasive<br />
“eye” that was supposed to represent Big<br />
Brother). The cast, mostly young, spirited, and<br />
evenly-matched in voice, cavorted, despaired,<br />
plotted, and celebrated to a rhyme-happy English<br />
translation that sometimes made the<br />
libretto sound like Gilbert & Sullivan. The prevailing<br />
color of the lighting was, of course, red.<br />
This remains in danger of being consigned<br />
to the tall pile of dated music-theatre works,<br />
what with some longueurs in the plot and its<br />
time-specific setting in a vanished political<br />
system (though it is true that young people,<br />
especially in the sky-high rental market of Los<br />
Angeles-Santa Monica, still have trouble finding<br />
their own places to live). But Long Beach<br />
Opera kept things moving along in a lively,<br />
bubbly, zesty production that illuminated a<br />
side of Shostakovich (composer of some of the<br />
most uproariously funny music ever written)<br />
that doesn’t get much of a hearing.<br />
RICHARD S GINELL<br />
Criticism is a necessity if the culture is to be<br />
protected from decay.<br />
—Roger Scruton<br />
That means all criticism is really about the<br />
whole culture.<br />
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Critical Convictions<br />
Voices of Stone and Steel: the Music of<br />
William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti, and<br />
Peter Mennin<br />
by Walter Simmons<br />
Scarecrow Press, 425 pages (+CD)<br />
As Walter Simmons points out in the introductory<br />
chapter of Voices in the Wilderness, his<br />
2004 book on six <strong>American</strong> modern-romantic<br />
composers (May/June 2004), the narrative outline<br />
directing the typical history of <strong>American</strong><br />
concert music since 1900 starts with provincial,<br />
tradition-bound imitations of European<br />
masters. As the new century progresses, <strong>American</strong><br />
composers begin to find their own voice<br />
and assert their artistic independence and<br />
national pride. Copland, Harris, Gershwin, and<br />
others begin to incorporate homegrown vernacular<br />
music—jazz and folk tunes—into their<br />
works. But by midcentury an influential “new<br />
music” arrives from post-War Europe. Even<br />
Schoenberg’s dodecaphony appears outdated<br />
to the proponents of this movement, who—<br />
claiming that tonality is “exhausted,” that the<br />
old rhetoric is irrelevant to a post-War world—<br />
adopt the austere, cerebral serialism of<br />
Webern as their touchstone. Stockhausen<br />
leads the experimentalists, Boulez the more<br />
severe and brittle pointillists. The “new music”<br />
is quickly taken up by university-based composers<br />
and leads to an efflorescence of fragmentation,<br />
relentless chromaticism, kaleidoscopic<br />
instrumentation, sudden and extreme<br />
contrasts in dynamics and register, and all<br />
sorts of new performance techniques. Melodic<br />
lyricism and tonal harmonies—and the openly<br />
romantic emotion they convey—become<br />
passé, even scorned.<br />
Meanwhile, the turn-of-the-century innovations<br />
of Ives are rediscovered and canonized<br />
as adumbrations of the newly ascendant<br />
avant-garde, as are the somewhat later experiments<br />
of Cowell, Ruggles, Crawford-Seeger,<br />
and Varese. All of these native forerunners and<br />
European eminences are seen to lead, by an<br />
inexorable teleological progression, to the<br />
dominance of serial techniques and other<br />
kinds of “contemporary” procedures, culminating<br />
in the 1950s and 60s in the rebarbative,<br />
complex, atonal, special-effects-heavy works<br />
and their accompanying ideologies of such<br />
Book Review<br />
commanding personalities as Elliott Carter,<br />
Milton Babbitt, George Crumb, John Cage,<br />
Morton Feldman, and Conlon Nancarrow. No<br />
matter that audiences hate the avant-garde—<br />
indeed, that’s a big part of its validation; its<br />
best-known composers gain stature, fame,<br />
even notoriety; its lesser figures get professional<br />
approval and academic tenure.<br />
And what of the many unenlightened composers<br />
who continue to write old-fashioned<br />
tonal music using the hallowed forms and procedures?<br />
Their efforts are denigrated by musical<br />
ideologues and taste-makers as quaint,<br />
anachronistic, or obsolete; their place in the<br />
story of modern <strong>American</strong> music is diminished<br />
to the merely incidental. Such music is, the upto-date<br />
feel, at best merely peripheral to the<br />
grand narrative outlining the historically<br />
inevitable march to modernist supremacy; it is<br />
not to be taken as “serious” or “important”.<br />
Worship of the newest thing is very old, of<br />
course. In the 20th Century the high priest of<br />
musical modernism was Theodore Adorno,<br />
whose early and harshly doctrinaire promulgation<br />
of the view that tonality and traditional<br />
styles had outlived their usefulness (to be<br />
replaced by strict Schoenbergian dodecaphony)<br />
was hugely influential. Copland and other<br />
<strong>American</strong> “populists” merited only disdain,<br />
Adorno felt, in their hopeless pursuit of outworn<br />
ideals. By the late 1950s his dogmas had<br />
expanded their reach (and intensified their<br />
exclusivity) in such French critics as René Leibowitz<br />
and André Hodeir, the latter excoriating<br />
anything not adhering to the brittle pointillism<br />
of Boulez and Barraqué, specifically singling<br />
out (in his polemical screed Since<br />
Debussy) almost all modern-era <strong>American</strong><br />
music as hopelessly irrelevant and reactionary.<br />
Most of it, he claimed indignantly, was no better<br />
than the hackneyed rubbish spewn out by<br />
such dinosaurs as Shostakovich.<br />
Soon this denigration of tonal music<br />
spread to <strong>American</strong> critics wanting to keep up<br />
with the latest fashions. See, for example, the<br />
dismissal of Barber’s “easygoing, sentimental”<br />
and “amusing” Violin Concerto in his 1966<br />
High Fidelity review by the esteemed critic<br />
Alfred Frankenstein. Eric Salzman’s widely<br />
used and admired 20th-Century Music: An<br />
Introduction (1967, revised edition 1974) en-<br />
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dorsed this attitude with a bit more subtlety by<br />
simply concentrating on avant-garde developments.<br />
Everything else was secondary and<br />
therefore given only cursory (if any) attention.<br />
Academic journals such as Perspectives in New<br />
Music reflected the same bias for many decades.<br />
“New music” was atonal music, as any<br />
issue from the 1950s or 1960s will illustrate.<br />
(An added attraction was that serial techniques<br />
present seductive opportunities for<br />
impressively abstruse analysis.)<br />
The view that avant-garde music represents<br />
progress, that it is the only proper goal of<br />
a natural and beneficial aesthetic evolution,<br />
superseding hidebound tonal, traditional<br />
music, remains persistent in <strong>American</strong> music<br />
criticism still, in for instance Kyle Gann’s<br />
<strong>American</strong> Music in the 20th Century, published<br />
in 1997. Even Alex Ross, in his eloquent and<br />
impressive 2008 overview of modern music,<br />
The Rest Is Noise—which is particularly good in<br />
evoking the historical and cultural context of<br />
20th Century music—is nevertheless strongly<br />
skewed toward “the progressive path from<br />
Debussy to Boulez and Cage” (as he puts it).<br />
<strong>American</strong> experimental composers are given<br />
far more space and attention than the more<br />
traditional figures, with the clear implication<br />
that they represent the dominant and more<br />
significant evolutionary strain.<br />
Walter Simmons’s Voices in the Wilderness<br />
was the first in a series of books with the overarching<br />
title 20th Century Traditionalists<br />
intended to present a corrective to that story<br />
about modern <strong>American</strong> music. Simmons<br />
explicitly rejects both the teleological argument<br />
that “the evolution of the tonal system<br />
proceeded according to a linear progression<br />
that led inevitably to the dissolution of tonality”<br />
and the underlying assumption “that music<br />
is fruitfully studied as any sort of linear progression,<br />
with some hypothetical goal toward<br />
which all contenders are racing”. Simmons’s<br />
history of <strong>American</strong> music instead places<br />
much more value on the intrinsic and particular<br />
virtues, as well as the effect on actual concert<br />
audiences, of the music written by the<br />
many <strong>American</strong> composers who (in different<br />
ways) maintained their allegiance to traditional<br />
melody, harmony, textures, and forms, as<br />
well as to the warmth, engagement, and immediate,<br />
visceral effect these elements convey.<br />
Those composers also, of course, made many<br />
innovations, as all imaginative artists do, but<br />
for specific communicative reasons, not in service<br />
of an ideology of “originality” for its own<br />
sake. They refused to abandon the time-honored<br />
musical virtues of shapely melodic lines,<br />
tonal-based harmonic tension and release,<br />
clear formal logic, sensuous instrumental<br />
color, and the expressive purposes to which<br />
these qualities have traditionally been put—<br />
their frank appeal to pleasure, their immediate<br />
and obvious ability to arouse and ennoble<br />
human emotion.<br />
Before going on I should add that just the<br />
fact that audiences hated so-called “new<br />
music” doesn’t mean that all of it was bad.<br />
Much was, of course—as indeed could be said<br />
of the music in any stylistic idiom however<br />
new-fangled or old-fashioned. But “new<br />
music” was, at first, almost impossible to<br />
judge, so undifferentiated did it sound to its<br />
earliest audiences. With time it became clear<br />
that the idiom’s trademark excesses and<br />
extremes quickly degenerated into cliches and<br />
(unintentional) self-parody, especially when<br />
taken up by the legions of Boulez’s inferior<br />
imitators. Furthermore, its most devoted practitioners<br />
tended to run out of worthy ideas and<br />
lapse into silence early in their careers. Nevertheless<br />
there are many well-made and expressive<br />
compositions that employ atonality and<br />
avant-garde techniques, even of the iciest and<br />
most forbidding mode. I’m not arguing that a<br />
more traditional, tonality-based music is<br />
always or inevitably better—or somehow more<br />
“natural” or “proper”—than more difficult<br />
“new music”. There are no doubt certain emotions<br />
that can only be conveyed by “contemporary”<br />
styles and devices. My point is that<br />
individual works in any and all styles should be<br />
judged, and their significance assessed, on the<br />
basis of their merits and not on rigid a priori<br />
ideological assumptions about what is or isn’t<br />
fashionable or privileged by an imputed evolutionary<br />
inevitability. Nor should musical history<br />
be distorted by such assumptions. We need<br />
to take a longer view; no one today disparages<br />
JS Bach for being “old-fashioned”—which he<br />
was, by the standards of his own time.<br />
Just such a “longer view” is what Simmons<br />
tries to encapsulate in the notion of “20th Century<br />
traditionalist”. This, in Simmons’s use of<br />
the term, is a wide, encompassing category.<br />
There are many different “traditions” and so<br />
many different varieties of “traditionalists”.<br />
Fervent romantics like Bloch, Hanson, Barber,<br />
Creston, Giannini, and Flagello (discussed in<br />
Voices in the Wilderness) are one kind. Others<br />
are nationalist and populist composers like<br />
Copland, Harris, Gershwin; “multiculturalists”<br />
like Hovhaness and Harrison, who drew on<br />
exotic modes and tried to transmit non-Western<br />
emotional states; neoclassic composers<br />
influenced by Stravinsky and Hindemith like<br />
Piston and his students Harold Shapero, Irving<br />
Fine, and Ingolf Dahl; “modernist traditionalists”<br />
like Schuman, Persichetti, Mennin, and<br />
Diamond, whose bolder harmonic vocabulary<br />
expanded their range of expressive possibilities;<br />
and so-called “new romantic” composers<br />
like George Rochberg and John Corigliano who<br />
have since the 1970s reasserted the late-<br />
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romantic heritage of Strauss, Mahler, and Puccini.<br />
All of these in-one-way-or-another “traditionalists”<br />
adopted and adapted in their works<br />
time-honored structural patterns and procedures,<br />
including tonally-derived harmony and<br />
classic outlines—passacaglia, fugue, sonata,<br />
theme-and-variations, rondo, and aria and<br />
dance forms. That, after all, is a considerable<br />
part of what it means to be a “traditionalist”.<br />
But each group had distinct and differentiating<br />
characteristics, as of course did the individual<br />
composers themselves. For Simmons’s second<br />
volume in his projected series he has singled<br />
out three “modernist traditionalist” composers<br />
who came to prominence in the 1940s and<br />
50s—William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti,<br />
and Peter Mennin—who he thinks exemplify<br />
(and indeed mark the summit) of this particular<br />
strand in tradition-based <strong>American</strong> composers<br />
of the past century. That all three were<br />
long associated (as teachers and administrators)<br />
with the Juilliard School of Music is a less<br />
important but by no means negligible point of<br />
connection among them.<br />
Though all three were heralded during the<br />
early part of their careers as bold, strongly profiled<br />
personalities and brilliant craftsmen<br />
(which they certainly were), they suffered from<br />
a kind of two-sided neglect as more avantgarde<br />
figures came to prominence. Like such<br />
renowned figures as Stravinsky, Bartok, and<br />
Hindemith (whose music they learned from),<br />
they were more “modern” and adventurous<br />
(especially in their use of dissonance and chromaticism)<br />
than the more melodious, openly<br />
romantic Barber and Hanson, but they<br />
abstained from the post-Webernian pointillism<br />
and more extreme “contemporary” effects<br />
and procedures of the avant-garde (including<br />
doctrinaire serialism). As a result, typical concert<br />
audiences found them too difficult, and<br />
on the other hand “sophisticated” audiences<br />
(such as there were) found them too old-fashioned<br />
and lacking in cutting-edge caché. As<br />
Simmons points out, their explorations of a<br />
more searching and chromatic vocabulary and<br />
other recent techniques were disdained by the<br />
cognescenti as merely belated attempts to<br />
update their image, “while more conservative<br />
listeners failed to distinguish their work from<br />
that of the avant-garde and viewed such efforts<br />
as ‘selling out’”. As a result “their work was<br />
increasingly marginalized and supported by a<br />
dwindling number of advocates”. Hence the<br />
need for a reappraisal of their achievement.<br />
As in Voices in the Wilderness, each chapter<br />
in Simmons’s new book offers offers a detailed<br />
biographical sketch, a description of individual<br />
stylistic features of each composer, an assessment<br />
of the important and representative<br />
works that identifies both strengths and weaknesses,<br />
and a depiction of the larger social and<br />
cultural context out of which the music arose.<br />
There are many and extensive quotations from<br />
critical opinions (often at some variance with<br />
each other) and hundreds of citations in the<br />
notes for each chapter, as well as bibliographies<br />
and discographies for each composer—<br />
and even a compact disc with works by all<br />
three of them.<br />
Among the many pleasures and sources of<br />
enlightenment offered by the book are Simmons’s<br />
penetrating (and sometimes surprising)<br />
comments about how the personalities of<br />
these composers were reflected in their music.<br />
He is particularly sensitive to the contradictions<br />
and mysteries that invest the complex<br />
relationship between the artist and his creations.<br />
Schuman, for example, like his music,<br />
was bold, assertive, confident of his own<br />
stature, impatient with academic dogma. He<br />
had both the inclination and assurance to<br />
compose large-scale, serious, imposing compositions—especially<br />
symphonies. There’s no<br />
doubting the importance and striking individuality<br />
of his best works: the Third Symphony,<br />
Violin Concerto, and Fourth String Quartet all<br />
show his declamatory power, lofty eloquence,<br />
nervous tension, kinetic vigor, and the unmistakable<br />
stylistic fingerprints—the dramatic<br />
gestures, plangent clashing triads, rich yet<br />
transparent scoring, multi-layered polyphony—that<br />
make his music instantly recognizable.<br />
His muscular sprung rhythms and optimism<br />
are felt as “<strong>American</strong>”, yet there is a<br />
strong tragic vein also in his music—for example,<br />
in the Sixth Symphony and The Young<br />
Dead Soldiers.<br />
On the other hand Schuman is not, as Simmons<br />
notes, immune from accusations of<br />
rhetorical posturing: some commentators<br />
have found the sonorous but gloomy Eighth<br />
Symphony (which I love) more grandiose and<br />
oratorical than authentically felt. It elicits reactions<br />
“divided between those who hear it as a<br />
profound abstract statement and those who<br />
hear it as...straining to sound profound [with]<br />
parts that are stunning in their impact and<br />
others...the backdrop for something striking<br />
that never occurs”. Curiously, even in his most<br />
pessimistic or post-tonal, chromatic music,<br />
Schuman often ended his works—however<br />
peculiar and incongruous this became—with a<br />
major triad. “One can only speculate as to the<br />
meaning of this practice for the composer.<br />
Was it a statement of loyalty to tonality? An<br />
inability to relinquish hope, or a spirit of optimism?”<br />
The precociously gifted, likable, easygoing,<br />
generous, witty, astonishingly fluent,<br />
stylistically chameleonic Persichetti presents a<br />
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wonderful contrast to Schuman. There is no<br />
hint of self-importance in the man or his<br />
music, and though he wrote nine symphonies<br />
and many concerted works, big orchestral<br />
works don’t dominate his output as they do for<br />
Schuman or Mennin. But Persichetti’s facility<br />
and wide-ranging stylistic eclecticism (ranging<br />
from clear tonality to highly-fragmented<br />
atonality), along with a certain characteristic<br />
emotional coolness—a “classic” rather than<br />
“romantic” cast—have exacted a cost: his<br />
music lacks the strong individuality that would<br />
make it instantly identifiable, and as a result<br />
it’s never gotten the attention from press, listeners,<br />
performers, and recording companies<br />
that Schuman’s music has. Nevertheless there<br />
are riches in Persichetti’s oeuvre that as Simmons<br />
points out are among the high-points in<br />
modern <strong>American</strong> music, including the cycle<br />
of 12 piano sonatas, the Concerto for Piano<br />
Four-Hands, the Third String Quartet, and the<br />
Fifth Symphony. These works evince “a summation<br />
of modern classicism” combining “a<br />
spirit of spontaneous improvisation with the<br />
definitiveness of total premeditation. The<br />
result is highly cerebral music with charm, wit,<br />
grace, tenderness, and dynamism”.<br />
Mennin, the third of this New York triad, is<br />
a very different sort of man and composer<br />
from both Schuman and Persichetti. Stern,<br />
aloof, and aristocratic in demeanor, he was a<br />
deeply private man. Behind his humorless,<br />
businesslike facade was an uncompromising<br />
dedication to his aesthetic goals; a seriousness<br />
and consistency of style, vision, and purpose;<br />
and a burning intensity (darkening into febrile<br />
obsessive mania and deep pessimism as he<br />
aged) that blazed forth in the rigorous, densely-woven<br />
counterpoint of his muscular allegros<br />
and grave, elegiac adagios. There is nothing<br />
frivolous about Mennin; he had absolutely<br />
no interest in writing “minor” or merely<br />
charming pieces, and his career exhibits a single-minded<br />
and “continuous process of compression<br />
and increasing intensification of<br />
expression” that, Simmons notes, recalls<br />
Bruckner (an astonishing comparison I would<br />
never have thought of, but—whatever one<br />
thinks of Mennin’s symphonies—a very acute<br />
one). One consequence of Mennin’s aesthetic<br />
and stylistic predilections is that he (unlike<br />
Schuman and Persichetti) doesn’t sound particularly<br />
<strong>American</strong>, but instead is closer to<br />
such Europeans as Rubbra, Holmboe, and<br />
Simpson (and ultimately to Beethoven), composers<br />
who “develop abstract ideas logically<br />
and coherently, while seeming to allude to or<br />
address profound existential issues...without<br />
recourse to extramusical references, but as if<br />
from a lofty, somewhat depersonalized perspective”.<br />
Mennin’s symphonies are tough<br />
nuts to crack, for me as for many listeners. I<br />
still find them often impenetrable: too opaque<br />
and airless, too filled up with notes, and too<br />
lacking in clearly shaped and separated phrases<br />
that I can easily hold in memory. Still, Simmons’s<br />
comments on his character helped me<br />
to approach them with a more open mind—<br />
and I’ve come to admire Mennin’s 1957 Piano<br />
Concerto (recorded by John Ogdon) and his<br />
magnificent (though not yet commercially<br />
recorded) 1963 Piano Sonata.<br />
Simmons’s extraordinary ability to advocate<br />
for these composers yet see them whole,<br />
with all their virtues, difficulties, and failings, is<br />
a triumph of sensitivity and a lifetime spent in<br />
thoughtful listening, research, and adjudication.<br />
He loves these men and their music yet<br />
makes careful, nuanced discriminations about<br />
them, raises questions about their accomplishments<br />
(sometimes unanswerable), and gives<br />
full credit to the intricate and unfathomable<br />
workings of personality and circumstance that<br />
bring forth artistic creation. Together with the<br />
many detailed and perceptive analyses of individual<br />
works (strictly verbal—there are no<br />
music examples) it is this celestial balance of<br />
judgement and mercy, knowledge and enigma,<br />
light and dark, that makes Voices of Stone and<br />
Steel indispensable for anyone studying or<br />
simply curious about the achievement of these<br />
three distinguished and emblematic “modern<br />
traditionalist” <strong>American</strong> composers.<br />
LEHMAN<br />
Meet the Critic: Don O’Connor<br />
Don O’Connor was born in London, England<br />
to Irish parents. He became a US citizen in<br />
1954. In 1963 and 1964 he got his Bachelor’s<br />
and Master’s Degrees in Industrial Design<br />
from Syracuse University, where he also studied<br />
post-graduate level musicology.<br />
He won five national kitchen and bath<br />
design awards and in 2007 was inducted into<br />
the National Kitchen and Bath Industry Hall of<br />
Fame.<br />
His lifelong interest in classical music<br />
included a time as the music critic for the<br />
Syracuse Post-Standard (1967-1971) and the<br />
Syracuse Herald Journal (1971-1973). From<br />
1977 to 1980 he wrote a local record review<br />
column. He joined ARG in 2006.<br />
From 1974 to 1978, he was the tympanist<br />
and program annotator for the Susquehanna<br />
Valley (now Williamsport) Symphony Orchestra<br />
and from 1980 to 1985 choir director at St<br />
Peter Lutheran Church in Kreamer PA. He was<br />
also a contributor to the Millennium Edition<br />
of Groves Dictionary. His memberships<br />
included the Syracuse Cinephile Society, the<br />
Havergal Brian and Felix Draeseke Societies,<br />
and the Susquehanna Valley Art Society.<br />
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<strong>Guide</strong> to <strong>Record</strong>s<br />
ACTOR: Saxophone Concerto; Dance Rhapsody;<br />
Horn Concerto; Opening Remarks; Celebration<br />
Overture<br />
Debra Richtmeyer, sax; Karol Nitran, hn; Slovak<br />
Symphony/ Kirk Trevor<br />
Navona 5848—70 minutes<br />
Lee Actor (b 1952) pursued parallel careers in<br />
composition and software engineering, working<br />
in the Silicon Valley video game industry<br />
while studying at San Jose State and UC-<br />
Berkeley. In 2001 he quit his day job to be a<br />
full-time composer. He is a multipurpose<br />
member of the Palo Alto Philharmonic: a<br />
member of the violin and percussion sections,<br />
assistant <strong>conductor</strong> since 2001, and composerin-residence<br />
since 2002.<br />
He writes good, very enjoyable music.<br />
‘Opening Remarks’ (2009) is a six-minute program<br />
opener, full of energy, thematically taut,<br />
with propulsive drive until a quieter lyrical section,<br />
and with a winsome harmonic language.<br />
Celebration Overture (2007) began the Palo<br />
Alto Symphony’s 20th season and preceded a<br />
performance of Beethoven’s 9th. While it<br />
opens with an old movie-style fanfare, much of<br />
the 12-minute work is suspenseful. Dance<br />
Rhapsody (2010) is a 16-minute potpourri with<br />
a waltz, slow and fast tangos, and a fandango.<br />
The 13-minute Horn Concerto won first<br />
prize in the 2007 International Horn Society<br />
composition contest. I is moderate in technical<br />
challenge and heroic in character. II is<br />
poignant with a passionate middle section,<br />
while III is a rousing rondo. It’s a good piece,<br />
and the reading by Slovak Radio Symphony<br />
principal horn Karol Nitran is good, too. But<br />
close miking makes his tone seem a bit tubby,<br />
and we are too aware that his pitch seems a bit<br />
shaky in I.<br />
The album opens with the serious and dramatic<br />
orchestral introduction to Actor’s 22minute,<br />
three-movement Saxophone Concerto<br />
(2009). II has a film noir sound that fits the saxophone<br />
well, and III has the character of a<br />
whirling tarantella. It’s a terrific piece, and<br />
University of Illinois saxophone professor<br />
Debra Richtmeyer gives it a wonderful reading.<br />
She has the requisite technical skills and a flair<br />
for the dramatic, and she expertly walks the<br />
classical saxophone’s timbre tightrope: playing<br />
with a mostly velvety tone, mostly avoiding the<br />
saxophone’s rasp, but never sounding wimpy.<br />
Kirk Trevor encourages fine playing.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
ADAMS, JL: 4000 Holes; And Bells Remembered<br />
Callithumpian Consort/ Stephen Drury<br />
Cold Blue 35—43 minutes<br />
In Four Thousand Holes (2010), a trio for<br />
piano, percussion (vibraphone and orchestra<br />
bells), and synthesizer (what the composer<br />
calls “electronic aura”), John Luther Adams<br />
explores an extended progression of radiant,<br />
overlapping triads glowing with a resigned<br />
majesty until they support a slowly ascending<br />
line leading to an ecstatic climax that caps off<br />
its 32-minute journey. The effect is meditative<br />
and spiritual, absorbing, and probably in its<br />
essence more overwhelming than its modest<br />
scoring allows.<br />
And Bells Remembered (2005), a shorter<br />
piece for a quintet of chimes, vibraphone,<br />
orchestra bells, bowed vibraphone, and bowed<br />
crotales, consists of quiet blocks of gently ringing<br />
overlapped pentatonic sonorities, giving<br />
the piece a somewhat Asian flavor. Unassuming<br />
and unlike the later piece relatively devoid<br />
of heat, the work goes about its business without<br />
undue complication.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
ALWYN: Violin Concerto; Miss Julie Suite;<br />
Fanfare for a Joyful Occasion<br />
Lorraine McAslan, v; Liverpool Philharmonic/<br />
David Lloyd-Jones<br />
Naxos 570705—58 minutes<br />
William Alwyn’s Violin concerto is in three<br />
movements, with the first two a study in<br />
melodic, free-flowing lyricism. This is not the<br />
Alywn who composed those five dramatic,<br />
often sweeping cinematic symphonies, but<br />
one who is more intimate and searching. The<br />
concerto begins in a lively manner, but I<br />
adopts its true spirit when a yearning Elgarian<br />
theme takes over. From there on the violin<br />
goes on a reverie, often soaring over the<br />
orchestra like a bird looping over the countryside.<br />
It has a few bravura moments, but for the<br />
most part it allows the orchestra to handle the<br />
stirring interludes.<br />
II is similar but slower, as if reviewing the<br />
thoughts of I at a reduced pace. The influence<br />
is more Vaughan Williams, especially in the<br />
folk-like tune in the violas near the end. Both<br />
movements end quietly with the violin at its<br />
highest and softest, and in the ending of I its<br />
most sublime. World War II was just hitting<br />
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Britain in 1939, and the sometimes troubled<br />
mood of these movements sounds like wistful<br />
gazing on more pleasant times in the past. The<br />
music is not English pastoralist, though. Alwyn<br />
was a 20th Century romantic, as his winding,<br />
exploring melodic lines and chromatic harmonies<br />
make clear.<br />
III is the only fast movement—actually<br />
Allegro Moderato. It is also the main source of<br />
violin pyrotechnics, which its episodic structure<br />
makes room for. Alla Marcia is indicated,<br />
and it does exude the spirit of a British march.<br />
There are celebratory moments in the passages<br />
with chimes, but its wistful main tune<br />
keeps III from entirely breaking away from the<br />
reverie of I and II.<br />
It is hard to believe this is just the second<br />
recording of the work and that it was performed<br />
in public only in a violin-piano<br />
arrangement with violinist Frederick Grinke<br />
with Clifford Curzon in 1940, a year after it was<br />
completed. Henry Wood looked into conducting<br />
it, but the BBC turned him down, and that<br />
was that until 1993, when violinist Lydia Mordkovitch<br />
recorded it with Richard Hickox for<br />
Chandos. Alwyn’s Violin concerto is as accessible<br />
as any 20th Century work and for two<br />
movements an effective study in melody. The<br />
length of over a half-hour may be a problem.<br />
So may the similarity of the first two movements,<br />
though they are so lovely that I’d hardly<br />
call that a problem. Perhaps the piece is not<br />
showy enough to appeal to soloists.<br />
Miss Julie (1976), Alwyn’s last completed<br />
opera, is based on the play by August Strindberg.<br />
Philip Lane drew his Miss Julie Suite from<br />
all three acts of the opera. By relying heavily on<br />
the waltz theme to tie things together, Lane<br />
creates a dark, troubled, stormy, and spooky<br />
piece that recalls Ravel’s La Valse with a touch<br />
of Bernard Herrmann. The result does not capture<br />
the entire essence of the opera, but this<br />
very dramatic suite is outstanding in its own<br />
right.<br />
Alwyn wrote Fanfare for a Joyful Occasion<br />
(1958) in honor of percussionist James<br />
Blades—hence the lengthy display for percussion.<br />
That aside, the work combines brass<br />
writing typical of Walton and what sounds like<br />
a rallying of cinematic troops.<br />
This new performance of the concerto is<br />
incisive and dramatic, with a strong emphasis<br />
on structure despite the music’s flowing<br />
nature. McAslan’s style is direct, with notes<br />
squarely articulated. Naxos’s recording is<br />
clean, detailed, and clear cut, with a deep<br />
sound stage and the violin somewhat closely<br />
miked. The approach seems to say this music<br />
is so romantic and lyrical that we serve it best<br />
by presenting it clearly and with conviction.<br />
That works in I and II. The finale is good, but a<br />
performance so clearly delineated exposes its<br />
episodic structure a bit.<br />
The only competition is Mordkovitch and<br />
Hickox. Hickox’s textures are more blended<br />
and romantic, while his tempos are 3 minutes<br />
slower in I and II combined and a little faster<br />
in III. Mordkovitch plays with a singing, sweet<br />
tone and lyrical styling that is more loving and<br />
more of a reverie, and her articulations come<br />
closer to (but never achieve) portamento.<br />
McAslan is just as good but more upright. The<br />
Chandos performance reveals less detail but<br />
more emotional content, and I like the way the<br />
more polished London Philharmonic and<br />
Chandos’s more blended and distant sound<br />
lend III more sweep and smooth its episodic<br />
nature. I like both, but Naxos’s direct approach<br />
and the detail of its acoustic may serve better<br />
as a single recording and as an introduction to<br />
the piece. Naxos also gives us the only Miss<br />
Julie Suite. That makes it a must, even if you<br />
own the complete opera.<br />
Andrew Knowles’s excellent notes are<br />
comprehensive, detailed, and especially useful<br />
for their coverage of the Miss Julie Suite.<br />
HECHT<br />
ARCADELT: Mass, Ave Regina Caelorum;<br />
Motets<br />
with pieces by Palestrina, De Silva<br />
Musica Contexta; English Cornett & Sackbut<br />
Ensemble/ Simon Ravens<br />
Chandos 779—68 minutes<br />
Since Candlemas (February 2) is not a wellknown<br />
feast in many countries, the booklet<br />
notes should indicate how the Feast of the<br />
Purification, the introduction of the young<br />
Jesus to the Temple, and the role of the elder<br />
Simeon all tie together. This would explain<br />
why the music chosen here fits Candlemas so<br />
well. For example, Simeon’s canticle is the<br />
Nunc Dimittis (here in a setting by Palestrina)<br />
and Simeon’s description of Jesus as “a light to<br />
lighten the Gentiles” is the reason for the association<br />
of the feast with candles and the origin<br />
of the word Candlemas. And in case you are<br />
wondering, yes, there IS a direct connection to<br />
Groundhog Day: see the matchless Oxford<br />
Companion to the Year (pp. 62-64) about the<br />
ancient roots of Candlemas as a day of weather<br />
prediction.<br />
This splendid program contains the Ave,<br />
Regina Caelorum Mass and two motets by<br />
Jacques Arcadelt (c 1507-68), with the motet by<br />
Andreas De Silva (c 1475-c 1530) the Mass is<br />
based on. Four chant passages, two Palestrina<br />
motets, and one other by De Silva round out<br />
the program. The forces range from multi-part<br />
vocal and instrumental ensembles combined<br />
(‘Pater Noster’) to solo voice with brass (‘Hodie<br />
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Beata Virgo Maria’) to the reverse combination<br />
of solo brass with choir (‘Agnus Dei’) to a cappella<br />
singing. The performances, repertoire<br />
choices, and sequencing are first-rate, the contrasting<br />
textures animate the music, and the<br />
spirit is uplifting.<br />
Notes, texts, translations. First recordings<br />
for all except the Palestrina pieces.<br />
C MOORE<br />
ARENSKY: Caprices; see GLAZOUNOV<br />
ASENCIO: Suite Valenciana; Col-lectici<br />
Intim; Suite Mistica;<br />
RODRIGO: Invocacion & Danza;<br />
TARREGA: Capricho Arabe; Recuerdos de la<br />
Alhambra<br />
Yorgos Arguiriadis, g LMG 2096—53 minutes<br />
The link here is Valencia, one of Spain’s largest<br />
cities, southwest of Barcelona, and home of<br />
the three composers. Like the Catalonians, the<br />
Valencians speak their own dialect. The notes<br />
are in Catalan, Spanish, and English.<br />
Rodrigo and Tarrega are well known to any<br />
guitar lover, but Vicente Asencio less so. Most<br />
experienced players have heard or played one<br />
or two works, but his music isn’t widely performed,<br />
so it was good to have a generous<br />
sample of three multi-movement works here.<br />
It deserves a wider audience.<br />
Asencio studied with Turina and Ernesto<br />
Halffter, and was strongly influenced by Falla.<br />
These influences show in his music, especially<br />
Turina. Each of the three suites displays an<br />
interesting balance between folkloric influences,<br />
especially Andalusian, and modern<br />
compositional techniques. My favorite is the<br />
Suite Mistica—the three movements, ‘Dipso’,<br />
‘Getsemani’, and ‘Pentecostes’ have a deep,<br />
almost prayerful character.<br />
Greek guitarist and composer Yorgos<br />
Arguiriadis is an effective advocate for this<br />
music. His playing is stylish and accomplished,<br />
fiery or meditative as needed. But he is up<br />
against considerable competition in the Rodrigo<br />
and the Tarrega. His Invocacion y Danza is a<br />
fine performance, though it falls short of Scott<br />
Tennant’s exquisite one on GHA—and even<br />
that is outclassed by Xuefei Yang’s wild and<br />
spontaneous performance on EMI (M/J 2011).<br />
His Tarrega is dark and muscular—qualities<br />
not normally associated with Tarrega—but, for<br />
me, disfigured by an over-indulgent rubato.<br />
KEATON<br />
BABAJANYAN: Piano Pieces;<br />
see RACHMANINOFF<br />
BABELL: Oboe Sonatas<br />
Karla Schroeter; Concert Royal Cologne<br />
Musicaphon 56924 [SACD] 73 minutes<br />
I typically don’t pop in a recording of, say, 12<br />
sonatas by the same (relatively unknown)<br />
composer unless I know it is really good music.<br />
And when I do, I have to work quite hard to<br />
find some level of enthusiasm. Now I know<br />
that this is really good music and performed<br />
really well.<br />
My appreciation for what the musicians of<br />
Concert Royal Cologne have done here goes<br />
deeper. In the last three years I have reviewed<br />
two of their recordings, and each one has been<br />
higher quality than the last. Reflecting on the<br />
first review (Musicaphon 56889, Jan/Feb<br />
2008), it almost seems that the musicians took<br />
some of my criticisms to heart. For example,<br />
Karla Schroeter seemed too intent on swelling<br />
through notes; it distracted me, and I lost<br />
appreciation for the performance. I also<br />
thought that the recording levels disproportionately<br />
elevated her sound over the accompaniment.<br />
Here, though, both problems have<br />
been fixed.<br />
So, in this lovely collection of the baroque<br />
sonatas, whether listening to them as background<br />
or engaging yourself completely, you<br />
will find a depth to the music and their performance<br />
that yields various layers of appreciation.<br />
Like a perfectly manicured garden where<br />
not a flower or stem is out of place, no instrument<br />
overshadows the next. So, while listening<br />
to a program with nothing but one type of<br />
music has its demands, this one brings great<br />
rewards.<br />
SCHWARTZ<br />
BACH, CPE: 3 Cello Concertos<br />
Truls Mork; Les Violons du Roy/ Bernard Labadic<br />
Virgin 69449—68 minutes<br />
One thing that strikes this listener about the<br />
music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is that<br />
with all his classical energy and lively rhythmic<br />
movement, he has an inherited sensitivity to<br />
harmonic emotion that contributes depth to<br />
his music. Particularly in the slow movements<br />
of all three of his cello concertos, the use of<br />
chromatic movement and voice-leading<br />
makes these works very special.<br />
The energy and accuracy of Mork’s performances<br />
puts them up with Anner Bylsma,<br />
Hidemi Suzuki, and Antonio Meneses. Labadic<br />
and the King’s Violins contribute a great deal<br />
to the precision and energy here, and it is<br />
recorded with an immediacy that also helps.<br />
Excellent balance between orchestra and cello<br />
clinches a very positive recommendation.<br />
D MOORE<br />
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BACH, JC: Symphonies, opp 6, 9, 18; La<br />
Calamita Overture<br />
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra/ David Zinman<br />
Newton 8002065 [2CD] 146 minutes<br />
These recordings, made from 1974 to 1977 and<br />
originally released on Philips, made me ask,<br />
“Johann Christian Bach, where have you been<br />
all my life?” Here’s wonderful, incredibly<br />
inventive music in performances that are simply<br />
the best.<br />
Over the last decade, Zinman, who is now<br />
75, has given fresh, contemporary performances<br />
of Beethoven’s symphonies. But now I<br />
know why it was his tenure (1973-85) that has<br />
been the high point so far in the history of the<br />
Rochester Philharmonic. First, he has the<br />
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra playing with<br />
the Rolls Royce unanimity of tone, tuning, and<br />
ensemble of the very finest large orchestras<br />
from Vienna and Amsterdam to Prague and<br />
Chicago. Second, even 35 years ago he was<br />
using all the finest principles from early music<br />
scholarship and period performance practice:<br />
crisp articulation, upbeat energized rhythms,<br />
transparent textures, and a gossamer lightness<br />
even to the lower strings that enables counterpoint<br />
and harmonic shifts to move on their<br />
toes rather than their heels.<br />
Above all, Zinman captures Bach’s style<br />
with a can’t-sit-still infectiousness that made<br />
me want to dance in the fast movements and<br />
sing in the slow middle ones. In all of these<br />
symphonies two fast movements frame a middle<br />
Andante. In III of Opus 18:4, made of up little<br />
rounds, as Bach repeats a phrase twice and<br />
then extends it the third time, Zinman propels<br />
each entry with a slight inflection, brightening<br />
the music as the textures add voices. Winds,<br />
especially the solo oboe, are as gorgeous as the<br />
strings; and the continuo player has such a<br />
subtlety that you hardly notice the harpsichord<br />
as it adds just a touch of color. In III of Opus<br />
6:6 the player takes full advantage of the one<br />
place in these works where some really inventive,<br />
delightfully clever improvisation can<br />
stand out.<br />
And it’s not just the quick outer movements<br />
that Zinman shapes with convincing,<br />
flowing pace; in the slow movements he shifts<br />
to a caressing pseudo-romantic lyricism and<br />
expressively shaped lines that let the music<br />
breath and embrace you.<br />
The music itself I never found boring, even<br />
after sitting through the six symphonies in<br />
Opus 6, three in Opus 9, and six more in Opus<br />
18, plus the overture (also a mini-symphony<br />
with its fast-slow-fast form). In most cases<br />
Bach allows the choice of oboes or flutes; Zinman<br />
gives us oboes, with flutes added when<br />
called for. Add French horns and a rare trum-<br />
pet or timpani, and from that meager pallet<br />
Bach invents the most imaginative tone colors,<br />
reminding me sometimes of Mahler. He develops<br />
sections with incredible variety, using<br />
memorable tunes, clever modulations, shifts<br />
in the course of a melody line from half-notes<br />
to 16th and 32nd notes.<br />
In Opus 9:1 Bach gives long phrases first to<br />
strings alone, then doubles the line with woodwinds,<br />
then lets the woodwinds alone sail<br />
away with the melody. Opus 9:2 has the most<br />
sumptuous slow movement: muted violins<br />
over pizzicato strings with a faint muted harpsichord<br />
sounding like a guitar; then he adds<br />
French horns and finally woodwinds before<br />
returning to the simplicity of the muted violins<br />
over pizzicato. Opus 6:3 has an Andante whose<br />
walking style is straight out of Schubert’s<br />
Ninth.<br />
When all is said and done, the unteachable<br />
magic element in music is having the right<br />
style. You’ve either got it or you haven’t. And<br />
here Zinman has it in spades, captured in the<br />
best engineering I’ve heard in ages—warm,<br />
ambient, natural, embracing, and best seat in<br />
the house.<br />
By the way, there are frequent repeats in<br />
the scores of Opus 6, fewer in Opus 6, and only<br />
a couple in Opus 18. Zinman takes none of<br />
them, making some of the movements in Opus<br />
6 feel very short. But with performances this<br />
good, it matters little.<br />
FRENCH<br />
BACH: Solo Cello Suites<br />
Ophelie Gaillard<br />
Aparte 17 [2CD] 140 minutes<br />
Martin Rummel<br />
Paladino 4 [2CD) 120 minutes<br />
Helen Callus, va<br />
Analekta 9968 [2CD] 133 minutes<br />
It’s an interesting month for the Bach suites.<br />
We have a new performance by Gaillard, who<br />
recorded them once before in 2000 (Ambroisie<br />
9906, July/Aug 2002). Then there’s Rummel,<br />
whom we will hear from again in this issue<br />
with his recording of Beethoven’s cello works.<br />
And finally we have violist Callus playing them.<br />
Isn’t it interesting, the differences in timing of<br />
these three sets? All the players take all the<br />
repeats, so what is the reason for this?<br />
Starting at the top, Gaillard plays now with<br />
a remarkable involvement in all aspects of<br />
early music performance, including the improvisation<br />
that most cellists don’t employ. She<br />
didn’t do this in her earlier recording, but now<br />
she has made it an integral part of her performance,<br />
managing to improvise without<br />
destroying our awareness of what the original<br />
notes were. She interprets the bowings,<br />
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unclear in the “originals”, sensitively, tending<br />
to slur scalewise passages and separate the<br />
ones that have arpeggios, resulting in<br />
increased harmonic clarity. She also has a tendency<br />
to hesitate before certain downbeats<br />
and divide passages into long-short units a la<br />
Francaise. That works for me sometimes but<br />
not always. Still, these performances show a<br />
great deal of musical imagination and technical<br />
polish. She tunes her A string down to G for<br />
Suite 5 and uses a five-stringed violoncello piccolo<br />
for Suite 6. Altogether, hers is a well balanced<br />
reading, up there with the best I have<br />
heard.<br />
Rummel is a virtuoso in style. Both he and<br />
Callus employ the Johann Peter Kellner edition<br />
that contains a small number of different notes<br />
from the norm, particularly in Suite 6. Rummel<br />
is a rapid player but a generally expressive one,<br />
not as given to detail or introspection as one<br />
might wish, but with a technical enthusiasm<br />
and brilliance that helps make up for the lack<br />
of depth. He also likes to improvise, when his<br />
love for speed and gutsy sound doesn’t override<br />
that desire. He appears to play Suite 5<br />
with the A string tuned down, but seems to be<br />
playing Suite 6 on four strings, giving him<br />
almost no impetus to improvise. As the music<br />
gets more difficult, his tone gets scratchier and<br />
more irritating, though the notes are well handled.<br />
This is not one of my favorite readings,<br />
though it is technically remarkable and the<br />
more relaxed sections are beautiful.<br />
Playing these suites on the viola works very<br />
well, of course, since the tuning of the strings<br />
is identical the cello’s an octave higher. Callus<br />
plays with polish, in a modern style, with<br />
vibrato, She is utterly literal—no improvisation<br />
whatever. Unfortunately, she plays Suite 6<br />
transcribed from D into G, meaning that she<br />
can play it without going as high as the cello<br />
but has to raise some of the lower passages.<br />
This kind of arrangement I can do without.<br />
Violists hate to play in high registers, and the<br />
sonority of this piece works well this way, but I<br />
miss the greater range of the original composition.<br />
This reading is superior to Michael Zaretsky<br />
on Artona (July/Aug 2005).<br />
The vote goes clearly to Gaillard, though<br />
Rummel has attractive enthusiasm and great<br />
fingers and Callus has a fine sound that makes<br />
the music sound effortless and lyrical.<br />
D MOORE<br />
BACH: French & English Suites<br />
Stefan Temmingh, rec; Domen Marincic, gamba;<br />
Axel Wolf, lute<br />
Oehms 795—74 minutes<br />
The selections on this recording were chosen<br />
to emphasize the lyrical aspects of Bach’s writing.<br />
Arrangements were necessary because<br />
Bach wrote no solo music for the recorder. The<br />
second English Suite and French Suites 3 and 5<br />
form the bulk of the program. Interspersed<br />
between the suites are solo pieces for viola da<br />
gamba and for lute.<br />
I had high praise for Temmingh’s last<br />
recording, a joyous romp in some Handel<br />
(Oehms 772; Jan/Feb). His playing, once again,<br />
is touching and masterly. The recorded sound<br />
is close and has a wonderful presence. The<br />
effect is intimate, like the three musicians are<br />
playing just for us. The choice to record this<br />
music with lute and gamba was based on the<br />
fundamentally intimate quality these instruments<br />
have.<br />
The notes are titled “Vintage 1685—A<br />
Fresh Glass from a Good Year”; they explore<br />
the connections between wine and musical<br />
arrangements. It sounds ridiculous, but actually<br />
it is thought-provoking, and the last sentence<br />
brilliantly drives home the point.<br />
This recording is a breath of fresh baroque<br />
air for anyone who needs it.<br />
GORMAN<br />
BACH: Suites & Partitas<br />
Dom Andre Laberge<br />
Analekta 9767—65 minutes<br />
Here are four harpsichord transcriptions of<br />
pieces originally intended for lute, lute-harpsichord,<br />
and violin. The program opens with a<br />
suite in C minor for lute followed by a suite in<br />
E minor for the lute-harpsichord. The remaining<br />
pieces were originally for the violin: the<br />
Sonata in D minor, S 964, after the Sonata for<br />
Solo Violin, S 1003, and the Chaconne from the<br />
Partita for Solo Violin in D minor, S 1004. Dom<br />
Laberge plays with precision and ease. I<br />
enjoyed his strong yet gentle way of delineating<br />
larger musical forms. His ornamentation is<br />
fluid and always enhances the overall message<br />
of the music. He plays the Chaconne in G<br />
minor and the sound is majestic and full of<br />
gravity.<br />
Dom Andre Laberge is Abbot and organist<br />
of the Benedictine Abbey of St-Benoit-du-Lac<br />
in Quebec. He appears in a photograph on the<br />
cover of the liner notes in monk’s robes, sitting<br />
at the harpsichord with his head bowed, as if<br />
in prayer. His cross is concealed by the nameboard<br />
of the harpsichord. Open up the booklet<br />
and the friar appears in another photograph,<br />
smiling and laughing, his cross displayed<br />
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prominently on his chest. These images<br />
brought to my mind the first movement of<br />
Bach’s Cantata 56, Ich Will den Kreuzstab<br />
Gerne Tragen.<br />
KATZ<br />
BACH: Magnificat in D; Lutheran Masses (4)<br />
Barbara Bonney, Birgit Remmert, Rainer Trost,<br />
Olaf Bär; RIAS Chamber Choir; CPE Bach Chamber<br />
Orchestra/ Peter Schreier<br />
Newton 8802057 [2CD] 133 minutes<br />
This is a reissue of a recording made in November<br />
of 1993. It does not appear to have<br />
been reviewed in ARG then. Peter Schreier has<br />
assembled a very well matched quartet of<br />
soloists with an outstanding chamber choir<br />
and orchestra for performances that certainly<br />
are worth re-hearing.<br />
All the works on this recording are settings<br />
of Latin liturgical texts imported from the<br />
Catholic to the Lutheran liturgy. Perhaps less<br />
obvious is the fact that the pieces as presented<br />
here are re-workings of earlier compositions.<br />
One of Bach’s first festive works for Leipzig<br />
was the Magnificat in E-flat, first performed on<br />
Christmas Day of 1723. In addition to the Magnificat<br />
text, this work included four Christmas<br />
movements inserted between the verses. Some<br />
years later Bach reworked the piece, transposing<br />
it down to D, omitting the Christmas<br />
movements, and making some further revisions<br />
to the score to produce the familiar Magnificat<br />
in D recorded here.<br />
The four Lutheran Masses are compiled<br />
from earlier cantata movements. Each is a setting<br />
of the Greek Kyrie and Latin Gloria texts.<br />
Each of the Glorias is cast as five movements.<br />
The outer movements are for chorus and the<br />
inner three are for solo voices. One of these is a<br />
duet (‘Domine Deus’ from the Mass in G, S<br />
236). Some critics have disparaged these works<br />
as mere parodies. Oddly enough, a good part<br />
of the Mass in B minor consists of adaptations<br />
of cantata movements, and I do not recall critical<br />
disparagement of the work on that ground.<br />
The four Lutheran Masses are substantial<br />
works that display considerable care and skill<br />
in the selection and reworking of the earlier<br />
material. The presence of track timings in the<br />
booklet with the present recording induces the<br />
listener to take note of the nearly epigrammatic<br />
concision of the Magnificat movements as<br />
compared with the more broadly conceived<br />
cantata movements that are the basis of the<br />
four masses.<br />
Although not specifically mentioned in the<br />
booklet, the instruments here sound modern,<br />
though the performance style has a crispness<br />
and articulation that one associates with period<br />
instrument performances. All four soloists<br />
have moderately hefty vocal tone, but they<br />
never sound ponderous or labored when executing<br />
Bach’s most athletic vocal lines. And the<br />
chorus has more vocal heft than we might<br />
expect from choirs that specialize in early<br />
music, but the choral lines are always clearly<br />
delineated, no matter how intricate or rapid.<br />
One of many outstanding examples is the<br />
opening of the Gloria in the Mass in F (S 233).<br />
On the whole these are solid, mainstream<br />
performances, mostly free of annoying mannerisms.<br />
My one complaint is that too many of<br />
the movements, especially final ones, tend to<br />
conclude with minimal ritardando and almost<br />
a coy lightness rather than a solid grounding.<br />
Such endings are just too cute for Bach. In<br />
other places Schreier’s understatement can be<br />
very effective, as in the ‘Omnes Generationes’<br />
chorus from the Magnificat. The harpsichord<br />
on this recording has a metallic tinkle that<br />
draws too much attention to itself for a continuo<br />
instrument. Worthy of special praise is the<br />
exquisitely subtle and sensitive rubato in the<br />
oboe d’amore obbligato of ‘Quia Respexit’.<br />
GATENS<br />
BACH: Partitas, all<br />
Irma Issakadze, p<br />
Oehms 781 [2CD] 150 minutes<br />
Ms Issakadze is a young Georgian pianist who<br />
studied in Munich and Hanover (with Vladimir<br />
Krainev), finishing in 2003. Unlike many Russian<br />
pianists I have heard, her sound is quite<br />
buoyant. She has no difficulty inflecting Bach<br />
with extreme phrasal rubato and sudden, dramatic<br />
changes. To name two, from the third<br />
partita (in A minor): the opening movement<br />
makes several subtle but convincing tempo<br />
changes, and various arrival points are lingered<br />
on as one might with, say, Chopin (the<br />
movement is called a “Fantasia”, after all),<br />
while she heavily pedals certain chordal passages<br />
in the gigue, also to good effect. She<br />
savors Bach’s polyphonic textures and will not<br />
hesitate to emphasize one of the inner voices<br />
(Minuet 2 of Partita 1); but the emphasis is<br />
never overdone (as it sometimes could be with<br />
Glenn Gould). I thoroughly enjoy the first disc<br />
(Partitas 1, 3, and 4); the performances of the<br />
remaining suites seem less deeply considered<br />
and in some cases nonsensical (as in the Rondeaux<br />
of Partita 2—willfully distorted and frenetic—and<br />
the Passepied from Partita 5, which<br />
is absurdly slow).<br />
For comparison, I turned to Murray Perahia<br />
on Sony (July/Aug 2008); his playing is<br />
less dramatic but no less nuanced (Fantasia<br />
from Partita 3); sometimes tempos are slightly<br />
slower, which makes for more convincing<br />
phrasing (Praeambulum from Partita 5). All in<br />
all, Perahia’s playing is more elegant and<br />
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suave. I can’t imagine anyone could play Bach<br />
on the piano better than he.<br />
HASKINS<br />
BACH: St John Passion<br />
Hans-Jörg Mammel, Evangelist; Matthias Vieweg,<br />
Christ; Maria Keohane & Helena Ek, s; Carlos<br />
Mena & Jan Börner, a; Jan Kobow, t; Stephan<br />
MacLeod, b; Ricercar Consort/ Philippe Pierlot<br />
Mirare 136 [2CD] 114 minutes<br />
In keeping with scholarly consensus, this performance<br />
of the St John Passion is given with<br />
slender forces: a small chamber orchestra and<br />
a grand total of eight voices to discharge all the<br />
solo and choral responsibilities. It is worth<br />
bearing in mind that the work was written for<br />
the Good Friday liturgy in Leipzig and would<br />
have been first performed from the west<br />
gallery of a church with forces no greater than<br />
these. The forces may be slender, but there is<br />
nothing weak or apologetic about their sound.<br />
This is in every way a powerful and imposing<br />
performance of a sacred masterpiece.<br />
It would be hard to find fault on technical<br />
grounds with the quality of this performance.<br />
The singers and players are all first rate, and<br />
judging from the photographs in the booklet<br />
appear to be in their 30s and 40s. Their vocal<br />
production is clear and capable of power, but<br />
lithe enough to manage Bach’s often athletic<br />
lines. Tenor Hans-Jörg Mammel is eloquent in<br />
his declamation as the Evangelist. Matthias<br />
Vieweg has the gravity needed for the role of<br />
Christ, but there is nothing turgid about his<br />
performance. Countertenor Carlos Mena is<br />
slightly overbalanced in ‘Von den Stricken’ in<br />
Part I, but one could hardly ask for a more<br />
heartrending ‘Es ist Vollbracht’ in Part II. Bass<br />
Stephan MacLeod is impressive in his bass<br />
arias, especially in ‘Himmel Reisse’ from the<br />
version of 1725.<br />
Philippe Pierlot gives us essentially the first<br />
(1724) version of the work. There were at least<br />
three later versions. In 1725 Bach made some<br />
modifications and wrote three new substitute<br />
arias. He also concluded the work with the<br />
concerted chorale ‘Christe, du Lamm Gottes’<br />
borrowed from Cantata 23 in place of the fourpart<br />
chorale ‘Ach Herr, Lass Dein Lieb Engelein’.<br />
Pierlot includes the ‘Himmel Reisse’<br />
and the chorale ‘Christe, du Lamm Gottes’ in<br />
addition to the movements of the 1724 version.<br />
While they are not exactly redundant<br />
when used this way, I find that they interfere<br />
with the flow of the piece. Other recordings<br />
have included the 1725 additions as an appendix,<br />
and I think that the more advisable course.<br />
In 1732 Bach eliminated the new movements<br />
of 1725 and deleted two passages of narration<br />
taken from the Gospel of St Matthew. In his<br />
final version of 1749 Bach reverted to his origi-<br />
nal conception of the piece, but with some<br />
expansion in the instrumentation.<br />
The pacing of the drama is always a challenge<br />
in the St John Passion. One school of<br />
thought views the narrative portions of the<br />
work as an opera of sorts to be projected with a<br />
theatrical intensity. It is worth noting that at<br />
least one of the Leipzig dignitaries who<br />
appointed Bach to his position specifically<br />
advised against writing theatrical church<br />
music. In the scenes that involve lively action<br />
or vehemence—the arrest in the garden and<br />
the mob outside the judgement hall—Pierlot<br />
gives us a fast-paced, almost breathless presentation.<br />
These scenes sound more prodded<br />
than urgent here. The theatrical approach is<br />
not necessarily the best. A reading, whether of<br />
words or music, does not have to be histrionic<br />
in order to be expressive. Elsewhere Pierlot<br />
allows a more considered pace in the unfolding<br />
of the story, and nowhere to better effect<br />
than in the two interrogations before Pilate—<br />
the scenes that in so many ways are the dramatic<br />
heart of the entire work.<br />
On the whole, this is a very fine performance<br />
of a great work. Occasionally Pierlot<br />
allows movements to end with an almost offhand<br />
lightness—for example, ‘Ach, mein Sinn’<br />
from Part I—that sounds to me affectedly cute,<br />
but such moments are exceptional. I am<br />
pleased to report that the chorales are treated<br />
with the dignity and gravity they deserve.<br />
BACH: Violin Sonatas 1-4<br />
James Ehnes; Luc Beausejour, hpsi<br />
Analekta 9829—60 minutes<br />
GATENS<br />
Our editor was very kind to send me this first<br />
volume of a two-volume set (I reviewed Volume<br />
2 in July/Aug), so I now have all of Ehnes<br />
and Beausejour’s superb Bach readings, and<br />
they are my modern-instrument readings of<br />
choice.<br />
There is a wonderful excitement about the<br />
way Ehnes sustains long pitches, and some of<br />
the most engaging moments in this recording<br />
actually happen during sustained notes. He<br />
combines intelligent historical interpretation<br />
(good musicianship) with a rich vibrant (and<br />
vibrating) sound, and plays with a modern<br />
bow and a modernized instrument (the Ex-<br />
Marsick Stradivarius of 1715). The fast movements<br />
are exceedingly difficult to play cleanly<br />
and clearly. Actually, they are difficult to play<br />
at all, and they require at least as much technique<br />
as the solo sonatas and partitas. They<br />
also require a superb harpsichordist. Beausejour<br />
is able to match Ehnes’s violin articulation<br />
and maintains momentum and excitement<br />
through Bach’s landscape of puzzling counter-<br />
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point and odd harmonic progressions (without<br />
the aid of a reinforced continuo).<br />
FINE<br />
BALYOZOV: 3 Capriccios; Bestiary; 2 Children’s<br />
Stories; Welcome, 20th Century; Mozart<br />
a la Schnittke; InVENTSions<br />
Ventseslav Nikolov, vc; Radoslav Nikolov, p<br />
Gega 349—72 minutes<br />
Rumen Balyozov (b 1949) is a Bulgarian cellistcomposer<br />
who writes imaginative music with<br />
neat titles. His Wedding Capriccio for solo cello<br />
puts on both Mendelssohn and Wagner in<br />
semi-atonal guise in quite amusing fashion.<br />
Bestiary is a 25-minute suite for cello and<br />
piano covering descriptions of eight animals,<br />
from the sloth to the hippopotamus. Children’s<br />
Stories is a tiny two-part suite for piano including<br />
vocal reactions by the pianist to what he is<br />
playing. It is very funny. Welcome, 20th Century<br />
for solo cello was actually written in welcome<br />
to the 21st Century and includes nods to<br />
jazz, dodecaphony, and modernism. This matter<br />
is covered in the liner notes in a dialog<br />
between composer and cellist that is worth the<br />
price of admission. There are at least four<br />
more possible movements to this suite, but I<br />
think the ones chosen are sufficient. Then<br />
comes a Capriccio on another occasion, Mozart<br />
a la for cello solo, followed by a Moz-art a<br />
la Schnittke for piano. Both pieces regale us<br />
with slightly distorted quotes from the master.<br />
InVENTSions is for cello (naturally, considering<br />
the performer’s name) and piano, and the<br />
program ends with a Happy Birthday capriccio<br />
for cello alone.<br />
All in all, this is a friendly program with a<br />
good deal of wit. As the cellist points out to the<br />
composer, “If you are alluding to higher sales, I<br />
can tell you right away that such albums are<br />
usually intended to be given as gifts, rather<br />
than to be sold.” To which the composer<br />
responds. “I think I will easily survive this.” I<br />
think he will. The playing is very good and so is<br />
the music.<br />
D MOORE<br />
BARTOK: Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion;<br />
see STRAVINSKY & Collections<br />
BAX: Winter Legends; Saga Fragment;<br />
Morning Song; Maytime in Sussex<br />
Ashley Wass, p; Bournemouth Symphony/ James<br />
Judd<br />
Naxos 572597—56 minutes<br />
Bax wrote these piano-with-orchestra works<br />
for pianist Harriet Cohen, his lover and longtime<br />
companion. He completed Winter Legends<br />
in 1929, between the Second and Third<br />
Symphonies, and called it “a northern nature<br />
piece full of sea and pine forests and dark leg-<br />
ends’. The plan was to dedicate it to Sibelius,<br />
but Bax switched to Cohen and dedicated the<br />
Fifth Symphony to the Finnish composer. Bax<br />
thought of Winter Legends as a sinfonia concertante,<br />
or even a symphony, with the piano<br />
as another orchestral instrument, emphasizing<br />
its percussive and chordal capabilities.<br />
Regarding the work’s programmatic aspects,<br />
he wrote, “The listener may associate what he<br />
hears with any heroic tale or tales of the<br />
North...Some of these happenings may have<br />
taken place in the Arctic circle.” If Winter Legends<br />
were a symphony, it would be well placed<br />
stylistically as well as chronologically between<br />
the Second and Third.<br />
Bax described I as “not in sonata form,<br />
[but] rather...an assembling and fusion of various<br />
elements for the forging of a great climax”.<br />
Pay attention to the opening tattoo in the percussion,<br />
for its rhythm is a major motif, repeated<br />
often. This rhapsodic movement imparts<br />
images of a trek across a Northern wilderness,<br />
with pauses for reflection that often touch on<br />
impressionism. The anger that marked Bax’s<br />
first two symphonies had not entirely dissipated,<br />
but there are passages here and elsewhere<br />
of uplifted spirit and heroic triumph.<br />
Lento opens with the piano lost in reflection.<br />
What follows, annotator Andrew Burn<br />
hears as a “dialog between the soloist and<br />
orchestra, as if a conversation around the winter<br />
fireside hearth”. The piano dominates, with<br />
the orchestra offering commentary ranging<br />
from bright notes to a passage for muted middle<br />
strings. When the brass enter with a chant<br />
based on the tattoo, the piano picks it up first,<br />
then the rest of the orchestra. Suddenly the<br />
timpani roars, the piano returns to the big<br />
chord style of I, and the timpani marches forth<br />
like the leader of an expedition. The orchestra<br />
follows, but soon the dreamy music from I<br />
returns. The pull between the march and<br />
reflective music yields to the latter in the form<br />
of an extended section of Baxian pastoralism<br />
with horn and violin solos, impressionist<br />
strings, rolling pianism, etc. Finally, the piano<br />
strides in with more defined chords, and the<br />
movement ends quietly.<br />
The finale opens with a mysterious tuba<br />
solo under piano arpeggios. After a short fanfare<br />
and stirring in the orchestra, the piano<br />
begins another powerful march. This one leads<br />
to several lively episodes alternating with mysterious<br />
chords in the violins. After quiet musing<br />
by piano, strings, and solos in the woodwinds<br />
and horn, the contrabassoon leads quietly<br />
to the Epilog, which, in Bax’s words,<br />
“may...suggest the return of the sun and warm<br />
air from the south after the long northern winter”.<br />
Saga Fragment (1933) was Bax’s response<br />
to Cohen’s request for a piece for her Ameri-<br />
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can tour. He arranged it for piano and small<br />
orchestra from his one-movement Piano<br />
Quartet from 1922. This “savage little work<br />
much admired by Bartok” (Cohen) opens with<br />
short string chords, eerily anticipating the<br />
beginning of Bernard Herrmann’s score to Psycho,<br />
and goes on to assume a tough Bartokian<br />
quality with a Baxian accent. The long Andante<br />
relaxes considerably in Bax’s pastorale mood<br />
with a large part for solo violin. That is followed<br />
by a folkish dance for violas, accompanied<br />
by piano. The mood turns darker with<br />
piano accompanying muted trumpets and<br />
what sounds like an ominous gathering of the<br />
orchestra. When the viola dance returns it is of<br />
“more sinister character” (Burn) though it<br />
gives way to some light-hearted martiality<br />
before concluding with a bit of stridency that<br />
anticipates Lennox Berkeley.<br />
Bax wrote Morning Song: Maytime in Sussex<br />
(1947) for Princess Elizabeth’s 21st birthday—part<br />
of his duties as Master of the King’s<br />
Musick. It is light-hearted “Spring” music,<br />
nothing deep, but certainly pleasant.<br />
One must compare this performance of<br />
Winter Legends and the Chandos with pianist<br />
Margaret Fingerhut and the London Philharmonic<br />
conducted by Bryden Thomson. Both<br />
are first-rate and different enough for admirers<br />
to want both. Judd walks the line between<br />
symphony and tone poem. His tempos are<br />
faster—he takes five minutes less than Thomson.<br />
Pianist Wass is a muscular player, who<br />
digs into the notes to produce big, solid chords<br />
and a tone that is rich on the bottom and<br />
bright on top. He is most effective in the powerful<br />
sections and at catching the raw and<br />
heroic elements of the work—and slightly less<br />
so in the impressionist ones. Thomson predictably<br />
leans to a tone poem approach. He is<br />
more romantic, perhaps even impressionist,<br />
softer in articulation, and more French. His<br />
pianist, Fingerhut, follows suit with playing<br />
that is less heroic and more poetic. She doesn’t<br />
lean into her notes so much as her touch floats<br />
over her passages, making notes a little longer<br />
and more blended. I sense she has to do this to<br />
make Thomson’s slower tempos work. Naxos’s<br />
sound is closer to the listener, more solid,<br />
articulated, and powerful, and more detailed<br />
than the distant and blended Chandos<br />
acoustic.<br />
Andrew Burns’s notes are up to Naxos’s<br />
best standard and are especially good on Winter<br />
Legends.<br />
HECHT<br />
BECKER: Sortie Solennelle; Cantilena; Toccata;<br />
Organ Sonatas 2+3; Supplication;<br />
Marche Triomphale: Ite Missa est<br />
Damin Spritzer, org<br />
Raven 925—78 minutes<br />
Damin Spritzer presents a new name to the<br />
professional organ world with this, her first<br />
recording. The very attractive performer is<br />
Associate Director of Music and Organist at<br />
the University Park United Methodist Church,<br />
Dallas. Her debut recording is a program of<br />
organ music by Rene Becker, the first recording<br />
of this little known composer. Becker<br />
(1882-1956) was born into a musical family, his<br />
father a noted organist in Alsace. In 1904 he<br />
came to America. Ms Spritzer researched<br />
Becker’s life and compositions for her forthcoming<br />
dissertation at the University of North<br />
Texas.<br />
The venue for this recording is the Church<br />
of Saint-Salomon-Saint-Gregoire, Pithiviers,<br />
France; the organ is a 3-72 Isnard, 1789<br />
(Cavaillé-Coll, 1890, restored Cattiaux, 2008). A<br />
detailed history of the alterations to the instrument<br />
gives a clear picture of the changes from<br />
1784 to 2008.<br />
Becker’s music seems to echo the styles of<br />
Dubois, with perhaps a bit of Boellmann, Guilmant,<br />
Vierne, and Mendelssohn. The selections<br />
are properly crafted (e.g. the use of<br />
ternary form in the sonatas). Boisterous<br />
pieces—Sortie Solennelle the Toccata, and<br />
Marche Triomphale—make appropriate<br />
accompaniment to ceremonial pomp. Becker<br />
seems at his best with the quieter works, especially<br />
the slow movements of the sonatas. They<br />
are lovely, though they border here and there<br />
on the saccharine.<br />
Overall, a well engineered disc of a very talented<br />
organist. I would hope her next album<br />
has more variety.<br />
METZ<br />
BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonatas; Variations<br />
Martin Rummel; Gerda Guttenberg, p<br />
Paladino 11 [2CD] 142 minutes<br />
David Geringas; Ian Fountain, p<br />
Hänssler 93272 [3CD] 196 minutes<br />
These two albums of Beethoven’s cello music<br />
have some curious aspects. Rummel and Guttenberg<br />
were recorded in 2004 and 2006 and<br />
show a distinct change in attitude between the<br />
early sonatas and variations recorded on the<br />
earlier date and the Opus 69 and 102 sonatas<br />
recorded later when Rummel was developing<br />
into the aggressive personality evident in the<br />
2010 recording of the Bach solo suites<br />
reviewed above. The later performances have a<br />
certain stubborn character about them, with<br />
some strangely exaggerated dynamics. Some<br />
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of this is explained in the odd liner notes, written<br />
by Wolfgang Lamprecht as a sort of freeassociation.<br />
He gives a number of opinions<br />
and quotes from the cellist, including “a nearly<br />
scientific precision, based not only on Jonathan<br />
del Mar’s urtext edition but also on<br />
Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s philosophy and<br />
Beethoven’s manuscripts and the first editions<br />
of the works”. Lamprecht also points out that<br />
these players have worked together for a long<br />
time and have a remarkable unity of approach.<br />
All of this is true, and these are highly interesting<br />
readings; but they are a bit laid back and<br />
lacking in humor and spontaneity. The variation<br />
sets on Handel’s ‘See, the conquering<br />
hero comes’ and two different tunes from<br />
Mozart’s Magic Flute are more unified in<br />
approach than usual, making them sound<br />
more mature than they sometimes do. The<br />
recorded sound is excellent.<br />
Geringas and Fountain, on the other hand,<br />
sound very natural and inspired by the<br />
music—not by the idea of pointing out things<br />
you might not have heard before. Of course,<br />
one reason for making this monster collection<br />
is the fact that Geringas and Fountain are the<br />
editors of Henle’s new edition of Beethoven’s<br />
cello music. Among musicians that ranks very<br />
high for accuracy. The edition includes not<br />
only the original five sonatas but also the transcriptions<br />
by the composer of his horn sonata,<br />
Opus 17 and the String Trio, Opus 3, to which<br />
he gave a new opus number, 64. These are fine<br />
pieces, of course, though they do not replace<br />
their original scorings. On the other hand, the<br />
horn sonata does seem to gain a certain depth<br />
in this form, and the six-movement 42-minute<br />
string trio is well worth study. All in all, this is a<br />
collection worth investing in for the warmth of<br />
its interpretations as well as its completeness.<br />
D MOORE<br />
BEETHOVEN: Christ on the Mount of<br />
Olives; Leonore Overture 2<br />
Ann Petersen, s; Adam Zdunikowski, t; Ole<br />
Stovring Larsen, b; Soranus Chorus; Torun Chamber<br />
Orchestra/ Knud Vad<br />
Scandinavian 220557—68 minutes<br />
This is one of those recordings that probably<br />
should never have been released. The vocal<br />
forces come from Soro, Denmark, where <strong>conductor</strong><br />
Vad has led the chorus since 1967; the<br />
orchestra comes from Torun, Poland. The performance<br />
of the oratorio, here quaintly translated<br />
as “Christ on Olive Mountain”, is certainly<br />
adequate if your standard is a good provincial<br />
performance.<br />
Zdunikowski is an attractive tenor, but a<br />
little undernourished for the part. Soprano<br />
Petersen is also generally good, despite some<br />
out-of-tune singing in the big trio. The chorus<br />
sounds like a fine community chorus, but<br />
nothing more. The orchestra does well, but<br />
does not compete with better, larger groups.<br />
This shortcoming is very apparent in the<br />
Leonore Overture, which in the right hands can<br />
be a very thrilling piece. It is not here. And the<br />
sound is a bit distant and dull.<br />
So, I think you can skip this. If you want<br />
the oratorio, Nagano’s recording on Harmonia<br />
Mundi 901 802 would be a much safer bet.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
BEETHOVEN: Diabelli Variations<br />
Paul Lewis<br />
Harmonia Mundi 902071—53 minutes<br />
A few years ago, I donated two of my three<br />
recordings of the Diabellis to my school<br />
library—Barenboim on Erato (Sept/Oct 1994)<br />
and Richter on Philips (Sept/Oct 1989)—thinking<br />
that I could do very well with just one:<br />
Brendel’s 1990 for Philips. Paul Lewis gives<br />
Brendel a run for his money, but the differences<br />
are primarily ones of temperament and<br />
acoustics. Brendel’s performance is very typical<br />
of his work in the 90s: the sound is clear,<br />
almost clinical; and the interpretation, while<br />
not quite as “by the book” as, say, his<br />
Beethoven sonatas from the same era, still<br />
seems almost too “proper”.<br />
Lewis’s recording runs about the same<br />
amount of time as Brendel’s, yet it seems more<br />
expansive. He often projects the inner voices<br />
(literal or implied) in a more convincing way<br />
than Brendel (Var. 7); takes more liberty with<br />
phrasing, to great expressive effect (the sudden<br />
turn to A minor in Var. 18); and, when the<br />
piece demands it, he makes more of the<br />
bizarre shifts of mood in a single variation (21).<br />
The recorded sound includes more ambiance,<br />
which benefits slow variations like 14 and 29-<br />
31.<br />
Still, Brendel’s characteristic restraint<br />
doesn’t run counter to the spirit of this strange<br />
piece, loaded as it is with irony, wry humor,<br />
and compositional ingenuity. A work as great<br />
as the Diabelli Variations benefits from radically<br />
different approaches, and so I’ll keep<br />
Lewis in my library.<br />
HASKINS<br />
BEETHOVEN: Egmont<br />
Maria Bengtsson, s; Tobias Moretti, narr; Vienna<br />
Radio/ Bertrand de Billy<br />
Oehms 767—47 minutes<br />
Here is yet another recording of Beethoven’s<br />
Egmont Music. I can’t claim to have them all<br />
but this is the ninth that I have that includes<br />
both a soprano and a narrator. There are few<br />
that I would consider perfect. Some have narrators<br />
that have less than ideal voices, and oth-<br />
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ers have unsatisfactory sopranos. Some have<br />
more text than Beethoven actually set (Szell,<br />
De Billy, and Albrecht). Abravanel uses Netania<br />
Davrath, who isn’t quite ideal as Clarchen,<br />
though Walter Reyer is one of the more satisfactory<br />
narrators. Szell’s performance of the<br />
music is perhaps the greatest there is, and his<br />
soprano, Pilar Lorengar, is also one of the best;<br />
but I don’t care for his narrator, Klaus-Jurgen<br />
Wussow. His performance of the overture is<br />
staggering. It lasts 11.29 compared to Abbado’s<br />
8.05! Most of the others are around 9.00,<br />
though De Billy at 7.46 is unbelievably quick.<br />
Abbado’s Berlin performance lacks the<br />
proper stature in the music, and his narrator,<br />
Bruno Ganz, is not ideal though better than<br />
some. Cheryl Studer is better than most of the<br />
sopranos. Heinz Bongartz with Elisabeth<br />
Breul, Horst Schulze, and the Staatskapelle<br />
Berlin give a good performance. My favorite<br />
recording is my first one: Hermann Scherchen<br />
for Westminster in about 1955 with Magda<br />
Laszlo, Fred Liewehr, and the Vienna State<br />
Opera Orchestra. The major factor is Liewehr’s<br />
stunning reading. This new reading is near the<br />
bottom of my list. The narrator has too light a<br />
voice, the soprano is also less than satisfactory,<br />
and it’s all much too quick. It is well recorded<br />
and has good notes.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
BEETHOVEN: Fidelio<br />
Birgit Nilsson (Leonore), Jon Vickers (Florestan),<br />
Hermann Uhde (Pizzaro), Oskar Czerwenka<br />
(Rocco), Laurel Hurley (Marzelline), Charles<br />
Anthony (Jaquino); Metropolitan Opera/ Karl<br />
Böhm<br />
Sony 85309 [2CD] 129 minutes<br />
I reviewed in May/June a historic performance<br />
of Fidelio from the reopening of the newly<br />
reconstructed Vienna Opera in 1955 (it had<br />
been severely damaged by US bombs on January<br />
23, 1945). That is not only an historic occasion<br />
but a historic performance, conducted by<br />
Böhm and compromised only slightly by sonic<br />
limitations of the time and the circumstances.<br />
Here we have the same Böhm at the helm, at<br />
the Met five years later, in 1960, with an equally<br />
powerful roster of singers.<br />
The strength of the singing cast is compromised<br />
in several ways. The recording was obviously<br />
made at the old Met house at 39th and<br />
Broadway, a good locale acoustically, but with<br />
a relatively small orchestra pit, one that<br />
packed to the max could accommodate only<br />
about 70 players. This is on the small side for<br />
Fidelio and suffers in comparison with the spacious<br />
Vienna Opera, which holds the whole<br />
VPO comfortably—for this work about 95<br />
musicians.<br />
There is also the fact that the Met orchestra<br />
was, to put it mildly, not the VPO. Karl Böhm<br />
by this time has had three stints of two months<br />
or so to work on it—obviously one of the reasons<br />
why he was hired by his friend Rudolf<br />
Bing immediately after leaving Vienna abruptly<br />
in December 1956. I explored the situation<br />
online and found that he was critical of the<br />
Met horns to the extent that he tried to get one<br />
particularly recalcitrant player fired. Of course<br />
he failed, presumably because of the iron grip<br />
of the Musicians Union.<br />
The problem surfaces in this recording in<br />
the very first bars of the overture, where the<br />
horns are terribly insecure, to put it as mildly<br />
as possible. Fortunately, they get warmed up<br />
thereafter, but they seldom reach the total<br />
security and refinement of their Viennese<br />
rivals. For example, though Leonore III is generally<br />
quite good, and hard to fault in detail, it<br />
does not quite reach the level of the Vienna<br />
performance, and it’s not the <strong>conductor</strong>’s<br />
fault. The audience is often noisy, and does<br />
not hesitate to applaud, so the continuity of<br />
the performance is often interrupted.<br />
Birgit Nilsson offers a strong, indeed commanding<br />
performance as Leonore; she’s if anything<br />
overqualified for the part. Jon Vickers<br />
also is most convincing as Florestan, strong<br />
vocally and totally in command in all aspects<br />
of this difficult role.<br />
Oscar Czarwenka is convincing and strong<br />
vocally as Rocco. Hermann Uhde as Pizarro is<br />
sensitive and musically impeccable, though<br />
his voice lacks the strength and power demanded<br />
by the role. ‘Ha, Welch ein Augenblick’,<br />
for example, though sensitive and technically<br />
flawless, does not attain the power and<br />
authority demanded by the aria. Laurel Hurley<br />
and Charles Anthony are satisfactory, though<br />
not as wholly convincing as the others. The<br />
Met chorus performs splendidly, but with less<br />
than the conviction of the Vienna group.<br />
So this recording is interesting and satisfying<br />
example of Karl Böhm’s art at the Metropolitan,<br />
though it is excelled musically by the<br />
sense of presence, power, authority, sonic<br />
richness, and conviction of his Vienna performance<br />
on Orfeo 813102.<br />
MCKELVEY<br />
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas, all<br />
Jean Muller<br />
Bella Musica 3113 [9CD] 651 minutes<br />
I don’t know what the impetus was for creating<br />
this release. Muller probably committed himself<br />
to presenting the full run of Beethoven<br />
sonatas at the Centre des Arts d’Ettelbruck in<br />
his native Luxembourg. Then it occurred to<br />
him: “Wait! What if I just go ahead and record<br />
the whole thing?” And that’s what he did, warts<br />
and all.<br />
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I didn’t really enjoy listening to a single<br />
one of the sonatas. Even in the best tracks, the<br />
playing always remains edgy and tense. The<br />
piano is too bright, newly entering voices are<br />
marked with too much accent, and the tempos<br />
and dynamics are too excitable. This all happens<br />
in the slower movements, too. Though a<br />
shade darker, none is expansive or sublime<br />
enough to qualify as a true adagio. Another<br />
problem is Muller’s hit-and-miss handling of<br />
melody. There are times when everything<br />
comes together, as in II of the Appassionata.<br />
This movement is more than well sung; it is<br />
well scripted, with the full volume and energy<br />
of the music ebbing and flowing deliriously.<br />
Usually, though, the slow movement melodies<br />
are delivered in a monotone with noticeably<br />
clunky decorative figures. This is the case, for<br />
example, with II of the Fourth Sonata.<br />
At worst, the music is barely listenable. All<br />
of the allegros are splashy, with many awkward<br />
transfers between the hands whenever running<br />
notes are involved. With any presto finale,<br />
you’re pretty much guaranteed to hear at least<br />
a couple of flubbed chords. (III of the Appassionata<br />
has more howlers than I cared to<br />
count.) All this amounts to music that, though<br />
spirited, is not enjoyable. I will go so far as to<br />
credit Muller as a decent player with a bright<br />
style. His considerable finger strength especially<br />
in the left hand makes him a natural fit,<br />
technique-wise, for Beethoven. These are the<br />
only saving graces I could discern in the midst<br />
of playing that generally sounded rough and<br />
unready.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas 1-3, 15, 21, 31<br />
Lars Sellergren<br />
Sterling 1672 [2CD] 2:09<br />
Lars Sellergren taught piano at the Stockholm<br />
Royal College of Music while performing in<br />
concert and on radio and television broadcasts.<br />
These Beethoven performances have<br />
been mined from the archives of Swedish<br />
radio, so the sonics are variable. In the first<br />
three sonatas (taped in 1982) the piano sound<br />
that emerges from the tape hiss is not very<br />
enticing; sometimes it sounds as if the instrument<br />
needed tuning. Sonata 15 (from 1957) is<br />
also burdened with hiss and isn’t even in<br />
stereo. Fidelity improves with 21 (the Waldstein)<br />
and 31, the most recent of the performances;<br />
but even here the dynamic range is<br />
limited. Whether this is attributable to the<br />
engineering or to restraint on the part of Mr<br />
Sellergren is difficult to say. But there’s a lot<br />
more character to these works than emerges<br />
from these careful renditions, certain to be lost<br />
in a field thick with more distinguished recordings.<br />
Notes by the pianist, translated from<br />
Swedish, are more illuminating than the performances.<br />
KOLDYS<br />
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas 22, 24, & 29<br />
Idil Biret<br />
IBA 571269—75 minutes<br />
This release comes off a shade better than the<br />
last one I reviewed from Biret (May/June<br />
2011). This time around, her Hammerklavier is<br />
cleaner in I and IV. The playing in these allegros<br />
is deliberate, but doesn’t sound tired as<br />
before. I can see the advantages of this performance<br />
style: beyond making all the notes and<br />
lines eminently clear, there is a general sort of<br />
old-world charm in this more restrained, epiclength<br />
Beethoven. Still, I think Biret takes<br />
things too far. She makes only the barest effort<br />
to contrast soft with loud, and there are no<br />
effective sforzandos anywhere. The finale<br />
remains a contrapuntal exercise instead scaling<br />
the expressive heights, as it was meant to.<br />
III also suffers from expressive flatness, with<br />
the color remaining always the same.<br />
The two other sonatas produce occasional<br />
pleasure, but neither as whole is a dramatic or<br />
interesting performance. The best thing that<br />
can be said about Sonata 22:I is that it projects<br />
a deep, soft and relaxed atmosphere. This<br />
occurs largely through the full, rounded tones<br />
in the bass registers and carefully measured<br />
tempos. II is played correctly as an agitated<br />
moderato, but somehow it lacks vitality. She<br />
does not work hard enough to differentiate the<br />
surface of this perpetual motion piece: there is<br />
no zip or humor, and barely any syncopation.<br />
Sonata 24:I is songful enough, but suffers from<br />
a general air of sluggishness and a lackluster<br />
conclusion. The usually joyful II is rendered in<br />
somewhat bleak tones—again: no levity to be<br />
found anywhere—with the added detriment of<br />
the continual blipped 16th pairs coming across<br />
like belligerent crushed-note figures.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonatas 30-32<br />
Penelope Crawford, fp<br />
Musica Omnia 308—65 minutes<br />
The fortepiano is a Conrad Graf, from Vienna<br />
in 1835, and Crawford currently teaches early<br />
performance practices at the University of<br />
Michigan. No mere academic, she not only<br />
brings a wealth of experience to her instrument,<br />
but performs Beethoven with all the creative<br />
energy and disciplined freedom one<br />
could wish for.<br />
Because the instrument has both its admirers<br />
and detractors, the latter group need read<br />
no further. Her only one-disc competition<br />
comes from Ronald Brautigam, who has cou-<br />
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pled these last three sonatas with Sonata 28<br />
(not reviewed).<br />
I am a strong admirer of Brautigam’s<br />
accomplishments, especially in these sonatas.<br />
Ms Crawford’s performances, while quite different,<br />
can be strongly praised as well. With<br />
the splendid sound of her instrument and a<br />
recording that captures all of her subtleties<br />
and inflections, Beethoven is extremely well<br />
served.<br />
Brautigam takes a more dramatic view of<br />
this music, with playing that offers strong<br />
dynamic contrast and little apology for the<br />
more aggressive sound of his instrument.<br />
Crawford’s approach is a gentler one, with the<br />
sound of her instrument falling more gratefully<br />
on the ear. The Prestissimo of Sonata 30 clearly<br />
demonstrates this as, confronted with the<br />
opportunity to come crashing down, she never<br />
produces a harsh tone, though the music is<br />
certainly not underplayed. The theme-andvariations<br />
closing movement is stunningly<br />
beautiful, with deft contrasts between the variations<br />
and a display of some impressive technical<br />
agility.<br />
Sonatas 31 and 32 offer further delights as<br />
Crawford continues to control her dynamics<br />
and phrasing with great aplomb. Above all is<br />
her ability to play very softly, thereby keeping<br />
the loudest passages in manageable proportions.<br />
Once again, it is in the final movement<br />
of Sonata 31 that her exquisite playing really<br />
shines. The sadness is almost palpable before<br />
the extended fugue steals in before returning<br />
to the initial depths. But this is short lived, as<br />
the fugue returns for the climax. This is a<br />
movement where all is well balanced and very<br />
well thought out here.<br />
The two movements of Sonata 32 are a<br />
structural challenge for any artist. Crawford<br />
holds things together without making the<br />
music sound like a patch job. This is especially<br />
difficult to accomplish in the long Adagio<br />
molto semplice e cantabile. Her ability to color<br />
her phrases brings real distinction to the performance.<br />
If Brautigam claims the ultimate prize by<br />
including an additional sonata, Crawford easily<br />
takes an honored place besides him in my<br />
affections. With excellent notes by Boston College<br />
Professor Jeremiah W McGrann and a<br />
stunning 1824 reproduction of a canvas by<br />
Caspar David Friedrich, the album should capture<br />
the imagination of all who value artistic<br />
presentation.<br />
BECKER<br />
BEETHOVEN: Symphonies, all<br />
Sinead Mulhern, Carolin Masur, Dominik Wortig,<br />
Konstantin Wolff; Les Elements Choir; Chamber<br />
Philharmonic/ <strong>Emmanuel</strong> Krivine<br />
Naive 5258 [5CD] 330 minutes<br />
This offering is a lot better than it might<br />
appear at first. The Chambre Philharmonique<br />
is big enough at around 80 players to compete<br />
with large conventional orchestras, particularly<br />
in view of its absolutely first-class players.<br />
Naturally, you must live with the plaintive tone<br />
of gut strings and the limited spectrum of natural<br />
horns and trumpets—limitations that<br />
would make it impossible to play, for example,<br />
Bruckner 4—but they handle the Beethovens<br />
impressively, if not always with ease. But<br />
<strong>Emmanuel</strong> Krivine is less aggressive and fierce<br />
in matters of tempo and rhythmic flexibility<br />
than Norrington, Goodman, et al. So this set is,<br />
overall—with a single exception—worthy of<br />
your consideration.<br />
The voluminous notes by Mr Krivine (b.<br />
1947) outline his method in detail, and I will<br />
try only to hit the major items. I’ve reviewed<br />
quite a number of his earlier recordings, and<br />
some are very good. One of the finest is a<br />
splendid performance of Scheherazade with<br />
the Philharmonia on Denon about 15 years<br />
ago. He has been less active in recording in<br />
recent years. In a 1965 interview Karl Böhm<br />
apparently advised him to pursue a career as<br />
<strong>conductor</strong>. Böhm was not known for encouraging<br />
conducting hopefuls, though he played<br />
this role for a favored few, most conspicuously<br />
Sixten Ehrling and Herbert Kegel, who worked<br />
as his assistants.<br />
Krivine in 1976 became permanent guest<br />
<strong>conductor</strong> of the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique<br />
de Radio France. In 1987 he became<br />
Music Director of the Lyon orchestra, where he<br />
remained until 2000. Since then he has<br />
become a familiar face on the world concert<br />
stage, in Europe as well as the US. He founded<br />
the Chambre Philharmonique in 2004 and has<br />
served as its <strong>conductor</strong> and music director<br />
since then.<br />
I started off with Symphony 5, a work that<br />
many <strong>conductor</strong>s seem to regard as a contest<br />
to see who can be the loudest, fastest, and<br />
angriest. The winners in this assault are<br />
LSO/Haitink, who murders it in 29 minutes,<br />
while Reiner and Norrington are runners-up at<br />
a distance substantial but hardly respectable.<br />
As I tried Krivine I thought, “well here comes<br />
another member of the club”. But though he<br />
did not let the grass grow under his feet, I was<br />
wrong. At 32:36, he fashioned a performance<br />
that included all the expected repeats—even<br />
the rarely played exposition repeat in IV!<br />
Moreover, by a clever management of tempos,<br />
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he manages to make things sound slower than<br />
the numbers would suggest. In particular, the<br />
great C-major fanfare at the opening of the<br />
finale is weighty and definitely not too fast. It<br />
also follows a pattern found in Ansermet’s<br />
Decca recording, of a generally fast framework<br />
wherein grand climaxes are given time to<br />
flower. It will not replace historic recordings by<br />
Weingartner, Furtwängler, and Böhm, but it’s<br />
high up on the next short list, if you are not<br />
opposed to the sound of period instruments.<br />
The Eroica shares these general outlines<br />
and occupies a similar place in the firmament<br />
of the many choices offered by the existing catalog.<br />
It is fast, but not excessively so, with a<br />
flexibility of tempo and dynamics that also<br />
summons the specter of the long gone but<br />
fondly remembered Weingartner. The horn<br />
solos in III, played on valveless instruments,<br />
are flawless. Overall time is 46:10.<br />
No. 9 also benefits from these moderate<br />
performance practices. At 64 minutes he is<br />
very close to Weingartner’s speed, and the<br />
treatment of individual movements is also<br />
similar, except for the inclusion of the repeat<br />
of the scherzo. The orchestra is flawless, the<br />
soloists and chorus also reasonably good,<br />
though the bass falls short of the ease and<br />
solidity of Richard Mayr for Weingartner or<br />
Gottlob Frick in Böhm’s great Frankfurt performance<br />
on Archipel—the best of his six<br />
recorded performances.<br />
To make a long story short, Symphonies 1,<br />
2, 4, and 6 follow the same prescription set up<br />
by Weingartner and followed by Ansermet. Did<br />
you know that in the period when both were in<br />
Switzerland, Ansermet sought Weingartner’s<br />
guidance about how the Beethoven and<br />
Brahms symphonies should be performed?<br />
This leaves 7 and 8. It would be satisfying<br />
to report that they also follow these performance<br />
practices. Alas, it is not so! We’re now<br />
back in the world of faster is better. In No. 7 it’s<br />
not evident from the published timing of 38<br />
minutes, for every possible repeat (along with<br />
some that aren’t) is dutifully played; but trust<br />
me, without them it would last barely 30 minutes.<br />
BPO/Böhm (DG) at 37 minutes without<br />
all the optional repeats is obviously slower.<br />
Finally it is useful to observe that the final<br />
movement of No. 7 is marked allegro con brio.<br />
Con brio means merely with spirit, bravura,<br />
not faster. Had the composer wished a faster<br />
speed, he would have marked it allegro molto e<br />
con brio or some equivalent.<br />
These performances are well served by<br />
Naive’s engineers. The recordings are clear,<br />
transparent, and undistorted, with excellent<br />
balance and realism. The sound levels are<br />
higher than the norm by 2 or 3db, a matter<br />
easily compensated for on the playback end.<br />
You must really secure other performances of<br />
7 and 8, but otherwise this set is easy to recommend<br />
to listeners whose ears are not offended<br />
by the sounds of period instruments.<br />
MCKELVEY<br />
BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 4+7<br />
Flemish Philharmonic/ Philippe Herreweghe<br />
Pentatone 5186 315 [SACD] 76 minutes<br />
As I recall, Herreweghe made a period instruments<br />
recording of these works several years<br />
ago. He has apparently changed his thinking in<br />
the interim, for these recordings employ a<br />
large orchestra and conventional instruments.<br />
Moreover, his shaping of them is conventional,<br />
indeed conservative. I’ve no clue about what<br />
caused this radical change, but I support it in<br />
spades. The main advantage is in the SACD<br />
sound, which is spacious, detailed, and transparent<br />
to the extent that it has disappeared<br />
altogether, leaving only the performance itself.<br />
Tempos are not too fast, particularly in the<br />
scherzos, as they are in many other recordings.<br />
For example, in Beethoven 7 the trio sections<br />
of III are not unduly hasty. But his tempo in<br />
the final movement of 4 is simply too fast.<br />
Weingartner performed this section to<br />
absolute perfection at a leisurely 7:33. Herreweghe’s<br />
tempo, at 6:45 is 10 percent faster.<br />
Moreover, in both works he takes most of the<br />
possible repeats, which impedes their progress<br />
and makes them unnecessarily long.<br />
The Antwerp-based orchestra is splendid<br />
and displays no technical flaw. These two performances<br />
are flawless in execution but less<br />
remarkable in conception. There are stereo<br />
recordings by Böhm, Krips, Walter, and Colin<br />
Davis (with the Staatskapelle Dresden) that<br />
excel this one artistically if not sonically.<br />
MCKELVEY<br />
BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto<br />
Gidon Kremer; Academy of St Martin in the<br />
Fields/ Neville Marriner<br />
Newton 8802064—44 minutes<br />
I reviewed this performance 29 years ago when<br />
it appeared on Philips LP. What distinguished<br />
it then (and now) were the cadenzas, which are<br />
by Alfred Schnittke (1934-98) and eclectic in<br />
style—that is, you can hear echoes of Bartok,<br />
Berg, Shostakovich, and Brahms, along with<br />
periods of modern dissonance. Back in the 80s<br />
I didn’t like the juxtaposition of styles very<br />
much, since the essential core of Beethoven’s<br />
message seemed violated by such shenanigans.<br />
The defense of Schnittke, if you want<br />
one, is (to quote the notes) that he believed “in<br />
the essential unity of musical thought through<br />
all the changes in style across the centuries”.<br />
Coming back to it, I still think the cadenzas<br />
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are more a curiosity than anything else, but I<br />
guess I don’t find myself as “offended” as I<br />
was. Nonetheless, the first movement cadenza<br />
seems too long, and I still find the shifts<br />
between Beethoven and Schnittke too abrupt<br />
and unsettling. First time around I was happy<br />
with Kremer’s playing and Marriner’s orchestra,<br />
but now I find the first movement too static<br />
and lacking in expressive feeling. So, buy for<br />
the curiosity, but not if you’re looking for a<br />
good standard performance of Beethoven’s<br />
concerto.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
BESTOR: Symphony 1; Requiem; Horn<br />
Concerto; The Long Goodbye<br />
Laura Klock, hn; William Hite, t; Cayuga Chamber<br />
Orchestra/ Lanfranco Marcelletti<br />
Albany 1255—60 minutes<br />
This is poignant and moving new music—personal,<br />
intimate, complex, and beautifully presented<br />
by university faculty musicians and a<br />
regional chamber orchestra. In my review<br />
(Nov/Dec 1995) of a previous collection of<br />
works by Charles Bestor, a former professor<br />
and department head at the University of<br />
Massachusetts-Amherst, I said that he has a<br />
confident and distinctive voice and a command<br />
of sonority, texture, and flow of ideas.<br />
He passes easily between classical and jazz<br />
styles, and between tonal warmth and pungent<br />
dissonance. His music seems free and unforced;<br />
it goes where he wants to go.<br />
Two of these works deal specifically with the<br />
death of Bestor’s wife of Alzheimer’s disease. An<br />
11-minute Requiem is scored for tenor soloist<br />
and chamber orchestra, while The Long Goodbye<br />
is a four-movement work that ends with a<br />
very sad, polytonal setting of ‘Now the Day is<br />
Over’. And while his wife’s death is not the subject<br />
of Three Ways of Looking at the Night,<br />
Bestor’s 24-minute Symphony 1 (1996), it is<br />
melancholy enough to fit the program perfectly.<br />
Bestor’s 10-minute Horn Concerto breaks<br />
from the program’s theme. For me the listening<br />
experience is somewhat uncomfortable,<br />
and I think the recording setup—close miking<br />
of soloist Laura Klock—is to blame. Sometimes<br />
the solo material seems as if it is just one of the<br />
contrapuntal lines, and it would sound better<br />
if it were not so front-and-center. And while<br />
there is natural ambience in the orchestra’s<br />
sound, there is none in the horn’s. It’s too intimate;<br />
we hear too many details.<br />
The soloists (Ms Klock and the fine tenor<br />
William Hite) and <strong>conductor</strong> Lanfranco Marcelletti<br />
are faculty members at the University<br />
of Massachusetts-Amherst. Marcelletti is also<br />
music director of the Cayuga Chamber<br />
Orchestra, a fine ensemble based in Ithaca,<br />
New York. It is a pleasure to hear them play<br />
with such security, sensitivity, and expression.<br />
And Marcelletti does a superb job of holding<br />
this challenging new music together and making<br />
sense of it.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
BIBER: Vesperae Longiores ac Breviores<br />
Yale Schola Cantorum & Collegium Players/<br />
Simon Carrington—Carus 83.348—59:30<br />
This is a commercial reissue of a recording first<br />
released by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music<br />
in 2005. In my earlier review (Jan/Feb 2006), I<br />
did note that this is a modest performance by<br />
an excellent collegiate ensemble but that it<br />
probably does not represent Biber’s practices<br />
at Salzburg Cathedral but a more modest<br />
church. The 24 singers of the Yale Schola Cantorum<br />
sometimes overpower the six string<br />
players (with organ) and there are some blemishes<br />
owing to the vagaries of concert performance.<br />
One thing I did notice on this reissue is<br />
that the ambient audience noise is much less<br />
evident. This is still a significant recording of<br />
these works and deserves the wider distribution<br />
that it will have from Carus.<br />
BREWER<br />
BLOCH, T: Missa Cantate; Sancta Maria;<br />
Cold Song; Christ Hall Blues; Christ Hall<br />
Postlude<br />
Jorg Waschinski, s; Thomas Bloch, instruments;<br />
Jacques Duprez, va; David Coulter, musical saw;<br />
Paderewski Philharmonic/ Fernand Quattrocchi<br />
Naxos 572489—66 minutes<br />
French composer Thomas Bloch (b 1962) studied<br />
at the Paris Conservatory, where he concentrated<br />
on the rare instruments ondes<br />
Martenot, glass harmonica, and cristal<br />
Baschet. As a composer, he was influenced by<br />
the minimalists. And so, here we have minimalist-influenced<br />
music that involves rare<br />
instruments—and male soprano.<br />
I was dubious and ready to dismiss this as<br />
gimmickry, but Thomas Bloch is a good composer<br />
and no slouch when it comes to playing<br />
these odd and very interesting instruments.<br />
His music won me over right away—it’s beautiful<br />
music that you can lose yourself in. The<br />
10-movement, 44-minute Missa Cantate (1999)<br />
is like an amalgam of Pärt (especially in I),<br />
Duruflé, and Fauré. The chord progressions<br />
are heavenly, and male soprano Jorg Waschinski<br />
has a lovely, very high voice. There are no<br />
rare instruments in this work; the Paderewski<br />
Philharmonic accompanies.<br />
The rare instruments figure prominently in<br />
the rest of the pieces. In ‘Sancta Maria’ (1998),<br />
composer Bloch plays glass harmonica, cristal<br />
Baschet, keyboards, and crystal bells while<br />
Jacques Dupriez plays a mournful viola, and<br />
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Waschinski sings four overlapping parts.<br />
Waschinski’s voice has a haunting, ethereal<br />
quality that matches the rare instruments<br />
amazingly well.<br />
‘Cold Song’ (2009) is cristal Baschet and<br />
waterphone with seven tracks of Waschinski<br />
for six mesmerizing minutes. ‘Christ Hall<br />
Blues’ (1990, rev 2005) has a very spooky<br />
Recitativo and Aria, with the eerie sound of<br />
David Coulter’s musical saw along with<br />
Bloch’s cristal Baschet, glass harmonica, bells,<br />
and ondes Martenot. Waschinski sings 12<br />
parts. The album ends with the somber, otherworldly<br />
‘Christ Hall Postlude’ (2008) for crystal<br />
bells, cristal Baschet, and musical saw.<br />
This is a fascinating and very unusual listening<br />
experience. See Bloch’s web site<br />
(www.thomasbloch.net) for videos and information<br />
about these instruments.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
BLOW: Venus & Adonis<br />
Amanda Forsythe (Venus), Tyler Duncan (Adonis),<br />
Mireille Lebal (Cupid), Boston Early Music<br />
Festival/ Paul O’Dette, Stephen Stubbs<br />
CPO 777614—65 minutes<br />
Nowadays, when CD booklets are slipping into<br />
oblivion in favor of notes and lyrics to be<br />
downloaded off the Internet—or worse, no text<br />
at all—I feel compelled to say, first off, that this<br />
is one of the fattest and most satisfying booklets<br />
I’ve seen in a long time, complete with<br />
beautiful cover art.<br />
And, in this case, the adage “you can’t tell a<br />
book by its cover”—or a CD—is proved wrong.<br />
This is a beautiful release in every aspect.<br />
<strong>Record</strong>ings of this charming work have not<br />
been plentiful. For a thorough look at what<br />
was available a few years ago, I recommend<br />
John Barker’s review of the Jacobs reading<br />
(Nov/Dec 1999—it was rereleased in 2008).<br />
The other three that he mentions—under<br />
Anthony Lewis, Anthony Rooley, and Charles<br />
Medlam—were all deleted at the time and still<br />
are, apparently. Two more performances<br />
besides this one are now available for a total of<br />
four: a rendition under Philip Pickett (apparently<br />
recently re-released) and a brand new<br />
recording under Elizabeth Kenny.<br />
It’s a little embarrassing to admit this, but I<br />
like Venus and Adonis better in terms of sheer<br />
listening pleasure than Purcell’s Dido and<br />
Aeneas, which is often mentioned in the same<br />
breath as the opera in whose shadow Venus<br />
and Adonis lies. While both are tragedies, this<br />
work does not have the sinister elements of<br />
Purcell’s; rather, despite its sad ending where<br />
boar-hunting Adonis dies as Venus laments<br />
her immortality, this opera is lighter hearted,<br />
with more humorous elements.<br />
The choice of performers here is, by and<br />
large, superior. The two major players, Venus<br />
and Adonis, are quite youthful, which is fitting<br />
enough. The casting of Cupid remains a problem.<br />
The notes point out (as does Mr Barker in<br />
his review) that when this work was first performed,<br />
Cupid was sung by Lady Mary Tudor,<br />
who was probably no more than 10 years of<br />
age at the time. It’s surprising that a boy chorister<br />
has not been cast in this role. A boy choir<br />
is used here for the little Cupids, and it’s very<br />
effective and funny (especially when they’re<br />
learning their “lessons”).<br />
Overall, though, this is a topnotch production,<br />
and I would not hesitate to recommend it<br />
for a first choice or only one for people who<br />
are less than die-hard collectors.<br />
Rounding out the program is an ode for St<br />
Cecilia’s Day, a dashing piece titled ‘Welcome,<br />
ev’ry Guest’. Also included is a Ground in G<br />
minor (for two violins and continuo) and a<br />
roundelay from John Dryden ‘Chloe found<br />
Amynatas Lying all in Tears’, gorgeously sung<br />
as a male trio by two tenors—Jason McStoots<br />
and Zachary Wilder—and bass-baritone Douglas<br />
Williams.<br />
A collector’s delight and a superior release<br />
in every way.<br />
CRAWFORD<br />
BOISMORTIER: 6 Cello Sonatas; 2 Trio<br />
Sonatas<br />
David Bakamjian, vc; Brooklyn Baroque<br />
Quill 1010—73 minutes<br />
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier bears a certain<br />
resemblance to PDQ Bach since, according to<br />
the listing on this disc, his dates are 1789-1755.<br />
He was actually born in 1689, two years after<br />
Lully died. His contribution to instrumental<br />
music ended up second only to Telemann’s in<br />
volume. At least from a cellist’s point of view,<br />
his output of sonatas is decidedly ambiguous,<br />
since they were published as works for viol or<br />
bassoon as well and have been recorded that<br />
way.<br />
I am acquainted with one other record of<br />
the cello sonatas, by Douglas McNames with<br />
Brandywine Baroque (Plectra 2007, May/June<br />
2008). There are a good many duplications,<br />
and the general interpretations sound valid to<br />
the ear on both discs. McNames is a bit<br />
smoother in articulation where Bakamjian is a<br />
bit livelier, but both seem to take the music<br />
seriously and put it across with a second cello<br />
and usually a harpsichord. Certain movements<br />
are played without keyboard accompaniment.<br />
Bakamjian plays Op. 26:3-5 and Op. 50:1, 2,<br />
and 4 while McNames adds Op. 50:3 and<br />
another called Op. 50 Quarta that I can’t identify.<br />
His program is all cello sonatas, while the<br />
one under review adds the trio sonatas, Op.<br />
37:5 and Op. 50:6. Here we meet a problem,<br />
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since the baroque flute in the Brooklyn<br />
Baroque group plays distinctly flat, particularly<br />
in the slow movements. This tends to spoil<br />
what was otherwise a good cello program.<br />
D MOORE<br />
BOITO: Mefistofele<br />
Ferruccio Furlanetto (Mefistofele), Giuseppe Filianoti<br />
(Faust), Dimitra Theodossiou (Margherita,<br />
Helen), Sonia Zaramella (Marta), Domenico<br />
Ghegghi (Wagner), Monica Minarelli (Pantalis);<br />
Teatro Massimo, Palermo/ Stefano Ranzani<br />
Naxos 660248 [2CD] 2:14<br />
A 2008 theatrical performance, this release has<br />
all the attendant pros and cons. The pros are<br />
some good singing, especially by the three<br />
leads. Filianoti’s Faust has both power and<br />
sensitivity. It’s a pleasure to hear this role sung<br />
rather than belted out. Furlanetto’s Mefistofele<br />
is vigorously sung and acted, though I do wish<br />
he’d indulged the tradition of trying to whistle<br />
down El Supremo in the closing pages.<br />
True, the music stacks the deck against<br />
Mefistofeles—the Angelics sing and Faust<br />
caves—but a real Adversary should go down<br />
fighting. Another asset is good cast interaction,<br />
which makes the garden scene coherent and<br />
Theodossiou in the prison scene deeply touching.<br />
The cons include a lot of stage clatter and<br />
applause after every scene, plus some ragged<br />
ensemble. In the difficult children’s choruses,<br />
the youngsters are audibly struggling. The<br />
orchestral accompaniment is routine, with<br />
poor brass tone quality and slack phrasing.<br />
The score does mark some of their fanfares<br />
“shrilly”, but they’re too flaccid even for that.<br />
This opera needs great brasses as much as<br />
Berlioz or Mahler, whose work it often matches<br />
in grandeur.<br />
The sound is adequate, but lacks the element<br />
of space. In the Prologue, e.g., far older<br />
recordings have been more effective conveying<br />
the antiphonal fanfares echoing across the<br />
heavens. The shorter playing time is owing to a<br />
few small cuts. There’s extensive cuing, but<br />
you’ll have to go to www.naxos.com/libretto/660248htm<br />
for a complete libretto, in Italian<br />
only.<br />
O’CONNOR<br />
BOWEN: Miniature Suite; see DALE<br />
BRAHMS: Clarinet Quintet;<br />
WEBERN: Quartet, op 22<br />
Marty Krystall, cl, sax; Richard Stoltzman, cl;<br />
Peter Serkin, p; Ida Kavafian; Cooker Quartet<br />
Vivace 8802—58 minutes<br />
(M Krystall, 1748 Roosevelt Ave, LA CA 90006)<br />
ingly dissimilar composers actually have in<br />
common. In reality, though, this is more of a<br />
trip to the attic of noted Los Angeles reed player<br />
Marty Krystall. The Webern Quartet, Op. 22<br />
for violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone, and piano<br />
was recorded in concert in 1974 with members<br />
of TASHI; and the Brahms Clarinet Quintet,<br />
Op. 115 was recorded in 2000 with the Cooker<br />
Quartet.<br />
In between the headliners are three improvisations<br />
for tenor saxophone recorded in 1978<br />
with TASHI pianist Peter Serkin. Krystall<br />
explains that the improvisations originated in<br />
a 1977 TASHI tour of the East Coast and that<br />
they were inspired by Stravinsky’s Three Pieces<br />
for Clarinet Solo (1919) and the hunchbacked<br />
character Igor in the 1931 Frankenstein film. A<br />
year later, Serkin invited Krystall to Cal Arts to<br />
record them. Serkin placed a portable cassette<br />
recorder on a piano and then opened the<br />
dampers on the instrument to create overtones<br />
and an echo effect. In II and III Serkin<br />
joins in on the keyboard, adding subtle commentary.<br />
The performances are spirited but wildly<br />
uneven. The Webern has plenty of postromantic<br />
angst, but the woodwind playing<br />
often lacks clarity; and the tracks suffer from<br />
manipulation, perhaps to enhance the ensemble’s<br />
extremes in dynamics. The improvisations<br />
may reflect the Third Stream mentality<br />
popular at the time, fusing jazz elements with<br />
abstract avant-garde language. Whatever the<br />
case, they are rarely inspiring; and while the<br />
liner notes explain the amateur recording, the<br />
performance comes across as little more than<br />
an esoteric college student jamming on his<br />
Conn saxophone in an empty second-rate<br />
recital hall.<br />
The Brahms is more professional, even if it<br />
doesn’t belong in the same league as more<br />
renowned performers. Krystall and the Cooker<br />
Quartet play with pleasant timbres, sincere<br />
phrasing and color, and good chamber awareness,<br />
and their product would be justly<br />
applauded at a Sunday afternoon church concert.<br />
Even so, Krystall needs more control and<br />
refinement, especially at loud volumes and in<br />
his high register. His articulation is curiously<br />
breathy and ineffective, as if he’s afraid to<br />
touch the reed with his tongue, and his erratic<br />
intonation often creates problems. The quartet<br />
could use a bigger and richer romantic sound;<br />
their effort comes across as more appropriate<br />
for early Haydn, and if they ventured into the<br />
19th Century, they might solve some of the<br />
more pressing balance questions.<br />
HANUDEL<br />
The pairing of Brahms and Webern is a clever<br />
one, inviting a discussion of what these seem-<br />
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BRAHMS: Quartet 1;<br />
SCHOENBERG: Transfigured Night<br />
Amsterdam Sinfonietta/ Candida Thompson<br />
Channel 30411 [SACD] 64 minutes<br />
Pairing these works makes sense. Not only was<br />
Schoenberg a lifelong Brahms admirer, but his<br />
article ‘Brahms the Progressive’—still one of<br />
the best ever written on that composer—uses<br />
examples from this quartet to support his case.<br />
Even devoted Brahms fans like Malcolm Mac-<br />
Donald regard the textures in his Quartet 1 as<br />
dense. Whether or not you agree, this arrangement<br />
by bassist Marijn van Prooijn is a treat<br />
for the ear and the intellect. Partly it’s the playing<br />
of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, but the<br />
sheer beauty of sound and wealth of detail it<br />
illuminates are a revelation.<br />
Arnold Schoenberg built expression into<br />
his music via dynamics, phrasing, and voicing.<br />
In Pierrot Lunaire he cautioned against pumping<br />
his music up, noting that such addition<br />
often ends in subtraction. In Transfigured<br />
Night, the emotional content is so intense that<br />
it can easily become hysteria. Thus, Thompson’s<br />
reading, which avoids just that, is deeply<br />
satisfying, with good pacing and balances. The<br />
recorded sound is as fine as the playing.<br />
O’CONNOR<br />
BRAHMS: Serenade 1;<br />
FARRENC: Nonet in E-flat<br />
Minerva Chamber Ensemble/ Kevin Geraldi<br />
Centaur 3092—68 minutes<br />
Brahms wrote his first serenade in the late<br />
1850s for the court of Lippe-Detmold. The first<br />
version was a nonet for winds and strings,<br />
which Brahms destroyed after making later<br />
versions for orchestra. This nonet, though, was<br />
performed in Hamburg in 1859, probably (the<br />
notes tell us) in five movements; the first<br />
scherzo was added later. On this rather sketchy<br />
evidence Alan Boustead has reconstructed the<br />
piece as a five-movement nonet (flute, two<br />
clarinets, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello,<br />
and bass). We do not know how closely this<br />
conforms to Brahms’s original conception, but<br />
Boustead’s work is very convincing, even if it<br />
seems a little uncharacteristic for Brahms (who<br />
didn’t leave us pieces mixing strings and winds<br />
like this). Larger chamber ensembles will want<br />
to get their hands on this fine arrangement.<br />
Louise Farrenc (1804-75) through the influence<br />
of Hummel had knowledge of the chamber<br />
music of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.<br />
She wrote extensively for piano (her instrument)<br />
as well as three symphonies and several<br />
well-regarded chamber works. Her Nonet was<br />
written in 1849 and achieved some renown. It<br />
is a quite well constructed piece with good thematic<br />
material and an imaginative use of the<br />
nine instruments. The first movement has particularly<br />
fine interplay among the voices, while<br />
the succeeding sections are more homophonic<br />
and more typical of romantic fare.<br />
Both pieces are beautifully done by the<br />
Minerva Ensemble, which draws most of its<br />
members from the University of North Carolina<br />
at Greensboro. Congratulations to all for<br />
bringing two seldom heard works to light in<br />
such fine performances.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
BRAHMS: Songs, Volume 2<br />
Christine Schäfer, s; Graham Johnson<br />
Hyperion 33122—76 minutes<br />
As in previous Graham Johnson productions,<br />
this contains a broad spectrum of the composer’s<br />
works. They span many decades and<br />
include many songs that you probably won’t<br />
know (or in my case don’t remember!). 33 in<br />
all, they include the five short Ophelia songs<br />
(WoO22) and six Mädchenlieder, drawn from<br />
four opus numbers. The recital closes with six<br />
songs from the Deutsche Volkslieder.<br />
The chief reason to buy this recording—<br />
and I would certainly encourage you to do<br />
so!—is the perceptive, informative liner notes<br />
by Johnson. He takes song poetry seriously<br />
and finds connections to the music that illuminate<br />
every piece and take you ever deeper into<br />
Brahms’s world. Not every piece will yield up<br />
its beauties on first hearing, but Johnson will<br />
lead you quickly to greater understanding and<br />
appreciation.<br />
Christine Schäfer sings well, but I wished<br />
after a time for more color and differentiation<br />
among the songs. It’s a lovely voice, but not so<br />
beautiful (as with Elly Ameling) that you don’t<br />
care if everything sounds the same! Johnson,<br />
as you would expect, is an expert partner. My<br />
complaints aside, if interested in lesser-known<br />
Brahms songs, you will find treasures here.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
BRAHMS: Symphonies, all<br />
Netherlands Philharmonic; Radio Philharmonic/<br />
Jaap van Zweden<br />
Brilliant 94074 [3CD] 2:41<br />
with Haydn Variations & Tragic Overture<br />
Vienna Philharmonic/ Carlo Maria Giulini<br />
Newton 8802063 [4CD] 3:43<br />
with Alto Rhapsody & Haydn Variations<br />
Berlin Symphony; Berlin Radio Chorus; Annette<br />
Markert<br />
Profil 11019 [4CD] 3:31<br />
Giulini was never a man in a hurry, either on<br />
the podium or in his career. As a young violist<br />
in the St Cecilia Academy Orchestra before<br />
WW II, he played under Bruno Walter, Wilhelm<br />
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Furtwangler, Fritz Reiner, Pierre Monteux,<br />
Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Victor de Sabata,<br />
and Klemperer, not to mention plenty of local<br />
Italian <strong>conductor</strong>s. He didn’t like the dictatorial<br />
ones but loved and respected Walter, the<br />
maestro whose leadership style his own<br />
mature style most resembled. After the War, he<br />
led opera at La Scala and Covent Garden,<br />
made a debut with the Chicago Symphony in<br />
1955 that led to a highly productive 25-year<br />
relationship, made his famous EMI recordings<br />
with the Philharmonia Orchestra, gave up<br />
opera entirely after the late 1960s because he<br />
detested opera house politics, and—rather a<br />
surprise to many—accepted the music directorship<br />
of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in<br />
1978. Despite a schedule that was more akin to<br />
a principal guest <strong>conductor</strong> and exemption<br />
from administrative duties (including fundraising<br />
schmoozing), he left the LA post in<br />
1984 after his wife became ill. He never came<br />
back to the US and operated strictly as a guest<br />
<strong>conductor</strong> in Europe, not wanting to travel<br />
more than a day or two away from his wife.<br />
Fortunately, he made recordings for DG with<br />
the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Concertgebouw<br />
Orchestra, and an ensemble<br />
pulled from the ranks of the La Scala opera<br />
house orchestra.<br />
Although Giulini could muster plenty of<br />
fire when needed—think of the Dvorak 7th<br />
with the Chicago Symphony or Verdi’s Don<br />
Carlo—his performances often showed an otherworldly<br />
serenity and spiritual purity. They<br />
also became increasingly slower, as in these,<br />
set down from 1989 to 1991. Elderly <strong>conductor</strong>s<br />
seem to take two tacks: the Toscanini<br />
approach is to whip up the tempos and play<br />
everything faster, to show that old age isn’t<br />
slowing him down; the Klemperer approach<br />
seemed to be to slow everything down, to not<br />
want to let go of a note because he was afraid<br />
he may play it again.<br />
Where such pacing from an ordinary <strong>conductor</strong><br />
would lead to a deadly dull listening<br />
experience, Giulini keeps the line clear, the<br />
underlying pulse of the music strong while he<br />
revels in the remarkable inner detail of Brahms’s<br />
scores. I’m not saying that sometimes he<br />
doesn’t try the patience, but on balance one<br />
walks away from these performances consistently<br />
revitalized and refreshed. I’m not suggesting<br />
the Giulini Approach is the best for<br />
Brahms, but I dare a true lover of this music to<br />
walk away unmoved.<br />
Symphonies 1 and 4 can handle a massive,<br />
heavy-duty approach, as can, perhaps, the<br />
nostalgic II of No 2. It works less well in III and<br />
the sunny, carefree IV of 2, or in 3, which can<br />
easily bog down into a tedious slog of thick<br />
textures and meandering pacing—as here.<br />
Things perk up a bit in the finale, but not<br />
enough. Some of this disappointment is<br />
assuaged by the Haydn Variations that fill out<br />
the program. Giulini imparts a warm, magisterial<br />
serenity to the initial statement of the original<br />
wind partita theme, lovingly traverses<br />
each variation, and builds to a grand, powerful<br />
finale.<br />
Giulini recorded the First about a decade<br />
earlier with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the<br />
LA Phil is not in the VPO’s class, but the performance<br />
has more energy and the old fire of the<br />
Chicago Giulini, so I prefer it. He also recorded<br />
Symphony 2 in Los Angeles; I prefer the<br />
warmer, more genial, more gemutlich tone of<br />
the Vienna Phil.<br />
His Brahms 4 with the Chicago Symphony<br />
from 1969 was hardly a house afire either, but<br />
the extra edge to the CSO’s sound gives the<br />
performance an urgency and drama lacking<br />
here. Still, I can think of few <strong>conductor</strong>s this<br />
side of Celibidache who could play the finale<br />
as slowly, yet with such devastating effect, as<br />
Giulini does here. The Tragic Overture is not as<br />
exciting as the performance he led in Los<br />
Angeles a decade earlier, yet the <strong>conductor</strong> still<br />
balances weight with urgency.<br />
The Vienna Philharmonic has the perfect<br />
sound for Giulini’s interpretations: rich, velvety,<br />
unstressed, brass not overwhelming<br />
strings; and DG’s all-digital sound from the Big<br />
Hall of the Musikverein is superb. The high<br />
point of Giulini’s sunset years will continue to<br />
be his Bruckner 8 with this orchestra and his<br />
devastating Beethoven Ninth with the Berlin<br />
Phil. Newton makes exploring this Brahms set<br />
more affordable than it was originally: it’s selling<br />
for about 20 bucks.<br />
In contrast, Jaap van Zweden may not be a<br />
young man in a hurry, but he does move his<br />
Brahms along a lot more expeditiously than<br />
Giulini. These are straightforward, mainstream<br />
performances, professional, polished, well<br />
played, and very well recorded. Although the<br />
two orchestras may not be in the class of the<br />
Concertgebouw, they do play satisfyingly well.<br />
This <strong>conductor</strong> knows how to balance the<br />
accelerator and the brake, letting us dally to<br />
see the important sights, yet getting us to our<br />
destination without lollygagging or snapping<br />
our necks with unexpected acceleration. It’s<br />
Brahms you can get from any one of about<br />
four dozen other recordings. Nevertheless,<br />
these are “baseline” accounts that would be<br />
nice to turn to when you just want to hear the<br />
music without fussing or <strong>conductor</strong>ial interpretation.<br />
It’s OK, but does one really need this<br />
set when Giulini, Walter, Szell, Karajan, Furtwangler,<br />
Toscanini—how many other great<br />
Brahmsians can I name off the top of my<br />
head?—are readily available.<br />
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Now for Sanderling. Oh my. His actual timings<br />
run slightly faster, but he seems SO much<br />
slower—and duller—than Giulini. The Berlin<br />
Symphony, even when it is recorded in the<br />
Berlin Philharmonic’s recording venue, the<br />
Jesus-Christuskirche, will not be mistaken for<br />
the Vienna Philharmonic. These recordings<br />
were laid down in 1990, so they’re triple-D<br />
commercial productions. Sanderling was in his<br />
late 70s at the time (in fact, one year shy of his<br />
100th birthday, he is still alive, though he<br />
retired from the podium in the early 2000s). He<br />
was a <strong>conductor</strong> of the Giulini generation,<br />
whose life experience reached back to the days<br />
when the great romantic era <strong>conductor</strong>s were<br />
still active (he shared the <strong>conductor</strong>ship of the<br />
Leningrad Philharmonic with Mravinsky for<br />
some years). So one might reasonably hope for<br />
some insights into the music brought on by a<br />
direct line to Brahms’s own era.<br />
Not the case, I’m afraid.<br />
These are slow, tired performances, indifferently<br />
played and murkily recorded. Sanderling<br />
has his cult following among record collectors;<br />
they should not be deterred by my lack<br />
of enthusiasm. He tends to gloss over detail—<br />
maybe not helped by the somewhat distant<br />
recording acoustic—and the Berlin Symphony<br />
can’t dazzle us with a glorious blanket of luscious<br />
sound. Symphony 1 is mostly heavy and<br />
cumbersome; 2 lacks Mozartean free spirits,<br />
lyrical effusion, and lilt. No 3? No dice. The<br />
Fourth is a heavy, hard-going, rough account.<br />
The Alto Rhapsody makes a nice interlude, well<br />
sung by Annette Markert, ably supported by<br />
the gentlemen of the radio chorus, but that’s<br />
not a lot to justify a 4-disc set. It’s also a bit<br />
heavy, murky, and Wagnerian—I never made<br />
the spiritual connection between this piece<br />
and the Norns from Gotterdammerung.<br />
For mainstream listeners, either of the<br />
other two sets is a better choice.<br />
HANSEN<br />
BRAHMS: Symphony 1;<br />
ELGAR: Enigma Variations<br />
BBC Symphony/ Adrian Boult<br />
ICA 5019—78 minutes<br />
Sir Adrian Boult is often described as sound,<br />
correct, dedicated, but finally uninspired or<br />
even terminally boring. This release presents<br />
evidence that simultaneously supports and<br />
refutes this suggestion. The plusses are impeccable<br />
orchestral work by the BBC orchestra,<br />
vintage 1971 for Elgar and 1974 for Brahms,<br />
and stereo sound that is undistorted, well balanced,<br />
and reasonably detailed—quite good<br />
by the standards of its time, though not fully<br />
up to current levels.<br />
As to interpretation, the Brahms is steady,<br />
correct in tempos and shaping of phrases and<br />
longer paragraphs, but lacking in conviction<br />
and individuality. It is just a little sleepy and<br />
boring. Karl Böhm and John Barbirolli (both<br />
with the VPO, on DG and EMI) at slower tempos<br />
manage to invest the work with a sense of<br />
progression, integrity, and overwhelming conviction<br />
and power altogether missing in<br />
Boult’s reading. Ansermet’s performance on<br />
Decca Eloquence, obviously inspired by Weingartner,<br />
is also very good. Finally, Boult himself,<br />
in a 1973 EMI recording, gives a much<br />
more tightly structured and convincing performance<br />
than this one.<br />
The Elgar Enigma is a different story altogether.<br />
It is much more concise and tightly<br />
organized than the soggy Brahms. The tempos<br />
vary obviously from one episode to another,<br />
but are appropriate in all events. The recorded<br />
sound is brighter and more detailed than in<br />
the Brahms. Finally, the sound is enhanced by<br />
the pedal notes of the organ—played by G<br />
Thalben Ball—which contribute mightily to a<br />
thunderous conclusion, particularly if you<br />
employ a good subwoofer. I really can’t think<br />
of a more thrilling performance. In the end,<br />
this release earns its price on the merits of the<br />
Elgar alone.<br />
MCKELVEY<br />
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto;<br />
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto<br />
Henryk Szeryng; Concertgebouw Orchestra/<br />
Bernard Haitink<br />
Newton 8802053—70 minutes<br />
Although one of the giants of the last century,<br />
Szeryng (1918-88) did not fit the typical role of<br />
virtuoso. His playing, rather, was thoughtful<br />
and musical with a minimum of flashiness.<br />
The Brahms, recorded in 1973, bears out this<br />
generalization. The tempos are on the slow<br />
side, and the spirit is more contemplative than<br />
confrontational. The first movement seems<br />
constrained in emotional range, though the<br />
coda after the cadenza (Joachim’s) is very nice.<br />
And the finale sounds measured and needs a<br />
sense of gypsy abandon. The slow movement,<br />
though, is lovely and touching.<br />
The Mendelssohn, recorded in 1976, is<br />
taken at a relaxed pace, and lots of subtle<br />
detail comes through. A performance like this<br />
will remind you of what an incredibly beautiful<br />
piece this is, warm and romantic. It is compromised,<br />
though, by Szeryng’s sometimes<br />
unsteady tone and thin sound, particularly in<br />
the first movement. II is quite lovely, but the<br />
finale could use more energy (and a slightly<br />
faster tempo).<br />
General listeners should pass it by.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
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BRUBECK, C: Danza del Soul;<br />
GANDOLFI: Line Drawings;<br />
FOSS: Central Park Reel<br />
Wendy Putnam, v; Owen Young, vc; Lawrence<br />
Wolfe, db; Thomas Martin, cl; Vylas Baksys, p;<br />
Daniel Bauch, perc—Reference 122—64 minutes<br />
This is perhaps the most amusing release I’ve<br />
heard this month. It begins with Dave<br />
Brubeck’s talented son Chris (b 1952) in a halfhour<br />
work that opens like Haydn’s Farewell<br />
Symphony in reverse, in a movement called<br />
Introductions and Flirtations where all of the<br />
players listed above gradually arrive on stage,<br />
meet and interact musically with wit and variety.<br />
Then we have The Loneliness of Secrets, a<br />
slow movement, followed by Celebracion de<br />
Vida, a jazzy event to close. It is an imaginative<br />
and very positive composition, played with<br />
verve and recorded with clarity.<br />
Michael Gandolfi (b 1956) then offers a<br />
series of five pieces for violin, clarinet, and<br />
piano written in the spirit of Picasso. Perhaps<br />
it is his proud announcement that he wrote<br />
each one in less than three days, but I find<br />
them a bit less engrossing than Brubeck;<br />
though undeniably amusing and enjoyable,<br />
there’s a bit more repetition sometimes than<br />
my attention span can encompass, well played<br />
though they are.<br />
The program closes with Lukas Foss’s reel<br />
for violin and piano. This amusing piece really<br />
puts Putnam and Baksys through their jazz<br />
paces. This is a beautifully-played, up-mood<br />
program with pleasantly jazzy overtones.<br />
D MOORE<br />
BRUCH: Violin Concerto 1; Romance;<br />
String Quintet<br />
Vadim Gluzman, Sandis Steinbergs, v; Maxim<br />
Rysanov, Ilze Klava, va; Reinis Birznieks, vc;<br />
Bergen Philharmonic/ Andrew Litton<br />
BIS 1852 [SACD] 58 minutes<br />
Gluzman plays beautifully in the Violin Concerto.<br />
The problem here is the interpretation.<br />
In a work filled with cadences, both he and Litton<br />
never miss an opportunity for a cadential<br />
retard. Tempos change constantly but don’t<br />
relate to one another. Litton completely misses<br />
the charging, ecstatic build of the big orchestral<br />
passage in the first movement as he turns<br />
it into a smarmy, overblown series of<br />
chopped-up phrases. Tempos are all over the<br />
place in II as well. In III Gluzman can’t quite<br />
articulate the triplet on the second beat followed<br />
by four eighth notes that ends the thematic<br />
opening phrase, and Litton’s introduction<br />
to the second theme is again portentous<br />
rather than soaringly lyrical. The same treatment<br />
is given to the Romance, taken slower<br />
than the marked tempo of 69 beats per<br />
minute. It is also very frontal and forte for a<br />
“romance”. The engineering is warm and balanced.<br />
Only the String Quintet is of interest here.<br />
It’s a well-written work in four movements<br />
with memorable melodies, solid structure, and<br />
superb writing for strings. In the opening<br />
introduction, I feared the players were going to<br />
turn the work into yet another formless,<br />
smarmy mess, but not so. Once they hit the<br />
main body of I, forward movement in a solid<br />
structure reigned. Only in III, a great Adagio<br />
with an extremely wide melodic range, do they<br />
fail to catch the rapture.<br />
The sound in the Quintet, recorded in Germany,<br />
has more resonance than the orchestral<br />
works do. While the second violin is hard to<br />
hear sometimes, the interlacing of the players<br />
comes across very well, and the passages<br />
where Gluzman plays the melody against the<br />
other four players are extremely effective.<br />
There isn’t a word in the liner notes on the<br />
Quintet’s players. Gluzman, of course, is the<br />
lead violinist; Ilze Klava is listed on the Bergen<br />
Philharmonic’s website as principal violist.<br />
FRENCH<br />
BUCHOLTZ: Piano Pieces<br />
Marco Kraus—CPO 777635—56 minutes<br />
Helen Buchholtz was an early 20th Century<br />
composer from Luxembourg, In reading the<br />
essay, I was struck by one particular word used<br />
to describe her piano sonatas. The word is<br />
“polished”. Here we have some very polished<br />
piano works. They are well composed and<br />
developed appropriately. We are not dealing<br />
with an amateur, but yet I leave with very little.<br />
The Ballade is certainly the best work, and<br />
the Barcarolle is also perceptive; it is reminiscent<br />
of Schumann. Sometimes this music is<br />
dark and deals with what I interpret as themes<br />
of solitude, which matches her personal life<br />
according to the essay. Marco Kraus can be too<br />
sentimental with this material, but overall<br />
gives a balanced performance.<br />
I am not captivated by this music, but I<br />
also do not have anything to say that is particularly<br />
dismissive. I am left with a very unsettling<br />
combination of contentment and apathy—and<br />
I do not feel compelled to listen<br />
again.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
BUSONI: Bach Transcriptions 2<br />
Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue; Prelude & Fugue in<br />
E-flat (St Anne); 6 Choral Preludes; Little Prelude<br />
& Fugue in D<br />
Maurizio Baglini, p—Tudor 7156—65 minutes<br />
Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) wrote three<br />
times as much original music as transcriptions,<br />
but is perhaps still best remembered for<br />
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his arrangements and editions of Bach. With<br />
Bruno Mugellini and Egon Petri he edited 25<br />
volumes of Bach’s keyboard music and, over a<br />
30-year period, published seven volumes of<br />
Arrangements, Transcriptions, and Free Transcriptions.<br />
Baglini recorded Volume 1 of this<br />
series in 2006 (Tudor 7139, Mar/Apr 2007).<br />
That was favorably reviewed in these pages,<br />
and I regularly listen to it. It was well worth the<br />
five-year wait for Volume 2. To the complete<br />
concert transcriptions of Bach, this disc adds<br />
one of Busoni’s most interesting editorial<br />
efforts, the Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue. I<br />
found it very enlightening to compare my<br />
modern, scholarly edition of this masterpiece<br />
to the Busoni edition performed here. While<br />
there is little difference in the notation of the<br />
Fugue, the Fantasy has a number of sections<br />
that do not sound like the same piece.<br />
Since keyboard players get very little guidance<br />
from Bach’s manuscripts in terms of<br />
phrasing or dynamics, there are multitudinous<br />
editions with vastly different approaches to the<br />
music. Busoni’s musical intellect makes his<br />
editions worth performance and analysis. In<br />
his essay, Wert der Bearbeitung (The of<br />
Arrangements, 1910), Busoni states “Every<br />
notation is already a transcription of an<br />
abstract thought. As soon as the pen takes<br />
over, the thought loses its original shape.”<br />
Even though historically accurate performance<br />
practice has been in the forefront of both<br />
teaching and playing of Bach in the past few<br />
decades, Busoni’s 100-year-old approach can<br />
now be viewed as just another historical performance<br />
practice. We rely on the pianism of<br />
Baglini to faithfully follow all of the markings,<br />
additions of notes, realization of ornaments,<br />
altering of harmonies that Busoni did.<br />
Through these exceptional performances, we<br />
can experience another era of pianistic performance.<br />
Baglini (b. 1975) has studied with both<br />
Lazar Berman and Maurizio Pollini and is one<br />
of the finest young pianists before the public<br />
today. He has all the musicianship and technical<br />
expertise to be logically considered an Italian<br />
pianist in the line that goes back through<br />
Pollini and Michelangeli to Busoni. The massive<br />
sonorities called for by Busoni are never<br />
harsh. The intricate voices, so often doubled at<br />
the octave, still are shaped and phrased with<br />
all the skill one might expect of a great organist<br />
playing single notes. Special mention should<br />
be made of the excellent booklet notes and the<br />
spectacular sound of the Fazioli concert grand,<br />
recorded at the Fazioli Concert Hall. Taken all<br />
together, this is an essential release, and<br />
should be enjoyed in tandem with the earlier<br />
volume.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
BUSONI: Liszt Transcriptions<br />
Paganini Etudes; Hungarian Rhapsody 19;<br />
Mephisto Waltz; Fantasy & Fugue on Ad Nos, ad<br />
Salutarum Undam<br />
Sandro Ivo Bartoli, p<br />
Brilliant 94200—79 minutes<br />
It is ironic that Liszt, who in the course of his<br />
career made hundreds of transcriptions and<br />
paraphrases, would eventually have his own<br />
original compositions subjected to the same<br />
treatment. But how strange it is—how presumptuous,<br />
really—for the upstart Busoni to<br />
concentrate his efforts on rewriting not the<br />
elder master’s tone poems, but his solo piano<br />
pieces! This is not the first time I’ve heard the<br />
arguments supporting this misguided enterprise.<br />
Bartoli rehearses several of them in his<br />
program notes, claiming that new lines are<br />
revealed and that novel nuances are instilled<br />
when the pieces are viewed through Busoni’s<br />
eyes. I accept only that these recompositions<br />
may have fit Busoni’s technique better. Musically,<br />
the newer versions always sound doctored.<br />
That said, it is impossible not to notice in<br />
spots how well Bartoli plays. These are extremely<br />
complicated and difficult works—<br />
essentially “showpieces squared” that two virtuosos<br />
designed for their own use—and they<br />
are delivered with aplomb. The playing is light,<br />
brisk, fiery, and clean. The second etude is a<br />
dazzling gem, full of humor. Those flourishes<br />
are perfection! The fourth, fifth, and sixth ones<br />
are also strong, with ample opportunity for<br />
him to show off his crisp octave work and<br />
smooth finger technique. The playing is glassy,<br />
but backed up with power: clearly this performer<br />
is not averse to digging deeply into the<br />
keys.<br />
Aside from the etudes, the other track<br />
worth hearing is the fantasy and fugue on<br />
Meyerbeer’s chorale. Since it started out as an<br />
organ work, I have no objection to hearing it<br />
translated to piano. Bartoli does a fine job with<br />
it, playing it straight and unromantically. But<br />
the music still overwhelms us with its power<br />
by virtue of its contrapuntal thickness and volume.<br />
I rank the Hungarian Rhapsody third. He<br />
handles the extroverted passages well, but he<br />
is not very adept at building suspense in the<br />
recitative passages. In terms of pacing, it feels<br />
like the performance is all business. Each<br />
episode and transition is well constructed, but<br />
none feels particularly personable, and they<br />
rush by too quickly.<br />
Despite the grace of a few bright spots, I<br />
cannot endorse this release. The sound quality<br />
and acoustics are poor, making the piano<br />
sound tinny and clunky. There is also the origi-<br />
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nal concern that not one of these pieces really<br />
is that great. I’ve always disliked Busoni’s transcription<br />
of Mephisto, for instance, and here it<br />
goes over once more like a lead-filled balloon.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
CAGE: Credo In US; Imaginary Landscapes<br />
Percussion Group Cincinnati<br />
Mode 229—60 minutes<br />
Cage made his first real mark as a composer of<br />
percussion music (his Clarinet Sonata<br />
notwithstanding). Percussion, for Cage, meant<br />
sounds that hadn’t been domesticated by<br />
equal-tempered pitch space; soon afterward<br />
electronic sounds began to appeal to him for<br />
the same reason. This release collects all five of<br />
the Imaginary Landscape series and so gives a<br />
wonderful sense of Cage’s music from around<br />
1940 to 1952, when he turned to chance composition.<br />
It also claims to be the first recording<br />
to employ, in the first Landscape, the actual<br />
test-tone recordings and variable-speed<br />
turntables the work was composed for.<br />
Steve Reich, John Rockwell, and many others<br />
hold that Cage’s percussion music remains<br />
his best music. I find an early piece like Credo<br />
in US (for percussion, piano, and a performer<br />
equipped either with a radio or phonograph<br />
recordings of classical music) charming but<br />
comparatively unremarkable. It’s fun to play,<br />
though, and the Percussion Group Cincinnati<br />
likes it so much that they include two performances<br />
(one with a single recording of<br />
Shostakovich 5 under Bernstein, the other with<br />
vintage recordings including Mengelberg’s<br />
Beethoven Eroica). As for the second and third<br />
Landscapes, both influenced by Cage’s distress<br />
over World War II, the pieces are sonically<br />
attractive but musically thin. (Cage probably<br />
sensed this, too, since the bulk of his music<br />
from the 1940s is very different in character.)<br />
There are also two realizations of Imaginary<br />
Landscape No. 5, where chance operations<br />
determine when and how long various excerpts<br />
from recordings will appear (the piece<br />
was originally used for a dance by Jean Erdmann).<br />
The first realization uses vintage jazz<br />
recordings; the second Cage compositions<br />
including String Quartet in Four Parts, Roaratorio,<br />
Apartment House 1776, and Credo in US.<br />
The performances are stunning, the sound<br />
fantastic, and the liner notes informative and<br />
thought-provoking.<br />
HASKINS<br />
CALDARA: La Conversione di Clodoveo Re<br />
di Francia<br />
Allyson McHardy (Clodoveo), Nathalie Paulin<br />
(Clotilde), Suzie LeBlanc (San Remigio), Matthew<br />
White (Uberto); Le Nouvel Opera/ Alexander<br />
Weimann—ATMA 2505 [2CD] 93 minutes<br />
First performed in Rome in 1715, this oratorio<br />
tells of the pagan Clodoveo, King of the Franks.<br />
Over the years his Christian wife, Clotilde, has<br />
told her husband that hers is the only true<br />
God, but he has not understood the truth. The<br />
King departs for war, and on news of the<br />
army’s defeat, Clotilde prays for Clodoveo’s<br />
conversion yet fears his death. Having survived<br />
the fight, and rallying his scattered and depleted<br />
warriors, the King converts and is victorious.<br />
Reunited, the couple celebrates Clodoveo’s<br />
baptism and offers thanksgiving to God.<br />
Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) captures the<br />
dual love theme—mortal and divine adoration<br />
intermingle in the story—with soaring melodies,<br />
animated dialog, and florid arias. Unusual<br />
scoring, such as using only violin in unison<br />
with the solo voice for the hero’s aria ‘Come<br />
Cerva Che Ferita’ (Like A Wounded Doe),<br />
points out key moments in the tale.<br />
The Nouvel Opera ensemble plays with<br />
fine rhythmic balance and well-judged tempos:<br />
violins imitate trumpets’ call to battle;<br />
recitatives and dialog are underlined effectively<br />
with varying instruments; drama and movement<br />
are well sustained. The singers convey<br />
many emotions: San Remigio’s fervent and<br />
beautiful triple-meter aria ‘Se Mesta L’Alma’<br />
on the contrasts between the hope-less and<br />
hope-filled soul, and Clodoveo’s earnest declaration<br />
to spill blood on the battlefield to compensate<br />
for Clotilde’s tears in ‘Rasserenatevi’<br />
(with an inventive rippling accompaniment)<br />
are just two examples.<br />
Especially towards the end of the oratorio,<br />
a lack of forward motion weakens the conviction<br />
of the interpretation. Part of this is that<br />
the ensemble, however fine, isn’t quite large<br />
enough. Even three or four more players (say,<br />
two more violins, one cello, a second wind<br />
player) would be a much better match to the<br />
scale of the music and would allow the singers<br />
to sing out more. I kept increasing the volume<br />
to compensate, but that didn’t help.<br />
Notes, texts, translations. The Caldara<br />
discography is not large, and this is a welcome<br />
addition.<br />
C MOORE<br />
CAPRICORNUS: Taffel-Lustmusic<br />
I Capricorni; Cantobaleno Quartet<br />
Cornetto 10029—70 minutes<br />
We get a glimpse of Samuel Capricornus’s<br />
genius on this recording of works from the<br />
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1671 collection titled Continuation der Neuen<br />
Wohl Angestimmten Taffel-Lustmusic. Doris<br />
Blaich makes clear in her notes that scholars<br />
are not entirely certain of its authenticity, suggesting<br />
that Capricornus’s authorship has<br />
been established on circumstantial evidence.<br />
For example, the collection of Taffel-Lustmusic<br />
takes its name from a famous building in<br />
Stuttgart known as the “Neue Lusthaus”.<br />
Capricornus served as Kapellmeister to the<br />
Württemberg court in Stuttgart, and the music<br />
reflects typical aspects of Capricornus’s style.<br />
In his time, Capricornus’s music was<br />
beloved in nearly every corner of Europe, as<br />
many publications and extant manuscripts<br />
indicate. Yet, when one considers the great<br />
German composers of the 17th Century, I<br />
doubt whether anyone now would put Capricornus<br />
in the same class as, say, Heinrich<br />
Schütz. On the basis of what we hear on this<br />
release, I would say that his modern reputation<br />
as a kleinmeister is not entirely warranted.<br />
The secular vocal pieces in Latin and German<br />
do sound a bit stodgy and lack some of<br />
Schütz’s talent for expression. The singers<br />
sound lovely, but they haven’t got as much to<br />
work with as the players. The string sonatas,<br />
on the other hand, are inspired examples of<br />
dissonant expression and virtuosic decoration.<br />
Notes and texts are in English.<br />
LOEWEN<br />
second concerto the most, where their playing<br />
is free and unapologetic, wonderfully energetic<br />
and engaged.<br />
What I find most interesting about the<br />
string quartet arrangement of these pieces is<br />
the spirit of Schubert that suddenly becomes<br />
apparent, especially in the second concerto. It<br />
might be that the intimacy of a quartet underlines<br />
the rhetoric of the second concerto more<br />
effectively than an orchestra. The concerto celebrates<br />
evolution, negotiating between the<br />
early language of romanticism and a new<br />
romanticism of Chopin’s invention. A large<br />
orchestra muffles this. The only movement<br />
where I miss the orchestra is 2:II. The low<br />
strings open with an atmospheric presence,<br />
forming a layer of clouds, which gently floats<br />
as the piano cuts through delicately. This effect<br />
is lost with the quartet, but that’s a small price<br />
to pay for the overall picture of these performances,<br />
which are thoughtful and highly satisfying.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto 1; see Collections<br />
CHOPIN: Piano Sonata 3; Nocturnes; Ballade<br />
in F minor; Polonaise-Fantasy<br />
Alexis Weissenberg<br />
Hänssler 93710—68 minutes<br />
CHAUSSON: Concert; see MATHIEU<br />
CHOPIN: Piano Concertos<br />
Gianluca Luisi, Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt<br />
MDG 903 1632—73 minutes<br />
This is an exquisite 1972 recital. The engineering<br />
is well done, and the playing is sublime. Of<br />
particular relevance to our current Chopin<br />
Renaissance are the C-sharp minor, Op.post<br />
and the C-minor Op.48:1 Nocturnes, and the<br />
sonata.<br />
In the C-minor Nocturne, the rubato is<br />
This is a performance of the Chopin piano perfect; every phrase is given nuanced care<br />
concertos arranged for piano and string quar- and attention, every give-and-take of time is<br />
tet. Let me assure you that this is the only way carefully executed, and every great moment<br />
to listen to the concertos. Chopin probably can stand in isolation. There simply is no care-<br />
heard these pieces as concertos, but his hearless passage. The large octave section before<br />
ing may have been slightly misguided. Chopin the “Dippio” movement, like the finale of the<br />
is the master of the piano, but his competency sonata, sounds desperate, yet is flawless. Weis-<br />
in orchestral writing is non-existent. I always senberg here never descends, to quote our<br />
feel sympathy for the orchestra that performs Overview (July/Aug), to “bombastic and vul-<br />
these pieces, as after they play an introduction, gar” playing like Horowitz.<br />
the accompaniment is rather boring.<br />
I am also listening to the Third Sonata with<br />
Luisi is a fascinating player, primarily joy. Argerich has long been my model of a solid<br />
because his virtuosity is so soulful. Even performance, but Weissenberg makes it much<br />
though he blazes thru demanding passages more human performance—not as driven and<br />
with great facility, his playing is casual and rigid as Argerich. I also love Harasiewicz, for<br />
warm. He takes romantic playing to a different his radical and memorable interpretations.<br />
level. I must admit, some of his rubato is huge- Weissenberg is just as memorable and does<br />
ly overdone, but I sit at the edge of my seat, not allow his ego to take center stage, which<br />
waiting for the resolution of century-long Harasiewicz sometimes does.<br />
phrase endings that he holds onto forever—it The C-sharp minor Nocturne is extraordi-<br />
is terribly exciting and authentic. Luisi is a nary—luscious, poetic. and highly seductive.<br />
spectacular Chopinist and pianist.<br />
The D-flat is also wonderful, but the large Con<br />
Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt does very Forza ornament towards the end is executed<br />
well with this music. I enjoy the opening of the rather bizarrely—it sticks out like a sore thumb<br />
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from the texture. Another complaint I have is<br />
the tempo in the Ballade: why rush the opening?<br />
Let it come to life slowly and delicately.<br />
Save the drive and gymnastics for the end!<br />
Everything else, including the Polonaise-Fantasy,<br />
is exceptional.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
CLEMENTI: 12 Monferrinas; Piano<br />
Sonatas in D, G minor<br />
Byron Schenkman<br />
Centaur 3078—57 minutes<br />
Byron Schenkman is gradually becoming<br />
known for his wide-ranging and elegantly<br />
played repertoire. In this recording made at<br />
WGBH in Boston he plays several Clementi<br />
works with great polish and considerable flair.<br />
The 12 Monferrinas are dance movements<br />
in a popular Italian style that are quite enjoyable.<br />
The Sonata in G minor, also known as<br />
Didone Abbandonata, is a major four-movement<br />
work, and the Sonata in D is short piece<br />
that is also well written.<br />
Good notes and a fine recording complete<br />
this attractive release.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
CLOUD: Songs<br />
Deborah Raymond, Eileen Stempel, s; Judith<br />
Cloud, mz; Ricardo Periera, t; Tod Fitzpatrick, bar<br />
Summit 562—72 minutes<br />
This is the debut recital of seven vocal works<br />
by the Arizona singer-composer Judith Cloud.<br />
Texts are by Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop,<br />
Kathleen Raine, Betsy Andrews, and others.<br />
The various singers are only adequate (some<br />
have shockingly wobbly vibrato), but the<br />
music is evocative, pleasantly lyrical, and sensitive<br />
to the texts.<br />
SULLIVAN<br />
COLINA: 3 Cabinets of Wonder; Goyescana;<br />
Los Caprichos<br />
Michael Andriaccio, g; Anastasia Kitruk, v; London<br />
Symphony/ Ira Levin<br />
Fleur de Son 57999—72 minutes<br />
Another great discovery. Michael Colina is not<br />
a typical composer, with academic training.<br />
He grew up in North Carolina at the height of<br />
the civil rights struggle in the 60s. His father<br />
was Cuban, and he remembers a youth that<br />
was surrounded by Santeria ceremonial music<br />
along with popular rhythm and blues. He<br />
wrote mostly jazz and film music, and only<br />
turned to composing for orchestra eight years<br />
ago.<br />
I heard the music before reading about its<br />
background, and the film score connection<br />
was obvious. His music is tonal, neo-romantic,<br />
lush, and energetic. His orchestration is amaz-<br />
ing—he packs a lot into the music, yet it never<br />
seems too busy or too thick.<br />
Los Caprichos is a purely orchestral work,<br />
inspired by the sketches of Francisco Goya by<br />
that name. The 11 movements are brief, some<br />
lasting only a minute or so. But that is the<br />
essence of Goya’s sketches—each concocts a<br />
scene, often horrific or grotesque, in a critique<br />
of contemporary Spanish mores. Their emotional<br />
effect can be powerful, and Colina has<br />
captured that in a masterly fashion.<br />
The other two works are concertos, one for<br />
violin and one for guitar. Three Cabinets of<br />
Wonder, for violinist Anastasia Kitruk, has<br />
three wildly imaginative scenes as programmatic<br />
underpinnings. The first movement,<br />
‘Fanny’s Brother’, is based on some incomplete<br />
sketches from Fanny Mendelssohn<br />
Hensel, which Colina has re-imagined as a<br />
tribute to her beloved brother Felix. The slow<br />
movement, ‘Buddha’s Assassin’, portrays the<br />
Buddha stalked in a Thai jungle by a being that<br />
becomes not his threat but his lover. ‘Guardian<br />
of the Glowing’ is also set in a jungle, a mystical<br />
encounter with such intensity that we run<br />
from it, though it represents enlightenment<br />
that we will now never obtain. The images are<br />
strange and wonderful, and so is the music.<br />
Goyescana was written for the distinguished<br />
gutiarist Michael Andriaccio. The<br />
images here are less mystical, but no less<br />
evocative. The opening movement is a tango,<br />
‘Fantasma Azul’ (blue ghost), with themes that<br />
recur in the final movement, ‘Goyescana’. That<br />
last movement quotes ‘La Maja de Goya’<br />
briefly in the cadenza, but the real heart is in<br />
the beautiful melody of the second movement,<br />
‘Serenata’. Colina writes that this was a memory<br />
of his childhood visits to Cuba.<br />
Performances are uniformly excellent. The<br />
London Symphony under Ira Levin sounds<br />
glorious. Violinist Kitruk’s playing is not only<br />
technically secure, but she conveys the mystic<br />
intensity of Colina’s imagery beautifully. And<br />
Andriaccio’s performance is, as expected,<br />
excellent. He brings a mature musicality to this<br />
music and plays with real joy.<br />
I am particularly excited to discover a new,<br />
and very fine, work for guitar and orchestra—<br />
too many recent guitar concertos struggle with<br />
the problem of balance by pretending it can all<br />
be fixed in the studio, and have little hope of<br />
frequent performance. Colina’s Goyescana has<br />
just the right balance and has plenty of beautiful<br />
themes and a great solo part. I hope others<br />
take up the work soon.<br />
KEATON<br />
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COMPERE: music; see OCKEGHEM<br />
CONSTANTINIDES: Quartets (3); Dedications;<br />
Preludes; Elegy<br />
Sinfonietta Quartet; Nevsky Quartet; Valcour<br />
Quartet<br />
Centaur 3037—61 minutes<br />
Dinos Constantinides is an <strong>American</strong> composer<br />
now based in Louisiana. The liner notes<br />
offer a long list of his performances and<br />
awards, along with blurbs from critics. He has<br />
a fair amount of music on records, though this<br />
is the first I’ve heard of it. But these six works<br />
for string quartet have not prompted me to<br />
seek out anything else by him.<br />
The music is an uncomfortable melange of<br />
effusive sentiment draped in luxuriant tonal<br />
attire—imagine dreary, debased, drug-addled<br />
late-Schubert quartets with themes drawn<br />
from lugubrious Greek popular songs—and<br />
harsh-sounding atonal interruptions and<br />
superimpositions laced with jabbing lunges,<br />
grating discords, glassy tone-clusters, raucous<br />
squealings, slithery glissandos, and various<br />
other modish effects. In addition the music is<br />
often incoherent, with one episode following<br />
another in a seemingly random sequence, as if<br />
narrated by a dithering but insistent drunk.<br />
Tempos are mostly slow, with little relief from<br />
the prevailing aura of mournful solemnity.<br />
Textures (whether harmonically conventional<br />
or “contemporary”)—especially in these leaden,<br />
intonation-challenged performances and<br />
Centaur’s muddy and recessed but still piercing<br />
sonics—are heavily plush and viscous.<br />
With the exception of the outer movements of<br />
the three Preludes—short, simple, modally<br />
harmonized hymn-like folk tunes—I found little<br />
to enjoy in this music despite the composer’s<br />
evident sincerity.<br />
LEHMAN<br />
COOMAN: Preludes; Piano Pieces<br />
Donna Amato<br />
Altarus 9015—65 minutes<br />
Carson Cooman’s Nine Preludes (2007) were<br />
written for Marilyn Nonken, but are played<br />
here by frequent Cooman collaborator Donna<br />
Amato. They are in a harmonically very free,<br />
basically conservative style, with vague wisps<br />
of tonality floating through on occasion; but<br />
the tonal constructions are in general pretty<br />
fuzzy.<br />
The set opens with an homage to Brahms<br />
(very beautiful, and the best piece here), and<br />
goes on to refer to other friends and influences<br />
like Donald Martino, Richard Wilson, and<br />
Michael Finnissy. Prokofieff seems to be an<br />
influence (in 8, especially), but most of the<br />
pieces are in a somewhat generic academic<br />
style, not very striking in character and not<br />
notably memorable—a condition particularly<br />
evident in the finale, which is said to recapitulate<br />
material from the preceding eight Preludes.<br />
The remainder of the program has seven<br />
piano pieces written between 2006 and 2009. A<br />
couple are inspired by material from the<br />
Renaissance (Alonso, Marenzio). Rameau is<br />
said to be an inspiration for a ‘Lullaby’, but<br />
neither his work cited nor the Marenzio<br />
appear literally (lucky for them, since they<br />
don’t have to endure what poor Alonso is put<br />
through in the ridiculous Concert Piece after La<br />
Tricotea of 2006). William Bland and Max Lifchitz<br />
get dedications, and Vincent Persichetti<br />
is said to be behind 2007’s Summer Solstice.<br />
The program closes with a lively if bombastic<br />
Toccata on Appalachian-style folk tunes.<br />
Ms Amato does her best with this weak<br />
material, but she’s not very engagingly recorded.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
CORIGLIANO: Piano Pieces<br />
Ursula Oppens, Jerome Lowenthal<br />
Cedille 123—60 minutes<br />
Five pieces for one and two pianos by John<br />
Corigliano. This release may be considered an<br />
upgrade over Andrew Russo’s well-played but<br />
less complete 2006 program on Black Box 1106<br />
(N/D 2006), which duplicates some, but not<br />
all, of these pieces.<br />
Winging It (2007-8), the program’s title<br />
piece, is new. These are three Corigliano<br />
“Improvisations for Piano” captured on a<br />
MIDI synthesizer and then “doctored” rhythmically<br />
by collaborator Mark Baechle to supply<br />
versions performable by Ms Oppens, to<br />
whom the piece is dedicated. There is a<br />
humorous march, a dreamy slow movement,<br />
and a rumbly finale—which, as it turns out,<br />
combine to make an entertaining virtuoso<br />
concert piece. This is its first recording.<br />
Jerome Lowenthal joins Ms Oppens for<br />
Chiaroscuro (1997), the piece for two pianos<br />
tuned a quarter tone apart last heard on the<br />
Black Box release with Russo and collaborator<br />
Steven Heyman (N/D 2006). I mentioned in<br />
that review that performances of the work<br />
were sure to be few and far between owing to<br />
the tuning demands, but here’s another one.<br />
The clarity of the tuning seems even more<br />
vivid here for some reason. Both are well<br />
played and conceived.<br />
1985’s Fantasia on an Ostinato has been<br />
recorded before in its version for piano solo,<br />
including Mr Russo on the Black Box release.<br />
The disposition of the repetitions of the patterns<br />
in the central section is left up to the performer,<br />
so performances may differ, particu-<br />
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larly in length, though Russo and Oppens take<br />
about the same time. Both performances are<br />
suitably hallucinatory.<br />
Kaleidoscope (1959), for two pianos, was<br />
written when Corigliano was a student at<br />
Columbia in Otto Luening’s composition class.<br />
Spirited and filled with youthful energy and<br />
Bernsteinian lyricism, the piece demonstrates<br />
once again what a precious talent Corigliano<br />
had as a young man.<br />
The program closes with 1976’s Etude Fantasy,<br />
also recorded by Russo. This forbidding<br />
group of interrelated etudes has been well<br />
served on records; and, as would be expected,<br />
Oppens offers a formidable contribution.<br />
This will likely be the standard reference<br />
for this repertoire for some time to come.<br />
Notes by the composer.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
CRUMB: Makrokosmos, all<br />
Berlin PianoPercussion<br />
Telos 93 [2CD] 126 minutes<br />
Except for the humor, Crumb reminds me very<br />
much of Flannery O’Connor, the great Southern<br />
writer whose novels and stories are suffused<br />
with the mysterious—and yet all too<br />
familiar—landscape of small towns and farmland,<br />
as well as an aspiration toward a mystical<br />
spirituality. Crumb’s compositional voice was<br />
influenced, too, by the sense of limitless possibilities<br />
commonly felt in the later 1960s and<br />
1970s: his music contains quotations from<br />
Bach, Chopin, and others, along with melodies<br />
resembling Eastern music and a number of<br />
gestures that draw from a vast storehouse of<br />
20th Century sounds. All these elements<br />
appear and reappear so often, and in such a<br />
straightforward manner, that it’s easy to understand<br />
why some people find his music comes<br />
dangerously close to kitsch. (The same people<br />
would probably have felt the same about<br />
Berlioz in 1830.) I imagine that a discerning listener,<br />
as familiar with the individual moments<br />
of Crumb as many are, say, with Mahler’s tightly-woven<br />
skein of references in his symphonies,<br />
savor the multiple appearances of his<br />
familiar ideas for the countless new perspectives<br />
they give to his work as a whole.<br />
I am not (yet) such a listener, but I have no<br />
trouble lauding the times when I sense that<br />
this large, unruly universe of sounds comes<br />
together to make an absolutely stunning emotional<br />
impression, as in the final movement of<br />
Music for a Summer Evening, where pentatonic<br />
melodies of Crumb’s own design suddenly<br />
coalesce with the quotations of Bach’s Dsharp-minor<br />
fugue from WTC II and then<br />
gradually evaporate into a stillness that recalls<br />
nothing so much as the glorious ending of<br />
Mahler’s Lied von der Erde.<br />
These concert performances are everything<br />
I could ask from an artistic account of<br />
Crumb’s music; I marvel at the tonal variety<br />
and extreme control in soft passages commanded<br />
by Ya-ou Xie, who performed the two<br />
books of the solo Makrokosmos and also performs<br />
in Summer Evening. While other pianists<br />
have contributed just as stunning performances<br />
of the solo pieces (David Burge and<br />
Margaret Leng Tan spring readily to mind), the<br />
musicians of Berlin PianoPercussion are every<br />
bit as fine; and the collection of all four works<br />
in a single set makes the package even more<br />
attractive.<br />
HASKINS<br />
CZERNOWIN: Shifting Gravity; Winter<br />
Songs 3<br />
Diotima Quartet; Nikel Ensemble; Ascolta/<br />
Jonathan Stockhammer; Ensemble Courage/<br />
Titus Engel; Ipke Starke, electronics<br />
Wergo 6726—57 minutes<br />
Chaya Czernowin (b 1957) is a composer of<br />
sounds. She, according to the liner notes by<br />
Jorn Peter Hiekel, “distances herself from conventional<br />
expressivity”. She deals more with<br />
the “replicating processes of DNA molecules”.<br />
To give her her own due, “I believe the most<br />
beautiful thing there is, is to gaze into the<br />
inner darkness.” This she does by almost disguising<br />
the sounds of every instrument she<br />
writes for, from continuous loud scratching for<br />
strings, grunting trombones, sliding up and<br />
down and generally avoiding anything that<br />
might be considered melodic. This is not to say<br />
that her music is all loud or unpleasant in<br />
effect; but it is all abstract, not only in tonality<br />
but in the very sounds produced. The notes<br />
continually stress a relationship to the music<br />
of Robert Schumann. I don’t understand that.<br />
Czernowin isn’t even writing notes. How can<br />
this relate to someone who did? It doesn’t<br />
seem fair to Schumann.<br />
If this attracts you, go for it! It is played<br />
with sensitive involvement (I think) and it is,<br />
shall we say, different.<br />
D MOORE<br />
DALE: Piano Sonata; Prunella; Night<br />
Fancies;<br />
BOWEN: Miniature Suite in C<br />
Danny Driver—Hyperion 67827— 65 minutes<br />
I welcomed Mark Bebbington’s recording of<br />
Dale’s youthful sonata just recently (Mar/Apr<br />
2011). Here, just a few months later is yet<br />
another recording of this monumental work, a<br />
staple of many pianists in the first half of the<br />
20th Century. Driver adds two additional short<br />
works by Dale, as well as Bowen’s brief suite,<br />
which has yet to make it to Joop Celis’s series<br />
for Chandos.<br />
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Dale’s sonata, written when he was 17 and<br />
dedicated to Bowen, is a massive work—here<br />
given 11 tracks where Chandos takes 10 (Hyperion<br />
divides Variation 7 into Prestissimo and<br />
Andante). While it bears influences from a host<br />
of romantic composers, nothing is merely imitative.<br />
Choosing between these two excellent<br />
recordings would not be easy.<br />
Bebbington plays with more romantic<br />
ardor and encompasses a wider spectrum of<br />
imaginative touches and phrase shaping in the<br />
opening movement. Driver is more classically<br />
poised and pushes the movement along with<br />
greater certainty. The slow movement, scherzo,<br />
and finale bring delights from both performers,<br />
while Driver brings greater flash and virtuosity<br />
to the faster variations of the scherzo.<br />
To complicate things further, Bebbington<br />
includes the only recording of William Hurlstone’s<br />
Chopin-like Sonata in F minor. Driver’s<br />
additional pieces include ‘Prunella’ a wistful,<br />
nostalgic miniature not unlike Elgar’s light<br />
music, and Night Fancies, a mostly gentle<br />
essay that eventually becomes a wild caprice<br />
with echoes of the middle of the slow movement<br />
from Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto.<br />
Bowen’s Miniature Suite has three short<br />
movements and charm aplenty. This is light<br />
music totally without pretense and played with<br />
just the right touch of whimsical delight. The<br />
Finale is a whirlwind of brilliantly lit froth.<br />
Excellent notes, fine sound. Buy both, but<br />
do not miss the Hurlstone.<br />
BECKER<br />
DANZI & TAFFANEL: Wind Quintets<br />
Soni Ventorum—Crystal 251—65 minutes<br />
This is a re-release of 1975 and 1978 recordings.<br />
Soni Ventorum was loosely formed while<br />
some of its members were in high school and<br />
before they attended the Curtis Institute. During<br />
its more than 40 years performing with various<br />
personnel, the quintet became an institution<br />
and, without question, influenced the<br />
level of artistic excellence for all woodwind<br />
quintets to follow.<br />
Danzi’s quintets get considerably less<br />
attention from musicians today than they did<br />
when these recordings were made, perhaps<br />
because there is now so much more repertoire.<br />
They are commonly an essential part of the<br />
woodwind performance curriculum at schools<br />
and conservatories.<br />
A good complement to these early 19th<br />
Century works is the late 19th Century quintet<br />
of Taffanel. See Collections for a new recording<br />
of this work by Quintet Chantily. One expects<br />
newer recordings to have the best players and<br />
to somehow be better. This is the case with the<br />
Chantily recording, but not by a wide margin.<br />
The Soni Ventorum quintet was at their peak<br />
when they recorded this, and the performers<br />
were the country’s best. Only a few timbral differences<br />
exist between a few of the instruments,<br />
and they are merely the result of evolving<br />
concepts of tone production.<br />
Had it not been for Soni Ventorum, who<br />
performed these works with such style and<br />
refinement, the music might not have inspired<br />
contemporary woodwind quintet compositions.<br />
SCHWARTZ<br />
DAVIS: The French Lieutenant’s Woman;<br />
Pride and Prejudice; Cranford; Hotel du Lac<br />
Philharmonia Orchestra/ Carl Davis<br />
Carl Davis 10—77 minutes<br />
“Heroines in Music” is the theme that unites<br />
these scores, refashioned for concert performance<br />
and newly recorded in sumptuous<br />
sound. The French Lieutenant’s Woman is the<br />
only theatrical film here, and it’s regarded as<br />
one of Davis’s best efforts. It’s played by a<br />
mostly string orchestra set against a quartet of<br />
solo performers. If you know your Vaughan<br />
Williams you won’t find this concept especially<br />
ground-breaking, but it works beautifully for<br />
Davis. The eight movements make for a more<br />
affecting listening experience than the film’s<br />
soundtrack, where the intimate score was<br />
repeatedly interrupted by source music (extraneous<br />
snippets of now-dated party music).<br />
Pride and Prejudice is the best of the television<br />
scores. The three-movement suite begins<br />
with whooping horns and Mozartean piano<br />
runs (played to perfection by Melvyn Tan) and<br />
is one of the composer’s own favorite pieces.<br />
There’s a pseudo-classical-era sound to much<br />
of this music, furthered by brief quotes from<br />
Mozart and Cherubini.<br />
The seven-movement suite from Cranford<br />
(and the sequel Return to Cranford) has a 19th-<br />
Century feel, along with dramatic scoring for<br />
the emotional ups and downs of the story.<br />
From Hotel Du Lac Davis has chosen his ‘Nocturne’,<br />
here arranged for full orchestra; the<br />
guitar solo is given to the piano but the alto<br />
saxophone part remains. At first it sounds treacly,<br />
but it quickly improves, though at nearly<br />
11 minutes it’s a bit long-winded.<br />
The Philharmonia sounds ideal in these<br />
works, and the string soloists (Matthew<br />
Trusler, Patrick Savage, Lawrence Power,<br />
Jonathan Aasgaard) deserve special praise.<br />
KOLDYS<br />
Search<br />
Any current subscriber can search the Cumulative<br />
Index on our website for composer or<br />
performer or label or number or name of the<br />
piece. Follow the instructions.<br />
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DEBUSSY: Early Piano Duets<br />
Adrienne Soos & Ivo Hagg<br />
Naxos 572385—75 minutes<br />
Debussy’s piano music for four hands,<br />
whether at one or two pianos, has come my<br />
way for review with increasing regularity; and<br />
a number of these works can be considered<br />
mainstream repertoire for piano duo teams. I<br />
have also admired previous discs by the excellent<br />
Swiss duo piano team of Soos and Hagg.<br />
They have made somewhat of a specialty of<br />
finding obscure works (Moscheles & Weber,<br />
Hungaroton 32492, Nov/Dec 2008; Honegger<br />
& Messiaen, Guild 7331, May/June 2010) and<br />
then giving us great performances that have<br />
made me wonder why the repertoire is not<br />
better known. Such is the case here. These are<br />
all works for two pianists at one piano, composed<br />
in the 1880s (Debussy’s late teens and<br />
early 20s). Most are projected orchestral works<br />
that were never orchestrated: Symphony in B<br />
minor, Intermezzo, Divertissement, Overture<br />
Diane, Le Triomphe de Bacchus. Two are duet<br />
versions of orchestral works (L’enfant Prodigue<br />
excerpts and Printemps).<br />
The youthful energy and excitement to<br />
these virtuoso works is perfectly realized by<br />
Soos and Haag. Duets were a favorite pastime<br />
of the young Debussy, especially in his years in<br />
Italy. He often programmed them in his concerts<br />
and was unquestionably a great pianist.<br />
Soos and Haag have been a team for over 15<br />
years and have recorded much of this music<br />
before (in 1995, Pan 510 076, not reviewed). I<br />
have not heard that release, but, given all of<br />
the superb qualities of the new recording<br />
(2009), I can only hope for more Debussy from<br />
this duo.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
DEBUSSY: Suite Bergamasque; Petite Suite;<br />
Printemps; En Blanc et Noir; Symphony<br />
Lyon Orchestra/ Jun Markl<br />
Naxos 572583—74 minutes<br />
The sixth volume of the Debussy series with<br />
Jun Markl and the Lyon orchestra is a set of<br />
orchestral transcriptions carried out by the<br />
composer’s colleagues and later arrangers. The<br />
first four are fairly standard repertoire for<br />
orchestra.<br />
If you have been pleased with this wonderful<br />
series, there is no reason not to acquire this<br />
new entry. The performers continue to display<br />
a flair for Debussy, lending his music elegance,<br />
grace, saturated colors, and enthusiasm, while<br />
Markl’s tempos and pacing are unerring. I<br />
would give this volume a try even if you don’t<br />
care for the works. They are not exactly on my<br />
Debussy hit parade, but a smile appeared on<br />
my face at the first notes of Suite Bergamasque<br />
and remained there. This is a real mood lifter.<br />
Suite Bergamasque (1905—the dates in this<br />
review are of the piano compositions) is based<br />
on Verlaine’s Fêtes Galantes. ‘Claire de Lune’<br />
was orchestrated by Andre Caplet; Gustave<br />
Cloez arranged the other three. Notice the<br />
delightful turns of woodwind phrases in the<br />
Prelude. The Minuet is so elegant that it<br />
reminds me of Ravel. ‘Claire de Lune’ is sweet<br />
and moving, but devoid of the indulgence that<br />
drags down some performances.<br />
Petite Suite (1889) was originally a piano<br />
duet. Henri Busser orchestrated the familiar<br />
version. This lyrical performance fits the title<br />
with gentility and a touch of the childlike.<br />
Debussy wrote Printemps (1887) to fulfill<br />
part of his obligations as winner of the Prix de<br />
Rome. The original was lost in a fire at the<br />
publisher’s, but Busser reconstructed it, working<br />
with the composer from a piano duet<br />
score. The Academie des Beaux-Arts warned of<br />
its “impressionism”, and they were correct:<br />
good for Debussy. I’ve always wondered why<br />
this colorful portrait of Spring is not more popular.<br />
It’s one of the composer’s most engaging<br />
works.<br />
En Blanc et Noir (1915 for two pianos) was<br />
written during the war and orchestrated in<br />
2002 by English composer Robin Holloway.<br />
The modern orchestration may explain its<br />
overt and bright-toned character. I is a call to<br />
patriotism. ‘Lent Sombre’ is dedicated to a<br />
friend killed in the war: note the reference to<br />
Germany in the quotation of ‘Ein Feste Burg’.<br />
III is a praise of summer.<br />
Debussy took a stab at writing a symphony<br />
in 1880. He completed only one movement,<br />
was not happy with that, and went no further.<br />
(Many people believe La Mer qualifies as a<br />
symphony). He sent a score to Nadezhda von<br />
Meck in Russia, who hoped to hear him play it,<br />
but apparently never did. The score survived,<br />
and a two-piano score was published in 1933.<br />
Tony Finno’s orchestration turned the single<br />
movement into three: a lively I, a cantabile II,<br />
and a march finale. No hint of the impressionist<br />
to come is heard in this attractive little bit of<br />
romanticism. If anything, its clear-toned<br />
nature, at least in this orchestration, makes it<br />
sound almost English sometimes.<br />
Good notes. Great sound.<br />
HECHT<br />
DELIUS: Appalachia; Song of the High<br />
Hills BBC Symphony & Chorus/ Andrew Davis<br />
Chandos 5088 [SACD] 64 minutes<br />
Almost 20 years have passed since Davis first<br />
demonstrated his Delius credentials in a stunning<br />
program for Teldec’s British Line series.<br />
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That program is still available, and at a much<br />
reduced price. Davis, a Vice President of the<br />
Delius Society, now presents us with more<br />
Delius, along with the promise of additional<br />
recordings to come in the composer’s 2012<br />
Bicentennial Year.<br />
Appalachia: Variations on an Old Slave<br />
Song is Delius’s tribute to North America, or<br />
more particularly, to the deep South he knew<br />
in his days as an orange grower in Florida and<br />
as a violin teacher in Danville, Virginia. As<br />
Andrew Burn’s thorough notes point out, it is<br />
based on a song he heard the black tobacco<br />
factory workers singing in Danville. The<br />
lament about being “sold down the river”<br />
reflects the sadness that split families and<br />
lovers, though the final choral peroration takes<br />
a more positive note as “the dawn will soon be<br />
breaking”.<br />
Add the excellent Davis to a list that includes<br />
Hickox, Beecham, and Barbirolli. It is a<br />
most sensitive interpretation, and one where<br />
the variations follow each other without pause.<br />
Baritone Andrew Rapp is an effective singer<br />
and avoids sounding like he’s singing an oratorio,<br />
though some day I would like to hear the<br />
brief part sung by a negro. The choral contribution<br />
is atmospheric, and the orchestra,<br />
given a slightly distant perspective, reasonably<br />
detailed. The bass-shy SACD recording is not<br />
as sympathetic to the timpani as I would have<br />
liked, and the emotional thrust of the music is<br />
sometimes compromised as a result. There is<br />
also a general lack of warmth to the sound, and<br />
the volume needs a hefty boost, but so do<br />
many SACD recordings. For first choice I<br />
would incline towards the Hickox, where the<br />
1977 sound comes up as fresh as the day it was<br />
issued.<br />
A more serious problem occurs in the Song<br />
of the High Hills, inspired by the mountains of<br />
the composer’s beloved Norway. The performance<br />
at 28:34 veers towards the slower side<br />
of the spectrum, though Fenby tops this at an<br />
almost unheard-of 29:43. Like Fenby, the distant<br />
recording lends atmosphere, but the allimportant<br />
timpani again fail to do more than<br />
suggest their presence, and the thunder is<br />
always kept at bay. In the climaxes the sound<br />
flattens out, as if Davis’s engineers had decided<br />
to allow no further growth and bloom<br />
beyond the contained fortissimo limits they<br />
have set.<br />
Soprano Olivia Robinson and tenor<br />
Christopher Bowen handle the wordless roles<br />
very well; they seem to almost imperceptibly<br />
emerge from the choral mass. They do, however,<br />
seem to increase in volume towards a more<br />
forward placement than I would have preferred.<br />
Sir Andrew obviously loves this music,<br />
and he is most effective at molding phrases<br />
and keeping it from contemplative meandering.<br />
Still, a slightly more forward perspective<br />
for the orchestra would have lent greater<br />
expressivity to the wind solos, and to what<br />
could have been the lush and rippling sounds<br />
of the harp.<br />
Of the other recordings, it’s too bad that<br />
Beecham’s monaural efforts are let down by<br />
sound of little splendor, though few manage<br />
the quiet magic the way he does. Sir Charles<br />
Groves’s recording sounds much improved on<br />
its reissue and will probably find its way to the<br />
shelves of any true Delian since it fills out his<br />
set of the opera Koanga. Forced to choose, I<br />
would probably choose Eric Fenby on Unicorn.<br />
As the composer’s amanuensis for several<br />
years, his interpretation carries a special<br />
validity and importance. This newcomer is<br />
also an essential purchase despite my grumblings.<br />
Delius admirers are for once given an<br />
abundance of excellent choices.<br />
BECKER<br />
DILLON: Violin Pieces<br />
Danielle Belen; David Fung, p<br />
Naxos 559644—61 minutes<br />
Nine violin works by Lawrence Dillon (b.<br />
1959), written from 1983 to 2008. Mr Dillon,<br />
the youngest composer to have earned a Juilliard<br />
doctorate (as a student of Vincent Persichetti),<br />
currently teaches at the North Carolina<br />
School of the Arts. He has stated his wish<br />
“to connect with the classical music heritage”,<br />
a respectable project that should be welcomed<br />
by many listeners.<br />
The opening track, Mister Blister (2006),<br />
properly belongs with 15 Minutes, a collection<br />
of 15 one-minute solo violin pieces. Facade<br />
(1983), written while he was still a student at<br />
Juilliard, thumbs his nose at the modernist faculty<br />
with a corny 19th Century salon waltz,<br />
contrasted with a modern-musicky middle<br />
section that prompts a faintly nauseating<br />
recap. ‘Bacchus Chaconne’ (1991), for violin<br />
and viola (Jean-Miguel Hernandez here), came<br />
about owing to a cancelled cello concerto<br />
commission. The five-minute piece opens with<br />
a despondent but very beautiful canon and<br />
ends with a sarcastically rock-ish chaconne.<br />
The 2008 Violin Sonata (with piano) is in<br />
three movements and is the most substantial<br />
piece on the program. Subtitled Motion, the<br />
piece plays its neoromantic card skillfully. The<br />
first movement works with an obsessive triplet<br />
rhythm. II divides between impassioned dissonance<br />
and mysterious quietude, with heavenly<br />
harp strumming in between. The finale ups the<br />
energy level and ends with “wildly antic<br />
homages to early rock-and-roll” (I would say<br />
“mildly”). There is another extended quiet<br />
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middle section. The piece was originally for<br />
flute and piano—this is a transcription.<br />
Spring Passing (1997) is a transcription of a<br />
song dealing with the composer’s mother’s<br />
response to his father’s untimely death. It is<br />
scored here for marimba (Stan Muncy) and<br />
piano. It is appropriately moving, but might be<br />
more so with sung text (which is included in<br />
the notes).<br />
15 Minutes (2006) is a set of one minute<br />
pieces for solo violin, humorous, and well written<br />
for the instrument. They end with a<br />
Chopin-esque ‘Minute March’.<br />
Another transcription closes out the program.<br />
The Voice (2008) is an arrangement of an<br />
aria from a 2001 opera, text included: beautiful<br />
and expressive, it makes one wonder what the<br />
opera is like.<br />
All told, the scraps that make up this program<br />
give the impression of a serious and talented<br />
composer, though one will have to look<br />
elsewhere for more substantial examples<br />
(check indexes). Ms Belen is a fine player, and<br />
Mr Dillon’s work fits her well.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
DURON: Tonos Humanos<br />
Musica Ficta<br />
Musica Ficta 7—72:47<br />
This selection of tonos humanos (secular art<br />
songs), tonos divinos (sacred songs), and an<br />
excerpt from a zarzuela by Sebastian Duron<br />
makes an excellent companion to the recent<br />
recording of the Guerra Manuscript (July/Aug,<br />
p 252), which included in addition to a few<br />
anonymous works only songs by Juan Hidalgo<br />
and José Marin. Duron’s songs are filled with<br />
the same infectious rhythms and playful texts,<br />
and this anthology offers a broad sample of his<br />
songs in many different moods. Various Hispanic<br />
instrumental works by Martin y Coll,<br />
Gaspar Sanz, Santiago de Murcia, and Diego<br />
Xarava are supplied as interludes between the<br />
songs.<br />
The excellence of this same ensemble in<br />
their recording of baroque music from Bogota<br />
(May/June 2011: 221) is evident on this new<br />
recording, though I would observe that Carlos<br />
Serrano is not as proficient on bajon (early<br />
bassoon) as he is on recorder. Two extra<br />
singers and three viola da gambists are added<br />
to the performances of three songs in honor of<br />
the Holy Sacrament, and this offers some additional<br />
variety.<br />
As in the earlier recording, Jairo Serrano’s<br />
interpretation of these songs is very effective,<br />
though the long reverberation of the Abbey of<br />
St Meinrad, where the recording was made,<br />
while acceptable for the instrumental selections,<br />
it is quite distracting in the songs. This<br />
intimate chamber repertoire should be record-<br />
ed in a more appropriate venue. While all the<br />
improvised accompaniments and interludes<br />
by the members of Musica Ficta are all very<br />
well done and never distracting, I still have a<br />
slight preference for the simpler approach of<br />
the recording of the Guerra Manuscript—just<br />
voice and harp. The booklet offers an extensive<br />
introduction to Duron and his songs, with full<br />
texts and translations, though the English is<br />
sometimes a bit stilted and unclear.<br />
BREWER<br />
DUSSEK: Piano Concertos in G minor, Bflat;<br />
Tableau Marie Antoinette<br />
Andrea Staier, fp; Jean-Michel Forest, narr; Concerto<br />
Koln<br />
Capriccio 5072—67 minutes<br />
This same disc was issued by Capriccio as<br />
10444 in 1992. I have long cherished it. It was<br />
part of a series called Piano Concertos of<br />
Beethoven’s Time.<br />
Dussek, born in 1760 and died in 1812, was<br />
Czech-educated before moving west. He settled<br />
in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France<br />
before fleeing to England in 1789, where he<br />
remained for 10 years. He eventually returned<br />
to Paris in Napoleon’s time.<br />
Dussek wrote a good number of piano concertos;<br />
I have seven. These two are among his<br />
most brilliant ones and display his fondness<br />
for John Broadwood’s 5-1/2 octave instrument<br />
built for him. Also included is a recitation, with<br />
piano accompaniment, based on the execution<br />
of Marie Antoinette of France. This probably<br />
won’t interest collectors as much as the<br />
concertos, but it is interesting to hear once or<br />
twice.<br />
Andreas Staier plays marvelously and is<br />
well accompanied by Concerto Koln on period<br />
instruments. Good notes are again supplied.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
ELGAR: The Violin Music<br />
Marat Bisengaliev; Benjamin Frith, p; Camilla<br />
Bisengalieva, ob; West Kazakhstan Philharmonic/<br />
Bundit Ungrangsee<br />
Naxos 572643 [3CD] 194 minutes<br />
Two of the discs in this set are reissues of Black<br />
Box recordings (J/F 2001 & N/D 2001), and the<br />
new material is the Violin Concerto, the Serenade,<br />
and a short fugue for violin and oboe.<br />
I find the reading of the concerto rather<br />
clinical. Bisengaliev’s violin playing is strong<br />
and secure, but this reading doesn’t present<br />
the piece as something that can stand up to its<br />
reputation as one of the great violin concertos.<br />
Perhaps it has something to do with the winds<br />
of the West Kazakhstan Philharmonic, which<br />
are not up to the level of the strings. The Sere-<br />
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nade, which, of course, doesn’t have a solo violin,<br />
is really quite nice.<br />
FINE<br />
ELGAR: Enigma; see BRAHMS<br />
ELLING: String Quartets; Piano Quintet<br />
Engergard Quartet; Nil Andres Mortensen, p<br />
Simax 1304—64 minutes<br />
Catharimus Elling (1858-1942) is a Norwegian<br />
composer, a lesser-known contemporary of<br />
Grieg. His music is certainly enjoyable, but not<br />
captivating. He got his start as a music critic,<br />
which makes me somewhat sympathetic. He is<br />
a huge fan of Grieg’s work and reviewed his<br />
music enthusiastically. This resulted in a letter<br />
of recommendation from Grieg to encourage<br />
Elling’s composition training and the start of a<br />
long friendship.<br />
This music is enjoyable but quite conservative<br />
for the time, the Piano Quintet in particular<br />
(1901). Sometimes it is delightful, but<br />
everything about it had been conveyed 40<br />
years before—and said more effectively. The<br />
first movement is rather adolescent. I hear talent<br />
but very little sophistication. Some of the<br />
melodies are innovative but they go nowhere.<br />
Even if this music is a very early “neo-romantic”<br />
idiom, it just does nothing with what<br />
seems to be a very obvious approach to composing.<br />
Rachmaninoff’s work is a perfect<br />
example of what I think Elling is trying to<br />
achieve here. Rachmaninoff holds on to a “traditional”<br />
idiom, but he never lets it get in the<br />
way of his innovation and reshaping of language.<br />
Rachmaninoff’s music is “dated” perhaps,<br />
but in many ways entirely new and revolutionary.<br />
The string quartets are better—classical in<br />
form, and they keep me interested. The Aminor<br />
Quartet evokes Haydn meeting an early<br />
Schumann. It gets bogged down in a longwinded<br />
exposition. Some of Elling’s ideas have<br />
great potential but development is lacking.<br />
The ensemble is really involved in this<br />
music—I hear that clearly. Some sections are<br />
impressive—the second movement of the<br />
Piano Quintet, for example. But I expected<br />
more.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
FACCO: Violin Concerto; see VIVALDI<br />
FARRENC: Nonet; see BRAHMS<br />
FAURE: Barcarolles; Romances sans<br />
Paroles<br />
Charles Owen, p<br />
Avie 2240—63 minutes<br />
People either hate or love the Fauré Barcarolles.<br />
If played plainly and literally, they can<br />
be rather boring. But Charles Owen really<br />
makes them into beautiful swaying songs of<br />
romanticism.<br />
I’ll just get this out of the way: The A section<br />
of the first Barcarolle sounds like a slow<br />
version of the Chimney song from Mary Poppins—it<br />
drives me crazy. But the second section<br />
is gorgeous. The F-sharp minor is certainly<br />
one of the best, and Owen’s playing is filled<br />
with life. His pedaling through all these performances<br />
is particularly memorable for his precise<br />
attack and tasteful coloring. Also worth<br />
noting is his exceptional playing of the E-flat;<br />
his left hand sounds like rapidly falling drops<br />
from recently melted ice—vigorously sparkling<br />
as they explode on the ground.<br />
The Romances sans Paroles, Fauré’s Op. 17,<br />
are also nicely done. Charles Owen is a wonderful<br />
pianist. I am still enthralled by his playing.<br />
It is remarkably simple and honest. He<br />
understands the flowing nature of the music,<br />
and while he maintains an impressive legato,<br />
he never lets it turn to mush or that underwater-mezzoforte<br />
thing people often descend<br />
to. If you are looking to add the complete Barcarolles<br />
to your collection, this is it.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
FEINBERG: Violin Sonata; see KREIN<br />
FERKO: Stabat Mater<br />
Juliana Rambaldi, s; Choral Arts/ Robert Bode<br />
Rezound 5019—54 minutes<br />
The day I discovered Frank Ferko’s transcendental<br />
Stabat Mater nearly a decade ago was a<br />
happy one indeed; I couldn’t stop listening to<br />
Cedille’s excellent recording of it for at least a<br />
week. From his glowing review (M/A 2001), Mr<br />
Bond felt the same way. I’ve often wondered<br />
since why we haven’t gotten more recordings<br />
of this glorious work, as most knowledgeable<br />
contemporary choral aficionados consider<br />
Ferko one of America’s handful of truly great<br />
choral composers. I was thus thrilled to get<br />
this particularly luminous and celestial-sounding<br />
rendition from a most accomplished Seattle<br />
choir.<br />
Ferko creates his unique brand of choral<br />
magic by means of a particularly effective synthesis<br />
of ancient and modern forms and styles.<br />
In distinctly contemporary context, the seasoned<br />
choral listener will hear echoes of chant,<br />
organum, canon, Renaissance polyphony, and<br />
baroque counterpoint. He further employs a<br />
staggering variety of tonal schemes, including<br />
ancient church modes, standard major and<br />
minor keys, chromaticism, and exotic scales<br />
(whole-tone, octatonic). Of the work’s 25 textsettings,<br />
only one (No. 13) is strictly atonal.<br />
One of the composer’s avowed goals in this<br />
music (from his own revealing notes) was to<br />
create and sustain a constant interplay<br />
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between whole steps and half steps. However<br />
he did it, the end result is a constantly shifting,<br />
kaleidoscopic array of beguiling harmonic colors<br />
and effects. With such different tonal<br />
approaches to each separate text-setting,<br />
more’s the wonder that Ferko achieves such<br />
consistency of deep sacred sentiment and<br />
sheer beauty.<br />
The work’s basic text is the classic 13th<br />
Century Latin hymn (in 20 stanzas) by Franciscan<br />
friar Jacopone da Todi, describing the Virgin<br />
Mary’s searing emotions as she bears<br />
grieving witness to her son’s agony and death<br />
on the cross. But Ferko seeks to update and<br />
amplify the basic theme of a mother’s outrageous<br />
loss of her child with five additional<br />
interpolated texts in English that speak of<br />
human losses most of us have experienced in<br />
the course of our lives—whether from war, disease,<br />
murder, suicide, or tragic accidents.<br />
Performance quality is beyond reproach.<br />
Mr Bode draws absolutely ravishing and emotionally<br />
wrenching singing from his choir; their<br />
rich, smooth sonorities gain a particularly<br />
ethereal bloom in the heavenly acoustics of<br />
Seattle’s St James Cathedral—where this<br />
recording was made in concert. Soprano<br />
soloist Juliana Rambaldi is superb. The Cedille<br />
recording—from His Majestie’s Clerks, a<br />
slightly smaller ensemble—offers a slightly<br />
more transparent and purer-sounding<br />
account, with somewhat clearer separation<br />
between the choral parts. But this choir’s tonal<br />
opulence and sacred intensity sets their performance<br />
apart.<br />
If you don’t know Ferko’s wondrous choral<br />
music (he also writes amazing music for<br />
organ), this recording is sure to make a convert<br />
of you. Check out his shimmering Hildegard<br />
Motets (N/D 1996) while you’re at it.<br />
KOOB<br />
FEVRIER: Pieces de Clavecin<br />
Charlotte Mattax Moersch<br />
Centaur 3084 [2CD] 98 minutes<br />
Harpsichordist and organist Pierre Fevrier<br />
(1699-1760) came from a musical family. His<br />
father was an organist and his cousin, Charles<br />
Noblet, was harpsichordist at the Paris Opera.<br />
Fevrier’s harpsichord students included the<br />
celebrated Claude-Benigne Balbastre (1727-<br />
99). Fevrier published two books of harpsichord<br />
music in 1734 and 1735. The influence<br />
of Rameau is evident in pieces like ‘Le<br />
Labyrinthe’ (the figurations bring to mind<br />
Rameau’s ‘L’Egyptienne’) and the fugue of the<br />
third suite; its theme is reminiscent of ‘La Forqueray’<br />
from Rameau’s Pieces de Clavecin en<br />
Concerts. Fevrier includes fugues in his second<br />
and third suites. The fugue was very uncommon<br />
in French harpsichord music. I imagine<br />
Fevrier’s beautiful fugues might have gone a<br />
long way in convincing the 18th Century<br />
French public that the harpsichord was just as<br />
fit for contrapuntal music as the organ. Mattax<br />
makes a lovely transparent sound at the harpsichord<br />
and plays with a great deal of grace.<br />
KATZ<br />
FORQUERAY: Harpsichord Pieces<br />
Michael Borgstede<br />
Brilliant 94108 [2CD] 151 minutes<br />
Borgstede’s playing is fresh, beautiful, and<br />
rhetorical. He has a superb sense of narrative.<br />
In ‘La Clement’ flowers of sound bloom from<br />
his fingers, and he deploys the rondeau after<br />
each couplet like the moral of a fable. The<br />
whole piece feels like a collection of fables,<br />
each different but with the same moral. In ‘La<br />
Mandoline’ he paints a vivid picture of that<br />
instrument by differentiating between plucked<br />
and “strummed” sounds (though the harpsichord<br />
really only plucks). And what a joyful<br />
burst of sound at the end! ‘La Mandoline’ is<br />
the music I imagine Watteau’s commedia<br />
characters would be playing, if one could hear<br />
that music. It is full of simplicity, modesty,<br />
humor, and love. Borgstede’s reading of ‘La<br />
Jupiter’ is an astounding feat of characterization.<br />
This Jupiter can barely handle his own<br />
strength. When he finally gets around to<br />
throwing thunderbolts the gesture is not so far<br />
removed from a two-year-old’s wild tantrum.<br />
This release is profoundly rewarding. The<br />
sound of the harpsichord, tuned in A = 392, in<br />
a temperament ordinaire after Rameau (1726)<br />
is rich and earthy. One need only look at the<br />
character markings for the pieces to find apt<br />
descriptors for Borgstede’s interpretation:<br />
spirit, lightness, nobility, aplomb.<br />
KATZ<br />
FURTOK: Double Bass Quartets 2+5; 3<br />
Pieces for 4 Basses<br />
Boguslaw Furtok, Cristian Braica, Simon Backhaus,<br />
Ulrich Franck, db<br />
Zuk 333—64 minutes<br />
The Frankfurt Radio Symphony has a rather<br />
marvelous bass section that has developed a<br />
repertoire of their own. They call themselves<br />
the Flying Basses. Here we have them playing<br />
some works written by their leader, Boguslaw<br />
Furtok, from 2002 to 2006. This would be hard<br />
to guess by the music; the idiom sounds earlier—anything<br />
from Schubert up to WW I. It is<br />
undeniably beautiful music, and the use of<br />
four basses definitely brings us up to the present<br />
day; but you will find no dissonances for<br />
their own sake, no minimalism, and the formal<br />
structures are basically 19th Century. As a<br />
sneaky romantic at heart I enjoy it quite thoroughly.<br />
In fact, I hope that they will see fit to<br />
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record the other three Furtok bass quartets<br />
soon. They are grand pieces and are played<br />
with an easy flair that makes one stop thinking<br />
of the instrument as an ungainly elephant. It<br />
becomes a virtuoso in its own right.<br />
D MOORE<br />
GAL: Symphony 3;<br />
SCHUMANN: Symphony 3<br />
Orchestra of the Swan/ Kenneth Woods<br />
Avie 2230—68 minutes<br />
This is the first recording in a projected cycle<br />
of all four of Hans Gal’s symphonies—none of<br />
them, as far as I can tell, ever before recorded.<br />
Why on earth then does Avie pair Gal’s heretofore<br />
unknown Third Symphony with Schumann’s<br />
Third? Why not include what all who<br />
buy this disc will want: an additional Gal symphony?<br />
Is Avie this obtuse, or greedy?<br />
Gal (1890-1987) was a superb but backwards-looking<br />
craftsman who fled his native<br />
Austria when the Nazis came to power and settled<br />
in England where, by a cruel irony, he was<br />
imprisoned during the Second World War in<br />
an English internment camp as a suspicious<br />
alien. Of course (as he himself pointed out) he<br />
got vastly more humane treatment than the<br />
Nazis would have offered. But still.<br />
Several programs of Gal’s chamber and<br />
piano music have been issued in the past few<br />
years, but the only other orchestral music on<br />
CD that I’ve seen until now is the Triptych and<br />
two violin concertos on Avie 2146—all very<br />
nicely played and recorded, but not among<br />
Gal’s best efforts: too bland and placid to make<br />
much of an impression. Likewise his Idyllikon<br />
(also for orchestra) on the Amadeo LP doesn’t<br />
have a strong enough profile to prompt me to<br />
return to it. That’s the typical pitfall of staunch<br />
musical conservatives who pointedly reject<br />
most modern-era developments—like Gal,<br />
who wrote carefully reassuring tonal music following<br />
classic procedures very much in the<br />
tradition of Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, and<br />
Dvorak, with some later importations from<br />
such unthreatening figures as Saint-Saens and<br />
Fauré.<br />
Not surprising, then, that Gal’s musical<br />
personality is decorous and gentlemanly; he<br />
avoids anything excessive or self-dramatizing,<br />
tragic or erotic, grand or monumental. Instead<br />
he is sunny, serene, chaste, contemplative,<br />
wistful, whimsical, celebratory, or merry.<br />
Despite these self-imposed limitations Gal<br />
could and did write some very good music, if<br />
not consistently. His 24 Preludes and Fugues,<br />
now available in two recordings (Pan 51041,<br />
Nov/Dec 2002 & Avie 2064, May/June 2006)<br />
are excellent—and among his most daring<br />
works, with some piquant touches that sound<br />
just a bit like Prokofieff or Hindemith. (Gal was<br />
an exceptionally lucid and elegant contrapuntalist.)<br />
One notices faint echoes of Zemlinsky and<br />
Strauss, as well as Mahler’s Fourth Symphony—his<br />
most pastoral and innocent—in Gal’s<br />
nicely written 1952 Third (in three movements<br />
lasting 35 minutes). But there’s little of the<br />
romantic heroism that, for instance, infused<br />
the responses of more emotional composers<br />
like Shostakovich to the global conflict all had<br />
recently lived through. This isn’t to say that<br />
Gal’s symphony isn’t, in part, quite serious—it<br />
does incorporate, in the first movement, considerable<br />
(though never harsh) turbulence and<br />
struggle; but these are sharply controlled and<br />
limited in scope and power; and the lyrical,<br />
palliative impulse dominates and encloses<br />
them. What remains in mind are gentle<br />
melodies, delicate harmonic shadings, sensuous<br />
but transparent scorings, and a sense of<br />
verdant natural beauty—a Viennese expatriate’s<br />
version of English pastoralism, perhaps.<br />
The musical flow is untroubled and unforced—”organic”,<br />
in a word—and carries the<br />
listener along from one felicitous turn of<br />
phrase to the next.<br />
Anyone who enjoys the old-fashioned,<br />
well-made symphonies of Miaskovsky, or<br />
Stenhammar, or Alfano, or (the recently rediscovered)<br />
Weingartner, or many another polite<br />
20th Century composer who remained comfortable<br />
speaking a late-Victorian-era language,<br />
would most likely enjoy Gal’s Third,<br />
especially in this dulcet performance (by the<br />
Stratford-on-Avon-based Orchestra of the<br />
Swan) and clear, richly glowing sonics from<br />
Avie.<br />
LEHMAN<br />
GANDOLFI: Line Drawings; see BRUBECK<br />
GAUBERT: Flute Pieces;<br />
DEBUSSY: Syrinx<br />
Immanuel Davis, fl; Kathe Jarka, vc; Timothy<br />
Lovelace, p—MSR 1356—59 minutes<br />
Philippe Gaubert (1879-1941) was a French<br />
composer, performer, teacher, and <strong>conductor</strong><br />
whose career peaked in the interwar period. He<br />
wrote in all genres, including the most important<br />
one, flute music. This disc offers a sample<br />
of his pieces performed on official instruments<br />
of the Paris Conservatory. It was this particular<br />
sound Gaubert became accustomed to when<br />
he was a student there in the 1890s. The flute<br />
timbre is almost indistinguishable from what<br />
we recognize today, while the piano (an 1899<br />
Erard) mostly sounds different, depending on<br />
the writing. Although the differences won’t<br />
jump out at you, these instruments suit the<br />
music in subtle ways. I was immediately struck<br />
by the clarity and voicing of the piano part. The<br />
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liner notes point out that Erard made both<br />
pianos and harps, and the rapid, harp-like<br />
decay of their pianos contrasts with the long<br />
decay of a modern Steinway.<br />
Since flutists are universally schooled in<br />
the merits of the French aesthetic, it would be<br />
immediately apparent if Davis got anything<br />
wrong. His playing (on a Louis Lot) epitomizes<br />
French style. Flexibility is the key word that<br />
comes to my mind, along with an effortlessness<br />
and accuracy that I think were central to<br />
Gaubert’s own playing. Davis navigates the<br />
instrument’s various registers with ease and<br />
excellent intonation and control.<br />
This program includes the Sonatas 1 and 3,<br />
Fantaisie, and Nocturne et Allegro Scherzando.<br />
Like his other chamber music, Gaubert’s Three<br />
Watercolors for flute, cello, and piano (1915)<br />
are not heard often enough—and this reading<br />
leaves you willing to play them again. All his<br />
music sounds wholly French. The final movement<br />
of the third sonata opens in canon with a<br />
Franckian nod. It sums up Gaubert’s style to<br />
say you would truly need a heart of stone to<br />
dislike any of it.<br />
The instruments are picked up closely, in a<br />
way that is direct and not resonant, so the<br />
overall sound is more raw and honest than<br />
produced. The intention was surely to present<br />
the instruments with clarity and to preserve<br />
the clarity of the music. It makes for very<br />
pleasant listening, and the flute and cello are<br />
splendid together. Mr Lovelace [who used to<br />
write for ARG] knows just when to push forth<br />
and hold back, both in loudness and in tempo.<br />
As part of the standard repertory,<br />
Gaubert’s flute pieces are often recorded in<br />
collections with music by his contemporaries.<br />
His output has been surveyed at greater length<br />
by Susan Milan (Chandos 8981; Jan/Feb 1992)<br />
and Fenwick Smith (three releases on Naxos;<br />
see our Index). Nonetheless, this is a worthwhile<br />
and welcome addition to the Gaubert<br />
discography.<br />
GORMAN<br />
GETTY: Plump Jack Overture; Ancestor<br />
Suite; Homework Suite; Tiefer und Tiefer;<br />
Fiddler of Ballykeel; Raise the Colors<br />
Academy of St Martin in the Fields/ Neville Marriner—Pentatone<br />
5186 356—60 minutes<br />
Gordon Getty (b 1933) is a San Franciscobased<br />
businessman, the son of oil tycoon J<br />
Paul Getty. He is also a fine composer who<br />
speaks a very tonal language. This collection of<br />
orchestral works shows that, while vocal music<br />
is Getty’s specialty, he obviously has no trouble<br />
working with instruments.<br />
The 12-minute Overture to Plump Jack<br />
(Shakespeare’s nickname for Falstaff) is a collection<br />
of loosely connected themes and<br />
episodes, some contemplative, others dramatic,<br />
all easy on the ears. Ancestor Suite (2009) is<br />
a ballet score written for the Russian National<br />
Orchestra. The 12-movement, 36-minute work<br />
is about Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher, where<br />
the living (Poe and friends) meet the immortal<br />
members of the Usher family at a ball. Much of<br />
the time, you’d swear you are hearing 19th-<br />
Century ballet music, but the interesting twists<br />
and turns are contemporary.<br />
‘Tiefer und Tiefer’ (Deeper and Deeper,<br />
1991) is a haunting little waltz. Homework<br />
Suite is an orchestrated version of a piano<br />
piece Getty wrote in 1964; its five little movements<br />
are character-pieces with solo lines for<br />
oboe, piccolo, violin, English horn, and harp.<br />
‘The Fiddler of Ballykeel’ and ‘Raise the Colors’<br />
salute Getty’s Irish roots.<br />
If you want new music that sounds old yet<br />
fresh, this is for you. Polished readings.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
GIBBS: Violin Pieces<br />
Robert Atchison; Olga Dudnik, p<br />
Guild 7353—73 minutes<br />
The only piece that I am somewhat compelled<br />
by in this collection is the Sonata in E. It is the<br />
most seriously thought-out of all. The Three<br />
Pieces are very charming and sensitive. Most<br />
of these pieces seem to be pastoral meditations<br />
and have a distinctly English sound. Bartok<br />
seems to be an influence on Gibbs, particularly<br />
in ‘March Wind’, whose opening closely<br />
resembles the Violin Concerto. The players are<br />
OK.<br />
As for everything else, I just do not get it.<br />
Some of the melodies are painfully obvious<br />
and dumb, like the opening of the Phantasy,<br />
Op. 5. I think if Gibbs would have started with<br />
the arpeggio accompaniment that appears<br />
later in the piece rather than the clumsy<br />
stomping of the piano the effect would be less<br />
offensive. Other pieces are just bizarre. The<br />
‘Prelude’ in the Suite, Op. 101, for example.<br />
What is it? It has absolutely no direction. The<br />
rest of the Suite is just as tedious. I suspect<br />
Gibbs was trying to write a neo-baroque violin<br />
suite in the style of Bach.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
GILARDINO: Concerto di Oliena; 8 Transcendental<br />
Etudes<br />
Cristiano Porqueddu, g; Ermanno Brignolo Asti/<br />
Sardinia Chamber Orchestra<br />
Brilliant 9208—67 minutes<br />
This is Gilardino’s third concerto for guitar and<br />
orchestra. His music is bold and intense—<br />
often beautiful and evocative, always challenging.<br />
He once said that, in years past, there were<br />
no guitarists who had the ability to perform his<br />
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music properly. Those days are over, and in<br />
Cristiano Porqueddu he has a virtuoso fully<br />
capable of realizing his demands.<br />
This was evident in Porqueddu’s earlier<br />
recording of Gilardino’s massive set of Studi di<br />
Virtuosita e di Trancendenza. The title was<br />
taken from Liszt, but instead of one set of a<br />
dozen Transcendental Etudes, Gilardano<br />
wrote five—a set of 60 works, nearly all programmatic,<br />
each exploring a different challenge<br />
or set of challenges for guitar. Porqueddu’s<br />
recording of that huge work (N/D 2009),<br />
on five discs, was on my Critic’s Choice list of<br />
2009, and it remains one of the greatest guitar<br />
recordings I’ve ever encountered. He plays<br />
Gilardino’s music as if he wrote it himself—<br />
none of the considerable demands are beyond<br />
him. If you don’t know those works from the<br />
complete recording, here is your chance to<br />
sample a set of eight, drawn from each of the<br />
five books. If you enjoy them, I urge you to<br />
seek out the full set on Brilliant.<br />
The concerto is a fascinating work. The<br />
music hovers in and out of tonality, with an<br />
expressionist character. The orchestra is actually<br />
a large chamber ensemble, one player to a<br />
part. The double reeds sound so absolutely<br />
even in their notes that sometimes I could<br />
have sworn they were synthesized. The work is<br />
in the standard fast-slow-fast arrangement,<br />
and problems of balance between guitar and<br />
orchestra are met mostly by having the guitar<br />
alternate, rather than play with the orchestra.<br />
Each of the three movements is based, to some<br />
extent, on repeating pitch patterns like an ostinato,<br />
used as a foundation for development.<br />
Gilardino says that he wrote the work without<br />
reliance on any philosophical, mathematical,<br />
or pictorial foundations. The latter claim is<br />
quite evident—though he describes the namesake<br />
town of Oliena with a pastoral affection,<br />
the music is mostly intense and even angry,<br />
when not brooding.<br />
These are great performances of fascinating<br />
music. If you’re up for the challenge, it’s<br />
worth your efforts. Brilliant should, however,<br />
seek out some better translators. The notes<br />
have some interesting references to a “kettle of<br />
drums” and to “arches without divides, to<br />
allow for a chamber execution with only one<br />
arch per section”. The “arch” is surely a mistranslation<br />
of the Italian arci, referring to<br />
bowed strings.<br />
KEATON<br />
GINASTERA: Cello Concertos<br />
Mark Kosower; Bamberg Symphony/ Lothar<br />
Zagrosek<br />
Naxos 572372—69 minutes<br />
Alberto Ginastera (1916-83) wrote his first cello<br />
concerto in 1968, his second in 1980. They are<br />
both about 34 minutes long in these performances<br />
and are highly colorful works, the second<br />
written for performance by Ginastera’s<br />
wife Aurora Natola, who has issued several<br />
recordings of his works, including these two<br />
concertos (Pieran 34, Sept/Oct 2009). Not to be<br />
outdone, Kosower has also made a disc of the<br />
cello-piano works (Naxos 570569), and he<br />
includes at least one piece that Natola missed.<br />
Natola was at something of a disadvantage,<br />
since she was not young when she recorded<br />
these works; Kosower is more solid technically.<br />
His Concerto 2 is taken from an exciting performance.<br />
Concerto 1 was done in the same<br />
hall, but without an audience. Concerto 1 is<br />
rather a grim work, very difficult to play, but an<br />
event for the listener. Concerto 2 shows more<br />
popular influences. Both are fine compositions<br />
that take us to other worlds of sound and feeling.<br />
These are very good readings that make a<br />
deep impression.<br />
D MOORE<br />
GLASS & SUSO: The Screens+<br />
Martin Goldray conducting<br />
Orange Mountain 66—59 minutes<br />
Jean Genet’s play The Screens, as Philip Glass<br />
explains in his liner notes, “takes place in the<br />
early 1960s in Algeria during the revolutionary<br />
struggle for independence from France” and<br />
combines “themes of colonialism, exploitation,<br />
and the European notion of ‘Arab-ness’”.<br />
When Joanne Akalaitis directed a production<br />
of it in Minneapolis, she hoped to have incidental<br />
music written by the African composer<br />
Foday Musa Suso in collaboration with a Western<br />
composer. Glass, who had known Suso<br />
since the early 1980s, volunteered. The result is<br />
one of the most satisfying scores of Glass’s<br />
career. The two men, Glass reports, actually<br />
worked together, contributing ideas or continuations<br />
as they proceeded; the result sometimes<br />
sounds like Glass, sometimes like Suso,<br />
but never simply like one or the other. No texts<br />
or translations for the pieces sung by Suso. I<br />
just saw that the original CD (distributed by<br />
Point Music) now sells for anywhere from $55<br />
to almost $200; this release contains all the<br />
original music from the Point Release as well<br />
as two tracks from concert performances.<br />
HASKINS<br />
GLAZOUNOV: Piano Sonatas 1+2;<br />
LIADOV: Polish Variations;<br />
ARENSKY: 6 Caprices<br />
Martin Cousin<br />
Somm 100—77 minutes<br />
The Russian Piano Sonata is one of my favorite<br />
genres. So it is with a little shame that I<br />
acknowledge that the two Glazounov works<br />
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were not familiar to me before this came<br />
along. Written together in 1901, they just predate<br />
some of my favorites—Balakirev (1905),<br />
Rachmaninoff 1 (1908), Scriabin 4 (1903)—but<br />
sound different. With almost a complete lack<br />
of Russian characteristics, these could easily<br />
be mistaken for central European works, heavily<br />
under the influence of Chopin, Schumann,<br />
and Liszt.<br />
The piano sonata by Sinding (1909) was<br />
also brought to mind as I listened to this. The<br />
Liadov Variations and the Arensky Caprices are<br />
very much in the same vein—melodic, very<br />
tonal, in a romantic idiom, and totally charming,<br />
but not at all in keeping with the Russian<br />
nationalist compositional goals of Balakirev<br />
and his “Mighty Handful”, who were contemporaries<br />
of Glazounov. Some of the Liadov<br />
Variations are very reminiscent of Chopin<br />
Etudes in style, and one might very well expect<br />
that, given the Polish theme. Of the enchanting<br />
Arensky Caprices, the fifth is clearly based<br />
on Chopin’s most famous Nocturne in E-flat<br />
Op. 9:2.<br />
The sonatas are big works, each in three<br />
movements and over 25 minutes long. Initially<br />
I was a bit cool towards them, but Cousin’s<br />
technically secure and beautiful performances<br />
won me over. This is absolutely gorgeous playing<br />
of works that are quite difficult, with page<br />
after page of nasty figurations tossed off seemingly<br />
without effort. While Cousins might disagree<br />
with that statement, the auditory effect is<br />
not one of someone struggling with the notes.<br />
His engaging performances make the most of<br />
the big romantic sweep. I definitely feel the<br />
need to become well acquainted with these<br />
sonatas, and can’t think of a better way than<br />
with this marvelous recording.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
GODARD: Symphonie Orientale; Piano<br />
Concerto 1; Introduction & Allegro<br />
Victor Sangiorgio, Royal Scottish Orchestra/ Martin<br />
Yates<br />
Dutton 7274—70 minutes<br />
Just as “Turkish” or “Janissary” music seized<br />
the imagination of composers in the 18th Century—one<br />
need only think of Mozart’s Abduction<br />
from the Seraglio, Haydn’s Military Symphony,<br />
or for that matter the alla marcia section<br />
of the final movement of Beethoven’s<br />
Ninth—so too in the 19th Century were artists<br />
of every persuasion drawn to the Orient, and<br />
to (as one writer wryly puts it) “the mysterious,<br />
the fabulous, the forbidden, the sensuously<br />
erotic...everything that aroused European<br />
imagination but that the narrow morality of<br />
the 19th Century prohibited”. In 1820 Victor<br />
Hugo inflamed French sensibilities with Les<br />
Orientales, and five years later Delacroix with<br />
his Women of Algiers—just like Mozart before<br />
him—celebrated the languorous charms of the<br />
harem. In the concert hall we may think first of<br />
Felicien David, whose grand “Ode Symphonie”<br />
Le Desert in 1844 helped open the door to Orientalism<br />
in French music, followed five years<br />
later by the “Oriental symphony in five pictures”<br />
Le Selam (The Greeting) by Louis Etienne<br />
Ernest Reyer, who modeled his symphony<br />
closely after David’s. (If you have the September/October<br />
1992 issue on your shelf, you<br />
can read reviews of both scores as released by<br />
Capriccio.)<br />
The fact that Benjamin Godard was able to<br />
achieve such a triumphant success with his<br />
Symphonie Orientale written 35 years later in<br />
1884 shows what a great draw “Turkish music”<br />
continued to be for many years to come—<br />
annotator John Warrack perceptively likens it<br />
to Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Scheherazade written in<br />
1888. Even if that’s your only reference point,<br />
you’ll surely welcome this brilliantly conceived<br />
example of Orientalism a la Française.<br />
Godard prefaced each section of the symphony<br />
(there are five in all) with a poem, starting<br />
out with Leconte de Lisle’s Les Elephants<br />
for ‘Arabia’—not exactly an elephant stomping<br />
ground. (Were there wild elephants roaming<br />
Arabia a hundred years ago?) Godard aptly<br />
images the pachyderm caravan shuffling along<br />
the sands, beginning with the heavy tread of<br />
the basses set against string tremolos a la<br />
D’Indy and continually gaining strength, then<br />
waning in intensity. Here the obvious cognate<br />
is Moussorgsky’s heavily laden oxcart (‘Bydlo’)<br />
from Pictures at an Exhibition, just as the<br />
ensuing Chinoiserie (‘China’) after Auguste de<br />
Chƒtillon with its chirping woodwinds and<br />
piquant touches of percussion calls to mind<br />
Moussorgsky’s ‘Unhatched Chicks’ if perhaps<br />
via Gliere’s Red Poppy. I’m pleased to have in<br />
my collection a concert performance by New<br />
York City’s Jupiter Symphony under its excellent<br />
<strong>conductor</strong> (and oboist par excellence) Gerard<br />
Reuter, who gets what Godard is after a lot<br />
better than Martin Yates, allowing the great<br />
beasts a full two minutes longer to reach their<br />
destination (that’s also why I still count Reiner’s<br />
Pictures as my favorite!).<br />
Even more curious than Godard’s Arabian<br />
elephants is the third movement, where the<br />
Orient is expanded to include Greece—a<br />
vignette from Victor Hugo’s Orientales subtitled<br />
‘Sara la Baigneuse’ (also set memorably by<br />
Berlioz)—yet it might just as easily be a Venetian<br />
barcarolle, a gentle rocking rhythm<br />
adorned by woodwind filigrees that limns the<br />
fair Sara swinging indolently in a hammock<br />
while bathing in the waters of a fountain<br />
drawn from Athens’s Illyssus, the river that<br />
flows through the city. But there’s no question<br />
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Persia is essential to our Oriental travelog, and<br />
IV, setting a poem by Godard himself, tells of<br />
‘Le Rêve de la Nikia’, a beautiful young Persian<br />
girl who dreams of reigning as Queen over<br />
some distant land. Godard entrusts the soulful<br />
solo to the oboe, who in turn defers to the clarinet<br />
yet returns near the close (after a rather<br />
stormy scene) where he plays Don Quixote to<br />
the nattering bassoon’s Sancho Panza.<br />
But Godard saves the big brass (and I do<br />
mean big!) for the closing ‘Marche Turque’.<br />
Another of Godard’s quatrains praising Allah<br />
sets the scene. Clearly these Turks are clad in<br />
their most formidable battle gear, and you<br />
won’t hear anything approaching the wit and<br />
effervescence of either Beethoven’s or<br />
Mozart’s quickstep. Truly this is a feast for the<br />
brass, who resound from far and near—I was<br />
beginning to wonder if Godard actually called<br />
for an offstage band, but finally resigned<br />
myself to the fact that the raucous effect was<br />
directly traceable to the slapdash playing of<br />
the Scottish brasses who sound like they came<br />
straight from some Glasgow pub, unfortunately<br />
made even worse by the echo-ridden hall.<br />
But this music surely must have come like<br />
manna from Heaven to the absolutely glorious<br />
Jupiter Symphony brass, who without ever<br />
sounding anything less than refined and<br />
absolutely professional, simply throw it out to<br />
the enthusiastic audience with such joy that<br />
you can tell they’re really having a blast. Oh,<br />
how I wish they might open up their vault of<br />
concert performances to the world. I can at<br />
least point you to their website, www.jupitersymphony.com.<br />
Still, the Scots make enough<br />
of a racket that I imagine your neighbors will<br />
come a’knocking at your door just the same.<br />
Since the ‘Berceuse’ from Jocelyn—once<br />
standard fare on “pops” programs—has apparently<br />
become passe, most record buyers these<br />
days are likely to know Godard mainly from his<br />
Concerto Romantique (May/June 2008)—hardly<br />
a stretch for a student of Vieuxtemps—yet<br />
he also composed prolifically for the piano,<br />
including two concertos. The First Concerto,<br />
in A minor, saw the light of day nine years<br />
before the symphony and like the Brahms Bflat<br />
is cast in four movements rather than the<br />
usual three. A pensive introduction sets up a<br />
four-note motto that will pervade the opening<br />
movement, soon taken up effusively by the<br />
soloist; and there’s a secondary motif that<br />
sounds very much like its counterpart in the<br />
finale of Anton Rubinstein’s Fourth Concerto<br />
written 11 years before. A free-wheeling “Fantasia”<br />
in E major forms something of a movement<br />
within a movement, while frequent outbursts<br />
by the brass seem to have elbowed their<br />
way in from the Berlioz Requiem—unfortunately<br />
just as raw as in the symphony. A<br />
Mendelssohnian Scherzo follows, and one<br />
might wish Victor Sangiorgio could “trip the<br />
light fantastic”; unfortunately he seems to trip<br />
over his own shoelaces, gawky and prosaic.<br />
Here I happily turned to my German aircheck<br />
with Gerhard Puchelt, who is far more nimble<br />
and light of foot; and he also manages to keep<br />
III from turning into a funeral cortege as it<br />
does here. But once Sangiorgio gets to the<br />
finale he handily trumps Puchelt with an<br />
urgent and sparkling account of this delightful<br />
romp, spelled by a “Papageno” motif (or is it<br />
“Papagena”?) that soon spills over into witty<br />
passagework for the soloist. You might expect<br />
more of the same from the Introduction and<br />
Allegro, but here the music suggests Saint-<br />
Saens, most of all Africa (actually written 11<br />
years later) until Godard piles on the cymbals<br />
and bass drum and it sounds like a carnival<br />
cootch dance. Sangiorgio takes the opening<br />
Lento quite slowly, saving up his energy for<br />
Godard’s exhilarating development.<br />
Sound tends to thicken in loud passages,<br />
and Martin Yates’s apparent proclivity for letting<br />
the brasses (especially the trumpets) go<br />
hog wild doesn’t help any. Just the same, I<br />
hope Sangiorgio and Dutton plan to follow up<br />
with Godard’s Second Piano Concerto; and a<br />
generous look at Felicien David’s other symphonies<br />
would be welcome too.<br />
HALLER<br />
GODOWSKY: Java Suite;<br />
SAINT-SAENS: Danse Macabre<br />
Carl Petersson, p<br />
Sterling 1671—57 minutes<br />
The Java Suite is Godowsky’s journey through<br />
“distant lands” and an account of his fascination<br />
with “strange people”. Most of this music<br />
is repetitive and filled with aimless whirlwinds<br />
of virtuosity. Most of these pieces are not that<br />
interesting. Just when you think something<br />
meaningful is going to be said, in comes overstated,<br />
with rapid arpeggios in the upper register<br />
of the piano to remind us we are far away.<br />
Some of Godowsky’s harmonic language is<br />
interesting, but most of the virtuosity is distracting<br />
fluff. If you think early Liszt can be<br />
over-the-top, make way for Godowsky.<br />
Carl Petersson is quite good. His playing is<br />
captivating, and he is good at introspective<br />
music. He should give the Debussy Preludes a<br />
go. His playing of the Danse Macabre is OK. He<br />
certainly executes the showman element of the<br />
piece effectively. I have always thought that<br />
such a large piece—conceptually—does not<br />
belong on the piano. It’s too loud.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
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GOMPPER: Violin Concerto; Ikon; Flip;<br />
Spirals<br />
Wolfgang David, Peter Zazofsky,v; Royal Philharmonic/<br />
<strong>Emmanuel</strong> <strong>Siffert</strong><br />
Naxos 559637—71 minutes<br />
David Gompper is an Academy Award-winning<br />
<strong>American</strong> composer. He has worked<br />
internationally as a pianist, <strong>conductor</strong>, and<br />
composer. This is the first time I have heard<br />
his music, and I am very impressed. I feel<br />
refreshed that such exceptional music is still<br />
composed in these times of artistic apathy.<br />
The incredible Wolfgang David takes the<br />
stage with the Violin Concerto. This Austrian<br />
violinist is extraordinary. His playing is exceptionally<br />
rich and opulent and can also be<br />
frighteningly delicate and distant when necessary.<br />
The concerto begins with a violent solo<br />
violin gesture that explodes into a dense texture,<br />
Stravinskian in quality. The violin dances<br />
around to a very <strong>American</strong> tune, yet reflects a<br />
staple 20th Century violin concerto. Shostakovich<br />
seems to be of influence in passages of<br />
very involved counterpoint in the winds,<br />
which serve as support for the cadenza-like<br />
passages in the violin—as in the Op. 99 scherzo.<br />
The frantic exchange is interrupted by a<br />
beautifully meditative section. As the agitation<br />
begins to brew once more, the desperate counterpoint<br />
between the strings and winds comes<br />
to a drastic halt with a booming brass call that<br />
melts back into a meditative vision. The ending<br />
seems to be in the style of Shostakovich—<br />
this time, the end of the Fourth Symphony.<br />
The second movement is an agonizing<br />
moment, with a never-ending violin line that<br />
reaches a transformative climax. III is certainly<br />
the high point of this piece. I cannot get<br />
enough! I am listening obsessively to the riveting<br />
ending. Again, it seems to redefine, yet celebrate<br />
the great violin concertos with sounds<br />
of Bartok and Shostakovich. David Gompper<br />
also does something rather rare these days:<br />
compose a good tune; it’s glorious.<br />
The other pieces are also very satisfying—<br />
especially the emotionally charmed Ikon and<br />
Spirals, inspired by the Fibonacci sequence.<br />
What an absolute delight!<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
GOULD: Freedom Fanfare; St Lawrence<br />
Suite; Jericho Rhapsody; Clarinet Derivations;<br />
Band Symphony 4<br />
Stephanie Zelnick, cl; University of Kansas Wind<br />
Ensemble/ Scott Weiss<br />
Naxos 572629—62 minutes<br />
This collection of concert band works by Morton<br />
Gould (1913-96) has introduced me to several<br />
works I wish I had played back in my band<br />
days. The UK Wind Ensemble’s exciting reading<br />
of ‘Fanfare for Freedom’, composed in<br />
1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony, has all the<br />
block triads well balanced and in tune. From<br />
the same period is the 12-minute Jericho<br />
Rhapsody (1941), based on ‘Joshua Fit the Battle’<br />
and in eight lively, creative sections that<br />
correspond with events in the Biblical story.<br />
Also quite attractive is Saint Lawrence Suite<br />
(1958), in four movements, each opening with<br />
a two-trumpet fanfare (symbolizing US-Canadian<br />
cooperation), and each with much quiet<br />
playing. It is good to hear Gould’s Symphony 4<br />
(1952), subtitled West Point, composed for that<br />
institution’s sesquicentennial. In two movements,<br />
the work opens with a seemingly long<br />
(though only 12 minutes) ‘Epitaphs’ and concludes<br />
with the uplifting ‘Marches’.<br />
The program also includes Derivations for<br />
Clarinet (1955), given a smooth, swinging<br />
reading by University of Kansas clarinet professor<br />
Stephanie Zelnick. She is miked quite<br />
closely, and other musicians seem to move in<br />
and out of proximity. Apparently the engineers<br />
played an active role in how this piece<br />
sounds—but it sounds good.<br />
Scott Weiss, director of bands at the University<br />
of Kansas since 2007, has his ensemble<br />
operating at a high level. I hear lots of great<br />
moments and no weaknesses. Fine playing<br />
and music-making!<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
GOUNOD: Sacred Music<br />
Missae Breves 5+7; Noël; Bethleem; 7 Words of<br />
Christ on the Cross; Evening Service (Anglican);<br />
Pater Noster<br />
Raphaela Mayhous, s; Christa Bonhoff, a; Tobias<br />
Götting, org; I Vocalisti Chamber Choir/ Hans-<br />
Joachim Lustig<br />
Carus 83161—65 minutes<br />
Requiem in C; Mass in C minor<br />
Charlotte Müller-Perrier, Valerie Bonnard,<br />
Christophe Einhorn, Christian Immler; Vocal &<br />
Instrumental Ensemble of Lausanne/ Michel Corboz<br />
Mirare 129—63 minutes<br />
Charles Gounod (1818-93) could be passionate<br />
about church music, and he was not shy when<br />
it came to expressing his strongly held convictions<br />
about it. He was an ally of Charles Bordes<br />
(1863-1909) in seeking the reform and elevation<br />
of church music in France to the standing<br />
it had enjoyed before the Revolution. He<br />
deplored the sentimental popular church<br />
music of his day, described in a letter of 1892<br />
to Bordes as “the mush of romance and all the<br />
sweets of piety” (toutes les guimauves de la<br />
romance et toutes les sucreries de pieté). His<br />
exemplars were Palestrina and Bach. Much of<br />
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Gounod’s vast output of church music should<br />
be viewed in the light of his work with amateur<br />
choirs as well as his zeal for reform.<br />
Most of the music on the Carus disc could<br />
be described as liturgical gebrauchsmusik:<br />
works conceived in scale and character to be<br />
suitable for the ordinary parish mass and modest<br />
enough in their technical demands to be<br />
accessible to amateur singers. In all, Gounod<br />
wrote more than 20 mass settings. Ten are designated<br />
Brief Masses. Eight are more ambitious<br />
technically and larger in scale and are<br />
designated Solemn Masses. These include the<br />
well-known St Cecilia Mass. Four of Gounod’s<br />
masses are Requiems.<br />
The Carus recording includes two Missae<br />
Breves with organ accompaniment, both in the<br />
key of C. Missa Brevis 7 was first published in<br />
1877 for two equal voices and organ. The version<br />
recorded here dates from 1890 and is recast<br />
for soprano and alto soloists and a fourpart<br />
mixed choir with organ. In place of ‘Benedictus<br />
qui Venit’ after the Sanctus there is a<br />
setting of the Eucharistic hymn ‘O Salutaris<br />
Hostia’. Missa Brevis 5 is for TBB soloists and a<br />
three-part men’s choir (also TBB) with organ.<br />
It was first published in 1871, and on its reissue<br />
in 1892 the designation “aux seminaires”<br />
was added to the title. The warmth of Gounod’s<br />
writing for lower voices is especially<br />
attractive. Both masses are predominantly<br />
homophonic and neither includes a setting of<br />
the Creed.<br />
During his years in Rome (1840-42) Gounod<br />
was profoundly influenced by the music of<br />
Palestrina. His understanding of the vocalpolyphonic<br />
idiom is eloquently displayed in<br />
The Seven Words of Christ on the Cross for<br />
unaccompanied choir and a quartet of soloists.<br />
Much of the work could pass for early music—<br />
if not Palestrina himself, then perhaps Allegri<br />
or Anerio. Two notable departures from the<br />
historic idiom are the chromatic setting of the<br />
word “Sitio” (I thirst) and the final movement,<br />
where Gounod allows himself more 19th-Century<br />
harmonic writing.<br />
Mendelssohn and Gounod were among<br />
the few non-English composers to make direct<br />
contributions to the Anglican cathedral repertory.<br />
(Excerpts from oratorios sung as anthems<br />
don’t count, and composers like Handel or<br />
Berthold Tours, who were of foreign birth but<br />
settled permanently in England, are in a slightly<br />
different category.) The Carus recording<br />
includes an Evening Service (Magnificat &<br />
Nunc Dimittis, using the English text of the<br />
Book of Common Prayer) that dates from 1872,<br />
when Gounod was living in England. It is a<br />
concise, mainly chordal setting in what I<br />
would describe as the Victorian short service<br />
idiom. One may detect the influence of com-<br />
posers like SS Wesley and Henry Smart. A simple<br />
but eloquent ‘Pater Noster’ and two<br />
charming Christmas pieces with French texts<br />
complete the program. One of these, ‘Bethleem’<br />
(1882), is claimed as a world premiere<br />
recording, as are Missa Brevis 5 and ‘Pater<br />
Noster’.<br />
I Vocalisti, founded in 1991, is a 30-voice<br />
choir of young singers from northern Germany.<br />
Their choral sound is delicate and<br />
refined with a fresh and youthful character<br />
that is well suited to the present repertory.<br />
There are flaws in their English diction in the<br />
Evening Service, and I suspect a native French<br />
speaker could find similar faults in the two<br />
Christmas songs, but on the whole these are<br />
very fine performances that exhibit this unfamiliar<br />
repertory to good advantage.<br />
The recording by Michel Corboz and his<br />
Lausanne Ensemble from Mirare presents two<br />
larger-scale liturgical works by Gounod. The<br />
Requiem in C was written in memory of the<br />
composer’s grandson, Maurice Gounod, who<br />
died at the age of five in January of 1889.<br />
Although Gounod considered the work complete<br />
in 1891, he continued to revise it until<br />
February of 1893 when he submitted the score<br />
to the Societé des Concerts du Conservatoire.<br />
He died in October of that year. The Requiem<br />
had its first performances at the Paris Conservatoire<br />
on Good Friday and Holy Saturday<br />
(March 23 & 24) of 1894. In October of that<br />
year it was performed as part of an official<br />
memorial concert at La Madeleine on the first<br />
anniversary of the composer’s death. Gabriel<br />
Fauré directed that performance, and among<br />
those in attendance were Ambroise Thomas<br />
and Giuseppe Verdi.<br />
Gounod authorized his colleague Henri<br />
Büsser (1872-1973; yes, he died a little over two<br />
weeks shy of his 102nd birthday) to produce<br />
versions of the work apart from the full orchestral<br />
score. The version heard on the present<br />
recording is for a quartet of soloists, mixed<br />
choir, string quintet, harp, and organ. Program<br />
annotator Michel Daudin writes that this version<br />
achieves the best balance between the<br />
dramatic character of the work and its intimate<br />
feeling. Presumably this reflects Corboz’s<br />
judgement. It is a work that springs from a<br />
deeply personal grief that seems to be reflected<br />
in the music. An understated ‘Dies Irae’ may<br />
sound like a contradiction in terms, and while<br />
Gounod’s setting is not without moments of<br />
intense menace, it is also notable for its quiet<br />
penitence. It is very different from the melodramatic<br />
ferocity of Verdi. Daudin suggests<br />
that Gounod’s Requiem may have been a key<br />
influence on Fauré.<br />
The Choral Mass in G minor is the fourth<br />
of Gounod’s big masses. It was first performed<br />
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in Reims Cathedral on June 24, 1888 at the<br />
beatification of Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, who<br />
had been a canon of Reims. It may be significant<br />
that in February of that year, at a festival<br />
in Angers, Gounod met the great plainsong<br />
scholar Dom Joseph Pothier of Solesmes<br />
Abbey, who urged the composer to write a<br />
mass based on Gregorian themes. Gounod visited<br />
Solesmes and was highly impressed with<br />
the flowing style of plainsong chanting there in<br />
contrast with the slow and ponderous delivery<br />
then common elsewhere. The mass is based<br />
on the intonation of Credo IV. It is treated not<br />
as a cantus firmus but as a motto that pervades<br />
the work.<br />
The mass is scored for a mixed choir and<br />
small choir organ in dialog with the large<br />
organ in the west gallery. In contrast with the<br />
Seven Words, it is not a close imitation of early<br />
music, but the vocal-polyphonic style is clearly<br />
Gounod’s point of departure. On the whole,<br />
the work sounds unmistakably of the 19th<br />
Century. It expresses the liturgical text but<br />
with a ceremonial objectivity that contrasts<br />
with the highly personal flavor of the Requiem.<br />
Michel Corboz founded the Lausanne<br />
Vocal Ensemble in 1961. They enjoy a distinguished<br />
reputation for their concert performances<br />
and more than 100 recordings. As<br />
heard here the choral discipline and tone are<br />
exemplary. It is a somewhat more robust<br />
sound and perhaps not quite as youthful in<br />
character as I Vocalisti. The two choirs are<br />
about the same size.<br />
My only real complaint concerns the<br />
organ. It appears that the organ parts of the<br />
Messe Chorale have been realized on a single<br />
instrument, as only one organist is listed<br />
among the players. A photograph in the booklet<br />
shows a small two-manual organ that is evidently<br />
the one used here. It has a lovely, warm<br />
flute tone, but its chorus is thin and weak. It<br />
may be satisfactory for the organ writing in<br />
Büsser’s scoring of the Requiem, but it is hopelessly<br />
inadequate as a stand-in for a large west<br />
gallery organ. Gounod’s writing presupposes<br />
the imposing power, richness, and spaciousness<br />
of a large French romantic organ speaking<br />
into a vast interior. After all, the piece was<br />
intended for Reims Cathedral.<br />
Readers who wish to explore more of<br />
Gounod’s shorter sacred vocal works may like<br />
to consider a recording I reviewed a few years<br />
ago by the choir of Gonville & Caius College,<br />
Cambridge, under the direction of Geoffrey<br />
Webber (Centaur 2848; May/June 2008).<br />
GATENS<br />
GRAENER: Trios<br />
Hyperion Trio; Albrecht Pöhl, bar<br />
CPO 777 599—63 minutes<br />
Paul Graener (1872-1944) is certainly a genius<br />
who deserves to be better-known in the<br />
greater classical music community. As suggested<br />
in the essay, there is a reason he is almost<br />
unknown today. He was a Nazi with a lot of<br />
influence as the vice-president of Reichmusikkammer,<br />
the regime’s “good German<br />
music” association. He became vice-president<br />
after <strong>conductor</strong> Wilhelm Furtwängler refused<br />
his appointment in protest of the ban on Hindemith’s<br />
Mathis der Maler. Of course, a more<br />
notable member of Reichmusikkammer was<br />
the president and Nazi critic, Richard Strauss,<br />
who took the post primarily to protect his Jewish<br />
daughter-in-law. Before that post, Graener<br />
was a widely known composer, <strong>conductor</strong>, and<br />
professor. He was president of the Salzburg<br />
Mozarteum, taught composition at the Leipzig<br />
Conservatory, and was director of the Haymarket<br />
Theatre in London. I encourage you to<br />
research this fascinating man. Perhaps most<br />
curious is that his career took off in London,<br />
where he acquired British citizenship in 1909,<br />
a small fact the Nazi leadership was unaware<br />
of when he rose to prominence in the party in<br />
the 1930s.<br />
I am thrilled that a world-class ensemble<br />
like the Hyperion Trio is recording and performing<br />
this important music. Their musicality<br />
is admirable.<br />
The Suite for Piano Trio is a dazzling threemovement<br />
miniature (8 minutes)—an exciting<br />
and colorful piece, narrating a story of youth<br />
and innovation. The first movement reminds<br />
us of the many nature walks we take with<br />
Schubert in his art songs. II is a mediation on<br />
the expansive landscapes of Beethoven, while<br />
III is a brief and spontaneous eruption, only<br />
possible through the language of Schumann.<br />
The Second Trio, Kammermusikdichtung,<br />
is a one-movement work that truly points out<br />
the brilliance and talent of this composer. Like<br />
the Piano Suite it is quintessentially German.<br />
The opening is brilliant, a dramatic sweeping<br />
gesture, Brahmsian in quality.<br />
The third trio is entirely different. Here I<br />
hear an orchestral Graener. It is definitely the<br />
work of a late German romantic. His music<br />
seems to be a melting pot of the German<br />
idiom, weaving together a language of the<br />
greats. The rhetoric of Bruckner runs through<br />
it, while the most vulnerable passages exemplify<br />
the anxiety and harmonic maturity of<br />
Strauss. French impressionism is also present.<br />
The last trio, Theodor-Storm-Musik, is profound.<br />
Graener moves through a varied array<br />
of musical languages, gestures of anti-roman-<br />
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ticism as well as elements of late expressionism.<br />
After numerous hearings, this piece still<br />
manages to catch me off guard. Well into the<br />
piece—near the end—emerges a reference to<br />
the late Brahms Intermezzos. Albrecht Pöhl<br />
sings the famous text, ‘Es liegen Wald und<br />
Heide’. It ends in spectacular tragedy. As in<br />
Schubert’s ‘Erlkönig’, there is no question at<br />
the end that it is over.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
GRAINGER: Shepherd’s Hey; Gamelan<br />
Anklung; Irish Tune From County Derry; The<br />
Lonely Desert Man Sees the Tents of the<br />
Happy Tribes; Eastern Intermezzo; Crying for<br />
the Moon; Arrival Platform Humlet;<br />
Bahariyale V. Palaniyandi; Sailor’s Song;<br />
Sekar Gadung; Under a Bridge; Country Gardens<br />
;<br />
BACH: Blithe Bells;<br />
DEBUSSY: Pagodas;<br />
GARDINER: London Bridge;<br />
RAVEL: La Vallee des Cloches<br />
WOOF!<br />
Move 3222—54 minutes<br />
Percy Grainger arranged these works for percussion<br />
ensemble but never published them.<br />
They have recently been rediscovered and<br />
WOOF!—an Australian percussion ensemble—<br />
has a habit of performing them. They even use<br />
the staff bells and stella marimba that Grainger<br />
had built for him.<br />
To be honest, although I like Grainger,<br />
these arrangements leave me cold. They are<br />
well played, very well annotated, and nicely<br />
recorded. Fine, if you are fond of percussion,<br />
but I’ll take the piano.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
GRAUN: Montezuma<br />
Encarnacion Vazquez (Montezuma), Dorothea<br />
Wirtz (Eupaforice), Conchita Julian (Tezeuco),<br />
Lourdes Ambriz (Pilpatoe), Angelica Uribe<br />
Sanchez (Erissena), Maria Luisa Tamez (Cortes),<br />
Ana Caridad Acosta (Narves); Cantica Nova; German<br />
Chamber Academy/ Johannes Goritzki<br />
Capriccio 7085 [2CD] 134 minutes<br />
This 1992 performance of Carl Heinrich<br />
Graun’s 1755 opera might seem a bit old-fashioned<br />
by today’s standards of performing<br />
baroque and early classical works: male roles<br />
sung by female singers (no countertenors to<br />
take on castrato parts) and a non-period<br />
instrument orchestra. Written to be performed<br />
before Frederick the Great, who was the librettist<br />
(did Frederick see himself in this part?),<br />
Montezuma mixes fact with lots of fiction.<br />
Cortes is a deceitful bad guy who brings the<br />
peace-loving Montezuma and the Aztec<br />
empire to ruin. And of course Montezuma has<br />
a love interest: his adoring wife Eupaforice.<br />
This was an important opera in its day.<br />
Carl Heinrich Graun, who died four years after<br />
its premiere, composed a melodic score dominated<br />
by secco recitative-aria format. Not all of<br />
the set pieces are in da capo form, at least as<br />
heard here. In this recording things seem a bit<br />
stilted; and a certain sameness seems to dominate<br />
singers, chorus, orchestra, and <strong>conductor</strong>.<br />
A newer recording is needed. There’s no real<br />
drama in the proceedings. Everyone is walking<br />
on egg shells. But the performers do get points<br />
for voices able to cope with music that sometimes<br />
sounds like Handel minus his most<br />
fiendish vocal demands.<br />
Orchestral playing and conducting are very<br />
competent but also, like the singers, lacks the<br />
fire to make these attractive tunes sound like<br />
they have some drama in them. Libretto without<br />
English translation; but there are background<br />
notes.<br />
MARK<br />
GREGSON: Chamber Orchestra Pieces;<br />
Trombone Concerto; 2 Pictures; Song for<br />
Chris<br />
Peter Moore, trb; Guy Johnston, vc; BBC Concert<br />
Orchestra/ Bramwell Tovey<br />
Chandos 10627—71 minutes<br />
English composer Edward Gregson (b 1945) is<br />
probably known best by brass players, since he<br />
has enriched their modest repertories with fine<br />
concertos and ensemble works. I first became<br />
aware of him in the early 1980s when his jaunty<br />
Tuba Concerto made a hit. Then William<br />
Richardson presented the Trombone Concerto<br />
(Jan/Feb 1990: 125) with piano accompaniment.<br />
To my knowledge, the 1979 work has no<br />
other recordings, so this one by Peter Moore<br />
and the BBC Concert Orchestra is most welcome.<br />
The 16-minute, single-movement work<br />
has a melodic motif that undergoes various<br />
transformations and orchestral textures that<br />
allow the soloist to be heard with ease. What<br />
makes this recording unusual is that the soloist<br />
is 14 years old (violin and piano prodigies are<br />
more common than brass ones). Peter Moore<br />
was named BBC Young Musician of the Year at<br />
age 12 in 2008. He seems to have it all: consistently<br />
full yet clear tone quality, fine technical<br />
skill, and easy high register. He sports a variety<br />
of articulation, and he plays with musical<br />
understanding and heartfelt expression.<br />
Also quite young (the BBC Young Musician<br />
of the Year in 2000) is cellist Guy Johnston,<br />
soloist in A Song for Chris (2007). Composed<br />
for Gregson’s Northern College of Music colleague<br />
Christopher Rowland, who was dying of<br />
cancer, the 18-minute, four-movement work<br />
opens quietly, takes on form and energy, and<br />
ends optimistically. Fine recorded sound<br />
allows us to hear details of cellist Johnston’s<br />
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tone, which sounds especially vibrant in the<br />
unaccompanied moments.<br />
Two works for chamber orchestra complete<br />
the program. Music for Chamber Orchestra<br />
(1968) has the then 22-year-old composer<br />
reflecting on Shostakovich’s Symphony 5. The<br />
Two Pictures for String Orchestra were composed<br />
with 13 years between them. BBC violist<br />
Timothy Welch is the fine soloist in ‘Goddess’<br />
(2009), a response to a painting by Dorothy<br />
Bradford. Its most striking moment—intense,<br />
overlapping, descending minor scales—brings<br />
to mind Arvo Pärt’s Cantus In Memory of Benjamin<br />
Britten. Gregson describes ‘Stepping<br />
Out’ (1996) as “John Adams meets Shostakovich,<br />
with a bit of Gregson thrown in”.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
GRIEG: Symphonic Dances; Peer Gynt<br />
Suites; Funeral March<br />
Cologne Radio Orchestra/ Eivind Aadland<br />
Audite 92651 [SACD] 73:22<br />
This is a beautiful recording. The Cologne<br />
orchestra has a gorgeous sound, the engineers<br />
convey it perfectly, the <strong>conductor</strong> loves the<br />
music and never rushes thru anything. I was<br />
impressed right away by the slow tempos. All<br />
four Symphonic Dances are slower than Jarvi<br />
in Gothenburg. The first is especially good at<br />
this speed. The second—always the most popular—sounds<br />
luscious here. My Jarvi recording<br />
(DG) has developed irritating “swish” sounds<br />
that I cannot remove, so I was glad for a new<br />
recording.<br />
The Funeral March is the familiar one for<br />
Richard Nordraak.<br />
The Peer Gynt Suites (pronounced Pair Jint,<br />
by the way) are also among the best I’ve heard.<br />
While I was comparing timings to all the other<br />
recordings I have, I noticed that this <strong>conductor</strong><br />
is slower than all—except Beecham, whose<br />
Peer Gynt has always been my favorite.<br />
Beecham and Mr Aadland take about the same<br />
tempos, but both are slower than anyone<br />
else—and the music can take it. (Barbirolli was<br />
also slow.) Beecham does more of the Peer<br />
Gynt music but only one of the Symphonic<br />
Dances (No. 2). As with most of what Beecham<br />
conducted, he is peerless—but this comes very<br />
close. And this has the best sound I’ve ever<br />
heard in this music—and that is partly the terrific<br />
orchestra. What rich string sound! By the<br />
way, there is no singer for Solveig’s Song.<br />
Solveig’s Song comes before Peer’s homecoming<br />
in the incidental music, but in Suite 2<br />
here it comes after—it ends the suite. Some<br />
<strong>conductor</strong>s do it the other way around—seems<br />
logical—but it was Grieg himself who published<br />
Suite 2 in this order. He wanted it to end<br />
quietly.<br />
Mr Aadland grew up on Grieg as a violinist<br />
in the Bergen area; he was also concertmaster<br />
of the Bergen Philharmonic for many years. He<br />
seems to feel this music like a true Norwegian,<br />
and he claims to know all the folk tunes and<br />
rhythms from childhood, because his father<br />
played Norwegian folk music on a Hardanger<br />
fiddle. It seems to me that the main thing<br />
operating here is a great love and respect for<br />
the music. Too many <strong>conductor</strong>s treat it as<br />
something light and forgettable.<br />
VROON<br />
GRIFFES: Piano Pieces<br />
Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu<br />
Centaur 2971—75 minutes<br />
For someone wanting a one-disc selection of<br />
the composer’s piano music this will do nicely,<br />
though Joseph Smith’s superior interpretations<br />
(now available again) should not be forgotten.<br />
If you want all of the music try Michael<br />
Lewin’s two Naxos discs—good, if not outstanding<br />
performances. Liu, initially from Taiwan,<br />
is now a part of the US scene, and has the<br />
skill and technique to bring these pieces off.<br />
Ideally they could benefit from a little more<br />
imagination.<br />
The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan may<br />
surprise some since it differs in many respects<br />
from the composer’s later orchestral version.<br />
While it still has more than a wisp of perfumed<br />
elegance, the composer’s later ideas are infinitely<br />
more inventive and structurally far more<br />
sound. While sumptuously done, Lewin’s<br />
more straightforward approach has none of<br />
the overindulgence of this new entry.<br />
The rather unusual one-movement sonata<br />
has had many advocates over the years. Liu<br />
easily matches them and has been given excellent<br />
sound to boot. Lewin, with sound of less<br />
depth and richness, delivers in this piece as<br />
well. The powerful ideas and unexpected dissonances<br />
from semitones and augmented seconds<br />
make their presence felt in both performances.<br />
Roman Sketches, which includes ‘The<br />
White Peacock’, is probably the best known of<br />
the composer’s piano works. Liu easily carries<br />
full honors here in a performance of sensitivity<br />
and beguiling color. That is also the case with<br />
the other movements from this suite.<br />
The Three Tone Poems, Op.5, and Fantasy<br />
Pieces Op.6 also benefit from Ms Liu’s languorous<br />
treatment. For the most part, these<br />
impressionist pieces gain from her slightly<br />
slower tempos and richer, deeper sound. Once<br />
one is immersed in Lewin’s performances,<br />
they too have much to offer, including many<br />
additional pieces well worth having. Liu will<br />
join Lewis on my Griffes shelves, but I do have<br />
that luxury.<br />
BECKER<br />
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HALFFTER, R: Chamber Music<br />
Soloists of the Madrid orchestra<br />
Naxos 572418—69 minutes<br />
HASSE: Requiem in C; Miserere in C minor<br />
Johanna Winkel & Marie Luise Werneburg, s;<br />
Wiebke Lehmkuhl & Marlen Herzog, a; Colin<br />
Balzer, t; Cornelius Uhle, b; Dresden Chamber<br />
Choir & Orchestra/ Hans-Christoph Rademann<br />
Carus 83349—70 minutes<br />
Here we have Part 2 of a phenomenal collection<br />
of chamber music by Spanish composer<br />
Rodolfo Halffter. Halffter’s music is quite varied,<br />
strikingly different as you move through Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) was probably<br />
his early, middle, and late periods. I lean the most famous and most celebrated com-<br />
towards his early period. His late works, such poser of his day. He was one of the last pupils<br />
as Espinicio, Op. 42, included here, are not of Alessandro Scarlatti in Naples and soon<br />
very interesting and seem to lack direction. His<br />
middle period—pieces like Laberinto—have<br />
that sort-of-tonal, sort-of-not, modernist<br />
sound. It reminds me very much of the first<br />
Shostakovich Piano Sonata and the Aphorisms,<br />
Op.13—his most unattractive works.<br />
I am most impressed with the guitarist,<br />
Miguel Angel Jimenez, from his vibrant, pure,<br />
and clean sound to his magnificent “subito<br />
pianos”. Also extraordinary is the playing of<br />
harpist Beatriz Millan; the Tres Piezas Breves,<br />
Op.13a, are perhaps the best on the program.<br />
The Divertimento, Op. 7a, is a masterly work. It<br />
reflects Halffter’s time in Mexico. What I find<br />
most interesting is this: I have never been a big<br />
fan of “Latin” classical music—if we can call it<br />
that—because composers tend to throw a<br />
Latin rhythm into a piece and it sounds inauthentic.<br />
Colombian Cumbia and Brazilian<br />
Samba were composed for drums and rattles—<br />
not symphony orchestras. In the Divertimento<br />
however, the sound is authentic. Halffter<br />
allows the simplicity of the music to shine.<br />
This is a marvelous introduction to Spanish<br />
chamber music.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
HARTMANN, E: Nordic & German Songs<br />
Iben Vestergard, s; Cathrine Penderup, p<br />
Danacord 712 [2CD] 125 minutes<br />
acquired a reputation as a composer of Italian<br />
opera. In 1733 Elector Frederick Augustus II of<br />
Saxony appointed Hasse to the post of Kapellmeister<br />
at the Dresden court. He retained this<br />
position until 1763, the year the Elector died.<br />
The Requiem in C was written for the funeral<br />
and was performed each year until 1850 on the<br />
anniversary of the Elector’s death.<br />
Hasse was certainly not a prisoner of the<br />
Dresden court. He had ample opportunities to<br />
visit Italy and other European musical centers,<br />
often for extended periods. Concurrently with<br />
his position in Dresden he was the director of<br />
music at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in<br />
Venice, one of the celebrated orphanages of<br />
that city noted for the musical training and<br />
artistry of their residents. The Miserere on this<br />
recording was written for the young ladies of<br />
the Incurabili. A surviving manuscript proves<br />
that the arrangement for mixed voices heard<br />
here is Hasse’s own.<br />
The quiet trumpets and timpani in the<br />
introduction to the opening movement of the<br />
Requiem remind us that it was written for a<br />
court solemnity. On the whole, the musical<br />
idiom does not stray far from the 18th-Century<br />
operatic stage. The Dies Irae in particular has a<br />
certain operatic vehemence. The Requiem is a<br />
thoroughly professional and mellifluous piece<br />
of writing by a master of his art who knows<br />
Danish composer Emil Hartmann (1836-98), how to write effectively for the human voice. I<br />
the son of JPE Hartmann, deserves a wider cannot describe the piece as movingly pro-<br />
audience than he now enjoys. His songs are found. It will not make us forget the Mozart<br />
beautifully crafted and give much enjoyment, Requiem. The Miserere is elegant and graceful,<br />
but he needs better advocacy than this. Sopra- but not really an evocation of the intensely<br />
no Iben Vestergard does her best, but she does penitential character of the text.<br />
not have a voice of sufficient calibre to warrant This is a concert recording from Septem-<br />
two hours of listening. A choral section leader, ber of 2010 at St Mary’s Church, Marienberg,<br />
yes, perhaps an album of duets, but heard as part of the Erzgebirge Music Festival. The<br />
alone she only just reaches the level of a pro- choral discipline is very fine, and while none of<br />
fessional, and certainly not the level of a the soloists has what I would call a big voice,<br />
soloist. Her voice is just too thin and lacking in they display a purity and refinement of tone<br />
body.<br />
that admirably suits the repertory. The soloists<br />
Pianist Cathrine Penderup plays well, and are not exactly overbalanced, but I suspect<br />
her piano is vividly recorded. In an album of their sound would have been more prominent<br />
Hartmann’s piano works she would have man- in a studio recording.<br />
aged to pull it off, but she can’t rescue this While the Dresden Chamber Choir has a<br />
effort by herself.<br />
distinguished reputation for a wide-ranging<br />
BOYER repertory, it is hardly surprising that they<br />
should devote special attention to composers<br />
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who served the Dresden court, from Heinrich<br />
Schütz to the generation of Heinichen, Zelenka,<br />
and Hasse. They have also recorded of Hasse’s<br />
Requiem in E-flat, written in 1763 for the<br />
funeral of Frederick Augustus II’s successor. It<br />
is paired with another Miserere (Carus 83.175;<br />
May/June 2006).<br />
GATENS<br />
HAYDN: Harpsichord & Violin Concerto in<br />
F; Violin Concerto in G; Sinfonia Concertante<br />
Emanuel Borok, v; Fyodor Stroganov, hpsi;<br />
Alexander Gotgelf, vc; Olga Tomilova, ob; Mikhail<br />
Furman, bn; Kremlin Chamber Orchestra/ Misha<br />
Rachlevsky & Emanuel Borok<br />
Eroica 3293—57 minutes<br />
This Russian production is quite satisfactory<br />
aside from slightly dry, close sound and notes<br />
that completely ignore Haydn. Emanuel Borok<br />
has lived in the USA for some years and has<br />
been associate concertmaster of the Boston<br />
Symphony and concertmaster of the Dallas<br />
Symphony. Misha Rachlevsky has also lived in<br />
the USA, where he founded the New <strong>American</strong><br />
Chamber Orchestra in 1984. After 1991 he<br />
returned to Russia and organized the Kremlin<br />
Chamber Orchestra. The other soloists are<br />
mostly Russian educated. All play Haydn well<br />
on modern instruments. If you want this combination<br />
of works you should be well satisfied.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
HAYDN: Piano Sonatas 18, 35, 37, 44, 47<br />
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet<br />
Chandos 10668—68 minutes<br />
Bavouzet, born in 1962, is new to me. He has<br />
recorded the complete piano works of<br />
Debussy and Ravel; concertos by Pierné, Ravel,<br />
and Bartok; and works by Liszt, Ohana, and<br />
Schumann. He was a protege of Georg Solti.<br />
French pianism can be a good match for<br />
Haydn. The clarity, careful voicing, and attention<br />
to rhetoric going back to the French harpsichord<br />
masters serve Haydn’s drama and contrapuntal<br />
writing well. Heavy tone is not often<br />
helpful in Haydn’s music and not often characteristic<br />
of French playing. Also, there was a<br />
hint that good things might be on this disc.<br />
The earliest recording by Bavouzet that I was<br />
able to find out about was a Haydn disc from<br />
1991 that had a lovely performance of the great<br />
two-movement Sonata 48 in C.<br />
As it happened, the first sonata here is a<br />
different C major piece, No. 35. Though the<br />
two works are very different, it was instantly<br />
clear that Bavouzet has used the last 20 years<br />
well and still is very attuned to Haydn.<br />
All the sonatas here are first-rate pieces<br />
(Haydn’s piano sonatas are, overall, better<br />
than Mozart’s), but I will take a closer look at<br />
one of the greatest of all, 44 in G minor. G<br />
minor is not a common key for Haydn. It was<br />
Mozart’s special key for tragic music, but for<br />
Haydn that was F minor. Haydn sometimes<br />
wrote mock-tragic music in G minor, perhaps<br />
to tease Mozart (think of the opening of Symphony<br />
83). This sonata, though, was written in<br />
1765-7, when Mozart was about ten years old<br />
and he and Haydn were at least 15 years away<br />
from meeting.<br />
The first movement starts with a gloomy<br />
theme that repeats itself like an obsessive<br />
thought. After a little bit of contrasting material,<br />
Haydn starts to take his opening theme<br />
apart and vary the moods widely as each fragment<br />
seems to take on its own character: a<br />
song fragment, a march, and so on. As the<br />
movement goes into its development section,<br />
about 3:30 into the track, the fragments begin<br />
to build up tension with short melodies in the<br />
right hand answered by arpeggios from the<br />
left, then arpeggios in the right with responsive<br />
fragments in the left, on to what sounds like a<br />
Schumann or Beethoven gathering storm.<br />
Haydn takes the music through a wide range of<br />
moods in a short time until he comes to a dramatic<br />
pause at 5:30. The recap that follows is<br />
even stranger and wider-ranging. Nothing<br />
sounds quite as one would expect from what<br />
had gone before; everything is subtly off and<br />
unsettling. There’s a quasi-vocal cadenza and<br />
Haydn brings things to a gloomy end.<br />
The next movement (this is a two-movement<br />
work) is a minuet. Haydn was the king of<br />
minuets, and this is another great one. It’s in G<br />
minor, of course, and its main theme has a<br />
kind of skip-step rhythm to it and a chromatic<br />
sigh. The trio is in the major, of course, but<br />
doesn’t sound reassuring—more like the<br />
jumpy spirit of the minuet is trying, very hard,<br />
to calm itself down. The seeds of Mahler are in<br />
this music.<br />
Of course, as David Hurwitz once said so<br />
well, all of Western music after Haydn is either<br />
a further development of what he started or a<br />
response to it.<br />
As I have become steeped in Haydn’s<br />
music in all genres, it has become clear to me<br />
that, like the music of many of the great<br />
baroque composers, his music reaches back to<br />
before there was what we think of as music, to<br />
the music and rhythms of speech through the<br />
art of rhetoric. If you read what Aristotle,<br />
Cicero, and Quintilian wrote about how to<br />
express yourself in speech, you will be well on<br />
the way to understanding how to make Haydn’s<br />
keyboard music speak. I have no reason to<br />
think that Haydn’s education actually encompassed<br />
these authors in any depth, but the<br />
intellectual life of Europe from Medieval times<br />
through the Enlightenment and beyond rested<br />
on three subjects that were taught as the basis<br />
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for all further learning: grammar, logic, and<br />
rhetoric. To go on to the deeper learning of<br />
arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy,<br />
you had to have the basic language skills, the<br />
mechanics of how ideas are put together, and<br />
the mechanics of how to express yourself in a<br />
persuasive way. It was only after these seven<br />
arts were mastered that you could go count<br />
yourself ready to tackle the complexities of<br />
philosophy and theology.<br />
Haydn’s education, from what we know of<br />
it, would have been a practical one. He<br />
became part of the boychoir at St Stephen’s in<br />
Vienna at age 8. He would have encountered<br />
rhetorical principles in his basic education and<br />
in the music he studied and performed.<br />
The notion, common in some circles not<br />
very long ago, and still with us in various disguises,<br />
that pre-romantic composers expected<br />
their music to be performed in some kind of<br />
Asperger-syndrome style, devoid of overt<br />
expression or even inflection, seems to me<br />
contrary to everything we know about human<br />
beings in those times. They were full of emotions<br />
and vitality; and the elite, who listened<br />
to, performed, and sometimes wrote art music<br />
were trained in composing and delivering<br />
speeches and other formal utterances. They<br />
would be taught about pauses, changes in<br />
pace, changes in volume, and so on. It seems<br />
misguided to believe that they delivered their<br />
words one way, their music in a very different<br />
one.<br />
So the best Haydn keyboard players, at<br />
least, recognize the principles of persuasive<br />
speech that apply to his music and use them in<br />
their performances. It’s no accident that<br />
Haydn is the composer of pauses.<br />
Bavouzet joins Andras Schiff at the top of<br />
the list of keyboard performers who have<br />
assimilated Haydn’s musical language and can<br />
speak it eloquently. His approach to the first<br />
movement of the G-minor Sonata is a model of<br />
how such things should be played. He knows<br />
when to press forward, when to relax, when to<br />
attend to color (what he does with the arpeggios<br />
when Haydn begins to play with his<br />
theme fragments in the first movement development<br />
is a wonderful application of sound<br />
and texture), when to dry things out to build<br />
for the next overt expression. Like all of the<br />
best French pianists he seems to have dozens<br />
of different staccato, legato, and in-between<br />
articulations at hand; and he uses them with<br />
unfailing taste. Schiff is his equal in these<br />
maaters, though his basic keyboard sound is a<br />
little broader-toned and he likes bigger gestures.<br />
Schiff’s buildup to the first pause is<br />
almost a Beethoven piling-on of sound.<br />
Bavouzet is quiet. Both are superb.<br />
I can’t go on enough about how endlessly<br />
great this music is. In Sonata 37 in D the slow<br />
movement is a kind of short chorale. Terse.<br />
Mysterious. Beethoven’s music comes from<br />
this place. So does Schubert’s.<br />
The pianist adds his own note on performance<br />
to the fine program notes. He writes<br />
about repeats and ornamentation, both of<br />
which he has thought carefully about. He<br />
winds up in a sensible place on both of them.<br />
He repeats when the repetition makes sense,<br />
for example in first-movement expositions,<br />
and feels free to ornament in a discreet and<br />
tasteful way.<br />
The piano sound is lovely.<br />
This was an hour of pleasure. It’s the second<br />
in a Haydn series. I am going to find the<br />
first one and keep an eye out for the others. So<br />
should you.<br />
CHAKWIN<br />
HAYDN: The Seasons<br />
Miah Persson, s; Jeremy Ovenden, t; Andrew Foster-Williams,<br />
bar; London Symphony & Chorus/<br />
Colin Davis<br />
LSO 708 [2SACD] 129 minutes<br />
Hilde Gueden, s; Waldemar Kmentt, t; Walter<br />
Berry, b; Vienna Singakademie & Philharmonic/<br />
Karl Bohm<br />
Melodram 40087 [2CD] 123 minutes<br />
Böhm recorded Die Jahreszeiten in the studio<br />
for DG, and that is still one of the best Big<br />
Band accounts you can buy. Solti and<br />
Beecham in English join it on the top rung.<br />
Sawallisch (July/Aug 2010) is a notch-and-ahalf<br />
below them. So why on earth would you<br />
want this 1965 concert performance caught in<br />
faded, far-off sound? True, these soloists come<br />
off pretty well; but with Janowitz, Schreier, and<br />
Talvela having joined Böhm in the studio,<br />
where’s the incentive to dig into the archives?<br />
Orchestral sound is distant and opaque, while<br />
the choir’s contribution is substandard, both<br />
technically and sonically. So if for some reason<br />
you’d care to own a Haydn oratorio where the<br />
big choruses are the weakest element, here<br />
you go. There are no notes, libretto or translations<br />
either, in case you still care.<br />
Needless to say, the LSO is one of the<br />
biggest of the Big Bands; but there’s nothing<br />
ponderous about Colin Davis’s approach,<br />
which is lithe and very energetic. Some may<br />
feel that other <strong>conductor</strong>s (Beecham!) have<br />
established more vivid emotional connections<br />
with the libretto. This ‘Komm, holder Lenz’<br />
might be a little too zippy to conjure up the<br />
gentle greening of a world in springtime. In<br />
‘Juchhe’, the autumnal ode to the glory of the<br />
grape, the singers sound more breathless with<br />
excitement than tipsy with joy. But for overall<br />
brio, this is Haydn to be reckoned with. Davis<br />
tends to keep the counterpoint under wraps as<br />
the various choruses begin, but has it bloom-<br />
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ing splendidly when it counts. The choir is<br />
fine. Complementing their singing is some of<br />
the finest playing you’ll ever hear: fragrant<br />
woodwinds, golden horns, incisive strings, and<br />
nifty ruffles and flourishes from the harpsichord.<br />
Haydn’s accompaniments to his choral<br />
writing are nothing short of miraculous; and<br />
when playing of this caliber is combined with<br />
superb engineering, you wind up with exquisite<br />
displays of melodic and harmonic embroidery.<br />
For those special touches alone, this is a<br />
Jahreszeiten worth acquiring.<br />
I wish I liked the soloists better. Best of the<br />
three is the lighter-than-usual bass who’s<br />
impressively dexterous when Haydn trots out<br />
the coloratura. (He’s terrific in Autumn when<br />
the dog races toward the hunter’s prey. Some<br />
of the tubbier voices get into trouble there.)<br />
The soprano can be quite good, especially in<br />
‘Licht und Leben’, her wintry cavatina. But I<br />
miss the radiant charm and flair for storytelling<br />
we get from the likes of Barbara Bonney<br />
(Gardiner), Marlis Petersen (Jacobs), Genia<br />
Kuhmeier (Harnoncourt) and, of course, Gundula<br />
Janowitz, who cooed her way through the<br />
score so gorgeously with Böhm. The tenor is<br />
spirited, but nasal and way too bright. Notes,<br />
texts, and translations are included in a firstrate<br />
booklet. While this may not be the Seasons<br />
for all seasons, there are so many things to<br />
admire and enjoy it’s impossible not to recommend<br />
it.<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
HAYDN: Quartet, op 54:1; see MOZART<br />
HENSEL: Quartet;<br />
MENDELSSOHN: Quartet 6; 4 Pieces<br />
Merel Quartet<br />
Genuin 11204—70 minutes<br />
There are dozens of excellent recordings of<br />
Felix Mendelssohn’s Four Pieces, published as<br />
Op. 81, and even more of his last Quartet, Op.<br />
80, the piece he wrote in memory of his sister<br />
Fanny Hensel; but there are relatively few<br />
available recordings of Hensel’s String Quartet,<br />
a piece she wrote in 1834. (I know of one<br />
other—M/J 2000.)<br />
Fanny’s brother criticized the liberties she<br />
took with form, and the movement he liked<br />
best, the Scherzo, sounds like something he<br />
would write (or wished he had written). Fanny’s<br />
response to her brother, as printed in the<br />
liner notes, shows a great deal of self-deprecation<br />
concerning her “ability to sustain ideas<br />
properly and give them the necessary consistency”.<br />
Her music, however, contradicts her<br />
self-criticism. And, in the hands and arms of<br />
the Merel Quartet, we can continue to be<br />
delighted with the continual surprises (more<br />
than 500, so far) that have made their way out<br />
of the Mendelssohn family archives.<br />
It’s loosely based on Beethoven’s Harp<br />
Quartet. (R. Larry Todd discusses the work at<br />
length in Fanny Hensel: The Other<br />
Mendelssohn, published by Oxford University<br />
Press in 2010.) The Merel Quartet plays this as<br />
a piece of forward-thinking music written by<br />
an extraordinary composer working in the<br />
generation after Beethoven. She had an adoring<br />
little brother who also composed exceedingly<br />
well, as you can hear.<br />
FINE<br />
HONEGGER: Cello Concerto; see MARTINU<br />
HOWELLS: Piano Quartet; String Quartet;<br />
Clarinet Quintet<br />
Patricia Calman, Harriet Davies, v; Nick Barr, va;<br />
David Daniels, vc; Michael Collins, cl; Andrew<br />
West, p<br />
Metier 92003—53 minutes<br />
Much like Russian nationalism two decades<br />
earlier and <strong>American</strong> nationalism two decades<br />
later, English nationalism at the dawn of the<br />
20th Century involved a breaking away from<br />
German models and an embrace of native<br />
songs, sounds, and dialects. English efforts,<br />
though, developed during a difficult transition<br />
in Western music. They quickly fell behind<br />
modernist whirlwinds, and by the end of<br />
World War II they were dismissed as quaint.<br />
While Russian and <strong>American</strong> nationalists are<br />
still towering figures in the repertoire, English<br />
nationalists remain an afterthought from a<br />
busy period, living on only in vocal music,<br />
band music, and chamber music.<br />
Nevertheless, some leading British musicians<br />
maintain that English nationalism still<br />
has a place on contemporary concert programs.<br />
On this 2007 release, originally recorded<br />
in 1992, clarinetist Michael Collins, pianist<br />
Andrew West, and the Lyric Quartet present<br />
three early chamber works of Herbert Howells<br />
(1892-1983). A favorite pupil of the Germantrained<br />
Charles Stanford at the Royal College<br />
of Music in London, Howells was considered<br />
the most promising talent of the British generation<br />
of composers that came of age during<br />
World War I. Like George Butterworth and<br />
Gerald Finzi, Howells skillfully balanced traditional<br />
form with English pastoralism and folk<br />
song; and like Gordon Jacob, he admired English<br />
Renaissance and baroque music. His<br />
teacher, though, had the greatest influence; no<br />
matter the source of his materials, Howells<br />
infused his works with warm romantic lyricism.<br />
The program begins with the highly atmospheric<br />
Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 21 (1916),<br />
a full-length three-movement work that<br />
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weaves several English folk melodies into its<br />
formal structure and bears a dedication to a<br />
specific place in the English countryside. The<br />
Phantasy Quartet, Op. 25 (1917) refers to the<br />
old Elizabethan single movement instrumental<br />
piece with several contrasting sections, but<br />
after all the energetic dances it dies away with<br />
a solemn Piu Lento. The concluding Rhapsodic<br />
Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet, Op.<br />
31 (1919) is another single-movement work<br />
that ends with a slow meditation. It is unified<br />
not by a grand architectural scheme, but by<br />
only two ideas: an energetic motive in the<br />
strings and a beautiful melody in the clarinet.<br />
Collins, West, and the Lyric Quartet give<br />
thoroughly professional and profoundly moving<br />
performances that simmer with romantic<br />
angst, succumb completely to moments of<br />
intense contemplation, and have lively rhythmic<br />
episodes and the occasional tangy dissonance.<br />
The Quartet is a superb team that balances<br />
classical formality with folk playing, and West<br />
has unrivalled touch and color, especially<br />
when he begins the kind of quiet passage that<br />
words cannot express. Collins achieves a<br />
British timbre that is unusually rich and clear,<br />
matching the dark hue of the strings, phrasing<br />
with great color and sincerity, and making the<br />
fade-out in the closing measures of the Clarinet<br />
Quintet poignant and unforgettable.<br />
HANUDEL<br />
HOWELLS: Winchester Service; Jubilate<br />
Deo; Thee Will I Love; Rhapsody 4; Come, my<br />
Soul; Te Deum; Coventry Antiphon; A Flourish<br />
for a Bidding; Antiphon; The Fear of the<br />
Lord; Exultate<br />
Deo Simon Bell, org; Winchester Cathedral Choir/<br />
Andrew Lumsden<br />
Hyperion 67853—69 minutes<br />
Herbert Howells (1892-1983) is better known<br />
for his earlier (1940-1950) choral compositions<br />
than for ones from his later years. This recording<br />
was done in the hope that a broader<br />
acquaintance with the selections heard here<br />
(1958-1976) might spark interest in his later<br />
pieces from choirs and choral leaders. The<br />
choir is configured 16-5-4-5; the organ is a 4-<br />
79 stop, 101-rank Willis (1851), Harrison &<br />
Harrison (1988).<br />
Winchester Service from 1967 is Howells’s<br />
contribution of Evensong canticles for one of<br />
the three choirs making up the Southern<br />
Cathedral Festival (Salisbury, Chichester, Winchester),<br />
an annual musical feast to balance<br />
the much older Three Choirs Festival<br />
(Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford). The Service<br />
includes many of the chromatic turns characteristic<br />
of his music. Don’t expect too many<br />
hushed, soothing passages. Both the Magnifi-<br />
cat and Nunc Dimittis maintain and finish<br />
with bold strokes.<br />
Jubilate Deo, Exultate Deo, and Te Deum<br />
are predictably assertive. The most attractive<br />
selections here are Winchester Service, ‘Come,<br />
my Soul’, ‘Thee I Will Love’, and ‘The Fear of<br />
the Lord’. For most of the louder pieces, the<br />
text seldom becomes intelligible—it doesn’t<br />
help that Winchester is the longest British<br />
cathedral. Considerable echo does help in the<br />
subdued passages. Sometimes the organ stops,<br />
and the closing cadence can be heard as in<br />
‘Thee Will I Love’, which concludes with a very<br />
drawn-out pianissimo. Another gem is the<br />
closing of ‘The Fear of the Lord’, with a suddenly<br />
quiet last line that ends with an unexpected<br />
but beautiful chord. Both organ solos<br />
are full of fury and not really attractive. The<br />
choral pieces demand choristers capable of<br />
performing close interval and shifting harmonies.<br />
The Winchester Choir is certainly up<br />
to the task, but just about everything heard on<br />
this recording is LOUD. Enunciation needs a<br />
good deal of repair. Without the texts in the<br />
liner notes, you’ll have a hard time knowing<br />
what the words are. I think this will appeal<br />
mostly to fans of Howells’s music and fans of<br />
this choir.<br />
METZ<br />
HUGHES: Shift; Slow Motion Blackbird<br />
Chris Hughes, electronics<br />
Helium 2—60 minutes<br />
Chris Hughes is a percussionist and record<br />
producer whose list of professional accomplishments<br />
includes drumming with Adam<br />
and the Ants, co-writing the Tears for Fears<br />
megahit ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’,<br />
and producing the band’s first two albums. His<br />
father took him to see the European premiere<br />
of Steve Reich’s Drumming in 1972, and since<br />
then he has been hooked.<br />
Shift, a four-movement composition that<br />
draws on material from Reich’s Drumming<br />
and Violin Phase, first appeared in 1994 and<br />
has been remastered for its current release.<br />
The best term for this music is ambient; Hughes<br />
recreates Reich’s phasing process deftly<br />
with recording technology and subtly enhances<br />
the rhythmic elan of Reich’s music by<br />
adding other percussion instruments and,<br />
here and there, ever so slightly accentuating its<br />
natural tendency to groove or swing.<br />
Slow Motion Blackbird takes its cue from<br />
Reich’s Slow Motion Sound and perhaps from<br />
Different Trains: the melody of bird song is<br />
tracked by a synthesizer and harmonized; then<br />
the entire recording is slowed down for repeated<br />
iterations without altering the pitch of the<br />
original. It only lasts about 6 minutes—I wish<br />
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he’d extended it for at least 6 more. From<br />
Piano Phase is similar to Shift, but includes<br />
substantial passages from each of Piano<br />
Phase’s original three sections. The last track,<br />
Pendulum Music, seems more of a throwaway<br />
than the others, but never mind.<br />
I used to think that the close relationship<br />
of minimalism and then-current pop music<br />
was a sign of musical health for both worlds<br />
and augured a new kind of listener now on the<br />
scene. The new listeners are definitely here to<br />
stay and—with more than a little luck—they’ll<br />
expand their passions past Reich and into all<br />
sorts of other classical music from the present<br />
and the past. That’s my hope, anyway. As<br />
much as I like Steve Reich’s music, I think people<br />
should get past the idea that there should<br />
be only one style of contemporary music and<br />
one composer to laud as “the best”.<br />
HASKINS<br />
INCE: Hot, Red, Cold, Vibrant; Symphony 5;<br />
Requiem without Words; Before Infrared<br />
Anil Kirkyildiz, Tülay Uyar, Olca Kuntasal, s; Levent<br />
Gündüz, t; Güvenc Dagüstün, bar; Selva<br />
Erdener, voice; Turkish Ministry of Culture Choir;<br />
Bilkent Symphony/ Kamran Ince<br />
Naxos 572653—76 minutes<br />
is so much space in our hearts for our love for<br />
you. Galatasaray”?<br />
Requiem without Words (2004) is for the<br />
victims of the 2003 terror bombings in Istanbul.<br />
Sustained minor harmony, whining wailings<br />
from a female “ethnic voice”, chestthumping<br />
bass drum poundings, and later<br />
some corny movie music will try the endurance<br />
of all but the most masochistic listeners.<br />
We should all sympathize with the emotions<br />
involved, but this crass 20-minute exhibition<br />
borders on the obscene.<br />
This unfortunate program closes with<br />
Before Infrared (1986), a Disney-esque sunrise<br />
scene that might make an effective overture,<br />
though the literature already has plenty such<br />
pieces and this one doesn’t offer a great deal of<br />
serious competition. It’s the best piece here, if<br />
that’s any consolation.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
IRELAND: Piano Pieces 3<br />
Mark Bebbington—Somm 99—76 minutes<br />
The Third and Fourth Symphonies of Turkish-<br />
Completing his survey of Ireland’s attractive<br />
piano music, Bebbington has turned up yet<br />
another unrecorded piece. The First Rhapsody<br />
is an early work dating from 1906. Special<br />
credit is due the John Ireland Trust for allowing<br />
this student work to be performed and<br />
recorded. As pointed out in the excellent notes<br />
<strong>American</strong> composer Kamran Ince (b. 1960) by Bruce Phillips of the Trust, it owes a strong<br />
appeared a few years ago on a Naxos release debt to Liszt and Rachmaninoff in an<br />
(557588, N/D 2005). Admirers of that release assertiveness and virtuosity not readily appar-<br />
might want to think twice before investing in ent in his later music. At over 12 minutes, it’s a<br />
this one.<br />
substantial piece, the longest in this program,<br />
It opens with Hot, Red, Cold, Vibrant and its inclusion helps to make Bebbington<br />
(1992), said to have the “explicit intent [to] the preferred artist when deciding which set to<br />
capture the driving energy of rock on [Ince’s] purchase, though few would give its derivative<br />
own terms”. I don’t have the slightest idea musical values high marks.<br />
what this piece has to do with “rock”, but I As with the first two volumes (J/A 2009,<br />
don’t question his intent. The piece is tonal, M/A 2010) Bebbington continues to distin-<br />
repetitious, throbbing, loud, has some shrieks guish himself in the performance and record-<br />
in the high winds, some drum thuds, and some ing of this repertory. The records contents<br />
vaguely bluesy melody. Maybe that’s what he (below) fill in the remaining Ireland gaps, and<br />
means. It is also painfully out of tune as played make it a mandatory purchase for all enthusi-<br />
by this dreadful orchestra, which has about as asts:<br />
much energy as a bad high school orchestra Rhapsody (1915)<br />
trying to get through a piece they can’t handle. Two Pieces: February’s Child, Aubade<br />
The Fifth Symphony (2005) stays with the<br />
pop-culture theme as it is dedicated to<br />
Turkey’s apparently fabled Galatasaray football<br />
(i.e. soccer) team. This is a four-movement,<br />
33-minute deeply felt, almost religious<br />
Four Pieces: The Undertone, Obsession, Holy<br />
Boy, Fire of Spring<br />
Four Preludes<br />
Ballade of London Nights<br />
Almond Trees<br />
homage to the team. The text, printed here in Three Dances: Gypsy, Country, Reapers<br />
English, is unintentionally hilarious when Prelude in E-flat<br />
matched up with the beautiful, entirely over- First Rhapsody<br />
wrought score. What does one make of With due respect for Eric Parkin’s pioneer-<br />
attempts to set lines like “Let’s compete to be ing effort, it comes down to either the com-<br />
European and defeat the non-Turkish teams” plete or the more complete. Both take three<br />
or “Prepare for the show, Be ready in the discs, and both performers show much sympa-<br />
stands, dress suitably in two colors” or “There thy for this composer’s expressive, sometimes<br />
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wistful, sometimes impressionist, and always<br />
beautiful music. Somm’s recording easily wins<br />
in the engineering department.<br />
BECKER<br />
JADIN: 3 Quartets<br />
Franz Joseph Quartet<br />
ATMA 2610—66 minutes<br />
Hyacinthe Jadin lived only from 1776 to 1800<br />
and has been largely forgotten today. He died<br />
of tuberculosis, after living his life in Paris and<br />
Versailles.<br />
Based on these recorded performances I<br />
must say that Jadin’s music seems rather boring.<br />
Part of this response may be because the<br />
music is played on excessively thin sounding<br />
period instruments that I find difficult to listen<br />
to—and usually don’t.<br />
Decent notes and sound are supplied.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
JANITSCH: Chamber Sonatas II<br />
Notturna/ Christopher Palameta<br />
ATMA 2638—55 minutes<br />
As Christopher Palameta reports in his notes, it<br />
is presumed that Johann Gottlieb Janitsch<br />
(1708-63) composed his sonate da camera for a<br />
series of freitagsakademien that he held in his<br />
own home in Berlin while serving as contraviolonist<br />
at the court of Frederick the Great. The<br />
sonatas on this release come from his Opusses<br />
1, 3, and 7 composed between 1752 and the<br />
end of his life. Some of them come from<br />
among the 13 sonatas that were rediscovered<br />
in Kiev, where they had been taken during the<br />
Second World War. Most of the sonatas are in<br />
three-movement form, similar to ones by<br />
Quantz. The instrumentation is sometimes a<br />
bit unusual, as Palameta tells us, calling for<br />
curious combinations of oboes, violins, traverso,<br />
and continuo. It all adds to the excitement.<br />
Janitsch’s style fits right in with his contemporaries,<br />
down to the learned-sounding fugato<br />
passages.<br />
These sonatas are quite a revelation. They<br />
remind me a lot of the chamber music of Telemann<br />
and Fasch. The playing here is excellent<br />
and nuanced. I love to hear the baroque oboe<br />
and oboe d’amore played so well. The notes<br />
are well written and full of useful information.<br />
LOEWEN<br />
grew up in England; she must be the only composer<br />
over the age of 4, living or dead, who<br />
doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry—I was trying<br />
to find out where she was actually born. Her<br />
music is not terribly inventive in scoring,<br />
melodic ideas, structure, or development.<br />
Even the texts are of little import: The Mermaid<br />
is based on her own fairy tale about a mermaid<br />
who befriends ocean animals, gets captured by<br />
pirates and rescued by her friends—a story<br />
remarkable for its absence of any drama from<br />
its characterless characters. Her music isn’t<br />
unpleasant at all, but it’s memorable only<br />
because it’s forgettable. I have the feeling she<br />
would make a decent arranger, because her<br />
music sounds playable and well balanced; but<br />
if I were a cellist or bassist, I’d go crazy having<br />
to play in Russian Tableaux (which sounds little<br />
different from Arabian Rhapsody Suite).<br />
The narrator seems to think that adding a<br />
tremor to his voice will communicate tension.<br />
Clare McCaldin’s diction in The Mermaid is<br />
particularly good and her voice grounded and<br />
pleasant; her phrasing is very musical—I’ve<br />
heard few singers who can sing 4-against-3<br />
rhythms and keep them from sounding<br />
square. The instrumentalists, too, play with<br />
elegance, charm, and good technique. Notes<br />
are in English; there are three pages of musicians’<br />
biographies in lieu of texts and translations.<br />
ESTEP<br />
KISSINE: Zerkalo; see TCHAIKOVSKY<br />
KORNGOLD: Suite, op 23;<br />
MACMILLAN: Charpentier Variations<br />
Jonathan Swartz, Mark Fewer, v; Andres Diaz, vc;<br />
Wendy Chen, p—Soundset 1033—52 minutes<br />
Groteske is the title of this disc. It is also the<br />
name of the middle and longest movement in<br />
the Korngold suite. Both of these compositions<br />
are scored for two violins, cello, and piano.<br />
The idiom of both is somewhat similar, basically<br />
late romantic and very expressive. Kieren<br />
MacMillan was born in 1969 and studied at<br />
Rice University with Paul Cooper and Samuel<br />
Jones before moving to Toronto. His Fantasy<br />
Variations was commissioned by Swartz. Its<br />
idiom closely resembles the Korngold in its<br />
deep feeling and basic romanticism, though<br />
MacMillan is clearly happy in a number of historical<br />
idioms as well. The way he manages to<br />
KAKABADSE: Phantom Listeners; Arabian mingle these without losing our sense of his<br />
Rhapsody Suite; Mermaid; Russian<br />
own personality is quite remarkable and<br />
Tableaux; Song of the Shirt<br />
attractive.<br />
Kit Hesketh-Harvey, narr; Emma Brain-Gabbott,<br />
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) is<br />
s; Clare McCaldin, mz; musicians/ George Vass<br />
famous for his film scores but maintains a rep-<br />
Naxos 572524—75 minutes<br />
utation among musicians as a composer of<br />
Lydia Kakabadse, of Georgian, Russian, Greek, serious music. This 33-minute piece is a prime<br />
and Austrian ancestry, was born in 1955 and example, full of imagination and passion. It<br />
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was written for piano left hand in 1928, commissioned<br />
by Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost<br />
his right hand in WW I. It is in five movements,<br />
beginning with a Prelude & Fugue that sound<br />
like anything but—a waltz that seems, in this<br />
performance, at least, to be in the slow <strong>American</strong><br />
style rather than the Viennese of the<br />
Strausses. Then comes ‘Groteske’, a scherzo of<br />
sorts, followed by one of Korngold’s Opus 22<br />
songs, and ending with a theme and variations.<br />
It is a strong work that repays listening.<br />
The variations help to pull the program together,<br />
since it opened with MacMillan’s 19minute<br />
set.<br />
Altogether, this is a very enjoyable coupling,<br />
played with warmth and stylistic unity<br />
by these musicians. My only regret is that the<br />
program is so short. If it is specifically the<br />
Korngold suite that attracts you, it has been<br />
recorded several times before with more music<br />
attached, mostly by Korngold. This reading is<br />
somewhat faster than the others, and is excitingly<br />
played, though one would hesitate to recommend<br />
it over such luminaries as Leon<br />
Fleisher, piano, Joseph Silverstein and Jaimie<br />
Laredo, violins, and Yo-yo Ma, cello (Sony<br />
48253, Nov/Dec 1998). That comes with Franz<br />
Schmidt’s Piano Quintet, also written for<br />
Wittgenstein. Another fine reading is by the<br />
Schubert ensemble of London, coupled with<br />
Korngold’s own Piano Quintet (ASV 1047,<br />
May/June 1999). Both of these works are also<br />
to be heard on a three-disc collection including<br />
numerous Korngold songs sung by Anne<br />
Sofie von Otter with Bengt Forsberg and<br />
friends (DG 459631, May/June 1999). Arved<br />
Ashby was enthusiastic, particularly about the<br />
Sony release, though the DG is good and the<br />
song performances are a must. Carl Bauman<br />
was not happy with the ASV, though his major<br />
complaint was about the music rather than the<br />
performances. But you see that this release is<br />
really about the MacMillan variations. Your<br />
move!<br />
D MOORE<br />
KORNGOLD: Symphony; Little Dance in<br />
the Olden Style<br />
Helsinki Philharmonic/ John Storgards<br />
Ondine 1182—62 minutes<br />
Recently (Mar/Apr 2011) I noted that Marc<br />
Albrecht’s recording of this symphony on Pentatone<br />
viewed it as a 20th Century work. Storgards<br />
sees it as 19th Century, with plusher textures<br />
and slightly slower pacing. It runs about<br />
three minutes longer than Albrecht’s. Though I<br />
prefer the 20th Century model, the work can<br />
support both viewpoints.<br />
Anyone who does like the more traditional<br />
approach will very much enjoy this recording,<br />
especially the slow movement, where Stor-<br />
gards builds the music to a stunning climax.<br />
(The intensity of this passage was so powerful<br />
that, as a lifelong admirer of FDR, the dedicatee<br />
of this symphony, I recalled the physical<br />
sense of loss we felt over his death when I was<br />
a kid in England.) The Little Dance is a cute trifle,<br />
here in its first recording. Though scored<br />
for a small orchestra, it shows Korngold’s usual<br />
ingenuity with color. Performances and<br />
recorded sound are both excellent.<br />
O’CONNOR<br />
KREIN: Violin Sonata; Poem;<br />
FEINBERG: Sonata<br />
Ilona Then-Bergh, v; Michael Schafer, p<br />
Genuin 11203—61 minutes<br />
Grigorij Krein (1879-1957)—not to be confused<br />
with either his contemporary Alexander Krein<br />
or the younger Julian Krein—also, like him,<br />
Russian composers—hasn’t shown up on my<br />
radar screen before. He wrote in a late-lateromantic<br />
style somewhat influenced, the notes<br />
assert, by Scriabin and Reger, though his<br />
music is closer, perhaps, to early Szymanowski,<br />
Florent Schmitt, and Ernst Bloch.<br />
The Violin Sonata in G, from 1913, is rhapsodic,<br />
dreamy, opulent, and quite beautiful,<br />
spinning out its iridescent harmonies and glittering<br />
figurations with delectable freshness<br />
and verve. Its perfumed luxury and continual<br />
reaching for erotic ecstasies is characteristic of<br />
“decadent” art, though beneath the surface of<br />
its 20-minute, two-movement layout, one<br />
senses a persuasive and coherent formal unity<br />
of theme and mood.<br />
Krein’s 9-minute Poem, from about 1920,<br />
adds an exotic tint to his musical palette, with<br />
florid, “Hebraic” melodies and quasi-modal<br />
chorales. This too is a lovely work of its kind,<br />
full of bright colors and striking textures (in<br />
both instruments) though more relaxed and<br />
expansive in mood than the intense sonata.<br />
Samuil Feinberg (1890-1962) was better<br />
known in his native Russia as a pianist and<br />
teacher than composer, though he wrote a lot,<br />
especially for piano, a fair amount of it now<br />
recorded (see our index for reviews). Like<br />
Krein he was a late-late-romantic influenced<br />
by Scriabin, as well as Rachmaninoff, Busoni,<br />
and Szymanowski. Judging by his piano<br />
sonatas (recorded on BIS) and by the comments<br />
on his piano concertos by ARG’s reviewers,<br />
Feinberg’s music is typically bloated, cluttered,<br />
and bombastic, with torrents of notes<br />
that overwhelm any sense of clear shape or<br />
direction. Still, on the rare occasions when he<br />
writes with clarity and restraint—usually in his<br />
shorter, more modest efforts—he can produce<br />
engaging music of considerable delicacy and<br />
expressiveness.<br />
Feinberg’s 1960 Violin Sonata, written very<br />
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late in his life, is one of the best works I’ve<br />
heard by him. One reason is surely because—<br />
though it lasts 26 minutes—there are five<br />
sharply contrasted movements of moderate<br />
length, and, especially in the first three of<br />
these, the composer resists his impulse to pad<br />
and thicken his music. Moreover the piano<br />
writing—too often excessive in Feinberg—is<br />
here quite lucid and disciplined, greatly<br />
improved by the composer’s adoption of a<br />
neo-classic (rather than excessive and heroically<br />
romantic) sense of proportion and poise.<br />
The first three movements are shapely and<br />
concise: I is a solemn, neo-baroque prelude of<br />
imposing nobility; II is an incisive, muscular,<br />
vaulting scherzo in six-eight time; III is a slow,<br />
halting, rather melancholy andante. IV and V<br />
are longer (7 minutes each), with more variety<br />
in tempo and emotion and more development<br />
and internal contrasts. Both rework ideas from<br />
the earlier movements, quite touchingly in<br />
places, V eventuating in a sonorous, broadly<br />
phrased recapitulation and bravura coda.<br />
Especially as rendered here, superbly<br />
played by Ilona Then-Bergh and Michael<br />
Schäfer and nicely recorded by Genuin, these<br />
works by Grigorij Krein and Samuil Feinberg<br />
are likely to interest all lovers of early-modernera<br />
violin music.<br />
LEHMAN<br />
KUMMER: Chamber Music<br />
Red Cedar—Fleur de Son 58008—64 minutes<br />
Gaspard Kummer (1795-1870) was a German<br />
flutist-composer whose music has faded from<br />
popularity since he died. He wrote a number<br />
of chamber works. Here we have the Serenades<br />
for flute, viola, and guitar, Opp. 81 & 83,<br />
the Divertimento for two flutes and guitar, Op.<br />
92:2, and the Quintet, Op. 75 for two flutes,<br />
viola, cello, and guitar. The two Serenades differ<br />
in size and ambition, with Op. 83 the better.<br />
The Op. 81 and the Divertimento are salon<br />
music, and the Quintet falls in the middle.<br />
Kummer uses held notes in all these<br />
pieces; another stylistic hallmark is homophony.<br />
This is conventional music, but at its<br />
best—the inner movements of the quintet, for<br />
instance—it offers plenty of reward.<br />
This is a performance on period instruments.<br />
The playing is excellent, and the tone<br />
qualities are charming. The viola sound is<br />
often thin and stringy, the guitar is soft and has<br />
little resonance. There is generally no vibrato.<br />
Yet I do like it. One thing I don’t: the staccatos<br />
for all in I of the Serenade, Op. 81 are just too<br />
thin (meant to sound playful). The intonation<br />
is spot on, and so is all the technique. The balance<br />
leaves the guitar just a little out of the texture.<br />
This is not the kind of guitar writing<br />
found in modern flute and guitar pieces that<br />
calls for a lot of tone colors; the guitar is there<br />
primarily for harmonic support.<br />
Flutists Jan Boland and Douglas Worthen<br />
carry this program, playing as one. Superb<br />
notes by guitarist John Dowdall and Boland<br />
trace the players’ history with this music to<br />
discoveries at the Library of Congress in 1980<br />
and 1999.<br />
Iowa-based Red Cedar Chamber Music<br />
have recorded eight other CDs for Fleur de<br />
Son, including one titled ‘Three Guys Named<br />
Mo’; we’ve covered seven of those eight,<br />
including the Mozart-Molitor-Molino program.<br />
The last recording we covered of music<br />
similar to this was a European group playing<br />
Molino (CPO 777448; Sept/Oct 2010), and it<br />
too was commendable.<br />
GORMAN<br />
LAITMAN: Vedem; Fathers<br />
Music of Remembrance—Naxos 559685—61 mins<br />
Music of Remembrance is a musical organization<br />
dedicated to remembering Holocaust<br />
musicians and their art, found in Seattle,<br />
Washington. They have made at least four<br />
other CDs for Naxos. This one contains a 49minute<br />
chamber oratorio on the subject of a<br />
clandestine magazine called Vedem (Czech for<br />
“In the Lead”), put together by the boys in<br />
Home 1 of Terezin’s concentration camp every<br />
week between 1942 and 1944 and containing<br />
articles and poetry by the children, most of<br />
whom were eventually killed.<br />
Mina Miller, founder and artistic director<br />
of Music of Remembrance and pianist here,<br />
commissioned Lori Laitman (b 1955) to compose<br />
this work. Laitman brought in poet David<br />
Mason to put together a libretto from the 800<br />
pages of material hidden away by one of the<br />
boys, brought back to Prague after the liberation<br />
and published in a book called We are<br />
Children Just the Same, published in 1995.<br />
The text as presented in the oratorio is a<br />
mix of description and poetry about the situation<br />
of the children and their reactions to it. It<br />
is most moving and leads me to wonder<br />
whether we human beings are really better<br />
than the other animals. We have some very<br />
destructive instincts that continue to kill off<br />
some of our most valuable citizens just<br />
because we don’t agree with some of their<br />
views. We can blame the Germans for the<br />
holocaust, but that doesn’t let the rest of us off<br />
the hook.<br />
Laitman’s music is smooth as a glove and<br />
suits the material to a T. It is warmly and simply<br />
romantic in idiom and lets the text do the<br />
talking. The only complaint I have about the<br />
production is that one must follow the text in<br />
the liner notes in order to understand it, partly<br />
because Angela Niederloh has an odd way of<br />
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pronouncing certain words that makes it<br />
impossible to follow the text by ear. One<br />
should follow it by eye for other reasons as<br />
well, since it is the only way one can be sure<br />
whose text one is listening to, Mason’s or the<br />
children’s. Ross Hauck, the tenor, has a nice<br />
bright voice and the choir is beautifully balanced.<br />
There are also numerous child soloists<br />
who are a joy to hear.<br />
Fathers is a short song cycle based on<br />
poems by Sri Lankan poet Anne Ranasinghe<br />
and Russian poet David Vogel, both of whom<br />
disappeared under the Nazis. It is a sequel to a<br />
previous cycle called Daughters and is scored<br />
for piano trio and mezzo-soprano, again sung<br />
by Niederloh. Another fine expression of feeling,<br />
it completes this program effectively.<br />
Despite my reservations about her diction,<br />
Niederloh is a good singer and this is an<br />
important release.<br />
D MOORE<br />
LANGGAARD: Piano Pieces 2<br />
Berit Johansen Tange<br />
DaCapo 6220565 [SACD] 64 minutes<br />
Rued Langgaard was born in Copenhagen and<br />
lived from 1893-1952; he studied composition<br />
with his father, Siegfried, and counterpoint<br />
briefly with Carl Nielsen. He wrote 16 symphonies,<br />
an opera called Antichrist (DaCapo<br />
6220523, M/A 2007), and various other pieces.<br />
Volume 1 of the piano works, also with Tange,<br />
was reviewed by Mr Becker (DaCapo 8226025,<br />
S/O 2005).<br />
These pieces are a mixed bag of miniatures<br />
that remind me sometimes of Schumann (the<br />
Little Summer Memories) or Messiaen (Music<br />
of the Abyss, the first section of which ends<br />
with disconcertingly out-of-place major arpeggios).<br />
‘Album Leaf’, written when he was 11, is<br />
a touching little piece. Most of the album,<br />
though, is either pleasant but bland—or too<br />
insistent. Tange plays well, but the music is<br />
forgettable.<br />
ESTEP<br />
LEFKOWITZ: With/Without; Duo;<br />
(Sur)Real (Cine-)Music 1; Surfer’s <strong>Guide</strong> for<br />
the Perplexed; E Duo Unum; Canonical Variations;<br />
Fashionable Suite<br />
Julie Long, Jennifer Roth, fl; Ryan Zwahlen, ob;<br />
Jennifer Stevenson, Ralph Williams, Jonathan<br />
Sacdalan, cl; Daphne Chen, Julian Hallmark, v;<br />
Paul Coletti, Silu Fei, va; Carter Dewberry, vc;<br />
Walter Ponce, Stella Maksoudian, Jeanette-Louise<br />
Yaryan, Jeri-Mae G, Satolti, p; Buzz Gravelle, Sam<br />
Vierra, g; Andrea Thiele, hp<br />
Albany 1247— 79 minutes<br />
nell, and the University of Pennsylvania, working<br />
with Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner,<br />
George Crumb, and Karel Husa. The music<br />
that results is not so much contradictory as it<br />
is a blend of styles and sources held together<br />
by a strong personality. The most curious<br />
composition is the first one listed. This derives<br />
from a ballet score for Desire under the Elms<br />
where a work for flute, cello, and harp is<br />
played either as solos, duos, or trio, each of<br />
which is played in the course of the eveninglong<br />
ballet. Here we are treated to the trio and<br />
the flute-cello duo as well as the solo parts for<br />
flute and harp, each interspersed between the<br />
other works in the program. The harp part is<br />
mostly repetitive figures that rather turn me<br />
off, but the other three versions are more varied.<br />
I am not impressed by the cellist’s intonation<br />
in the duo.<br />
The program opens with a nine-minute<br />
Duo for two pianos, an effective piece of energy<br />
and sensitivity. Then flute, violin, and two<br />
guitars give us (Cine-)Music 1, subtitled The<br />
Chase Through Escher’s Metamorphosen. The<br />
titles are considerably more complex than the<br />
outgoing and lovely music they intend to<br />
describe. The Surfer’s <strong>Guide</strong> is subtitled Jonah<br />
on the Raging Sea, though how this is supposed<br />
to relate to the colorful but hardly raging<br />
chamber piece it accompanies is anyone’s<br />
guess. Ah, that must be one of the contradictions!<br />
E Duo Unum is for two violas playing in<br />
hocket together. It is a great sound, though<br />
there is a bit of a repetition problem. Canonical<br />
Variations is for two clarinets. I rather<br />
expected more minimalism, but they are actually<br />
quite varied and entertaining. Finally we<br />
have two movements from a Fashionable Suite<br />
for piano solo, again on the simplistic side.<br />
Taken as a whole, Lefkowitz could do with a bit<br />
more contradiction in his style. His music is<br />
written in a pleasant idiom but it gets too close<br />
to minimalism too often for me to feel wholehearted<br />
about it.<br />
D MOORE<br />
LEIGHTON: Partita; Elegy; Solo Cello<br />
Sonata; Alleluia Pascha Nostrum<br />
Raphael Wallfisch, vc; Raphael Terroni, p<br />
BMS 439—61 minutes<br />
(www.britishmusicsociety.co.uk or phone<br />
01708 224795. Credit cards not accepted.)<br />
Kenneth Leighton (1929-88) wrote music of<br />
lyrical beauty from the beginning of his career.<br />
His Elegy, Opus 5 stems from an early cello<br />
sonata written in 1949 and has a romantic<br />
vocal mood that was on the way out in post-<br />
WW II music and is all the more welcome<br />
Music of Contradictions is the overall title of today.<br />
this release. David Lefkowitz is a native of New The Partita, Opus 35 with piano, is less<br />
York City who has been through Eastman, Cor- overtly tonal but just as lyrical, beginning<br />
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again with an elegy, then a scherzo, and end- Leighton’s pieces are not conventional chorale<br />
ing with a theme and variations. The Solo Cello preludes but free improvisations on the tunes,<br />
Sonata dates from 1967 and is an effective even though fantasies sometimes include an<br />
blend of poise and activity demonstrating intact presentation of the melody.<br />
Wallfisch’s warm tone. Here I wish he had Missa de Gloria, Opus 82, also known as<br />
been somewhat more careful to make audible Dublin Festival Mass was commissioned for<br />
all of the inner notes in chordal passages. I the Dublin International Organ Festival and<br />
think we are missing something in clarity of first performed at St Patrick’s Cathedral in<br />
harmony in the last movement, ‘Flourish, Cha- 1980. It is a large-scale suite for organ based on<br />
conne and Coda’.<br />
the Sarum plainchants for Easter Day. The<br />
Finally, we have a 14-minute work again movements are named for the sung items of<br />
with piano, Alleluia Pascha Nostrum, written the Ordinary of the Mass, and Leighton’s<br />
in 1985, a particularly beautiful piece where music closely follows the structure and charac-<br />
the composer bids us and the cello farewell in ter of the liturgical texts. For instance, the Glo-<br />
a most moving way. This is an important ria is in three contrasting sections that reflect<br />
release, well played and recorded in a warm the distinct divisions of the Latin text, and<br />
sound. The material is not duplicated else- these are reinforced with quotations and<br />
where, to my knowledge, and it is a most development of the corresponding plainsong<br />
enjoyable addition to the cello literature.<br />
motives. The suite concludes with a character-<br />
D MOORE istic Leighton toccata on the chant for ‘Ite<br />
LEIGHTON: Organ Works<br />
Missa Est’.<br />
Since 2006, Greg Morris has been associate<br />
Et Resurrexit; Fantasies on Hymn Tunes (3); organist at the Temple Church in London.<br />
Dublin Festival Mass<br />
Before that he was assistant director of music<br />
Greg Morris<br />
at Blackburn Cathedral, where this was record-<br />
Naxos 572601—70 minutes<br />
ed. The instrument was built in 1969 by the<br />
Kenneth Leighton was one of the most important<br />
composers of sacred choral and organ<br />
music in the 20th Century, though he is perhaps<br />
not as highly regarded outside his native<br />
Britain as he deserves to be. The present<br />
recording gives two of his major organ works<br />
and three selections from a set of shorter<br />
pieces.<br />
The three-movement suite Et Resurrexit<br />
dates from 1966. The composer stated that his<br />
object was “to give musical expression to the<br />
individual’s struggle for belief in the resurrection”.<br />
It seems to me that a great deal of<br />
Leighton’s music embodies a spiritual and<br />
emotional struggle towards a victory that is<br />
hard-won. The music is often ferociously dis-<br />
firm of JW Walker & Sons of Ruislip, and<br />
rebuilt in 2002 by Wood of Huddersfield. It is a<br />
generously endowed four-manual organ with a<br />
good variety of tone colors in a coherent tonal<br />
design. As recorded here the sound is spacious<br />
and powerful, even if somewhat distant as is so<br />
often the case with English cathedral organs.<br />
The strings sound rather chilly to me, but that<br />
often suits the severity of Leighton’s quieter<br />
writing, as does the plaintive quality of the soft<br />
reeds. Morris’s playing is authoritative and<br />
more than equal to Leighton’s virtuosic<br />
demands. Furthermore, this is clearly an<br />
instrument the artist knows well and can use<br />
to the greatest effect.<br />
GATENS<br />
sonant but never gratuitously ugly. The<br />
anguished harmony and counterpoint are<br />
always moving toward a final goal that cannot<br />
be reached any other way. That is certainly<br />
true of this work that begins with a brief movement<br />
to present the theme that pervades the<br />
whole. It is followed by a fantasy that freely<br />
LEIGHTON: St Thomas Mass;<br />
see MACMILLAN<br />
LENTZ: Ingwe<br />
Zane Banks, g<br />
Naxos 572483—60 minutes<br />
develops the theme, and finally a fugue that Here’s another piece composed for electric<br />
concludes in triumph, though even here the guitar—in this instance a single, hour-long<br />
concluding major chord contains a raised work for solo electric guitar. I’ve been getting<br />
fourth degree that seems both to recall the more of these, and there really is no reason<br />
struggle and intensify the triumph as a mere why composers shouldn’t use the range of<br />
common chord would not.<br />
sounds that can be produced on electric gui-<br />
This is followed by the last three of tar. Most effective of the works I’ve heard was<br />
Leighton’s Six Fantasies on Hymn Tunes, Opus a concerto by Michael Nicollela, Ten Years<br />
72 (1975). The three tunes are the Irish melody Passed (M/J 2011). Ingwe is nothing if not<br />
‘St Columba’, the plainsong hymn ‘Veni ambitious, but you’ll have to judge whether its<br />
<strong>Emmanuel</strong>’, and the psalm tune ‘Hanover’ reach has exceeded its grasp.<br />
generally attributed to William Croft. Georges Lentz trained in Europe before<br />
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emigrating to Australia in 1990. His work tends<br />
to be grandiose, inspired by religious imagery<br />
(since 1994 he has worked on a cycle of compositions<br />
collectively titled Caeli Enarrant...,<br />
“The Heavens are telling”). He is also inspired<br />
by nature, which in Australia is vast and overwhelming,<br />
and by Australia’s aboriginal cultures.<br />
The title of this work means “night” in<br />
the Aranda language. The notes make no mention<br />
of it, but I can’t help thinking that it is also<br />
a reference to the heavy metal guitarist Yngwie<br />
Malmsteen, whose name has the same pronunciation,<br />
and whose development of virtuoso<br />
technique is surely the model for much of<br />
this work. Malmsteen actually brought a number<br />
of students to classical guitar and classical<br />
music, and even performed the Paganini<br />
Caprices on electric guitar.<br />
But for all the grandiose, metaphysical<br />
claims the notes make about this piece, it is<br />
mainly an extension of techniques on electric<br />
guitar that were pioneered by Jimi Hendrix<br />
and developed and extended by Jimmy Page,<br />
Malmsteen, and others. It opens with 11 minutes<br />
of the sort of thing that might have been<br />
done by any of these players in an extended<br />
solo improvisation. Tempos are fluid (the<br />
notes say that there are four beats in every bar,<br />
but each beat might be a different duration—<br />
I’m afraid I don’t get that). And we’ve got bent<br />
notes, feedback, screaming scales, low-register<br />
dissonances, and power chords (open fifths<br />
and octaves at extreme volume—the device<br />
that produced a generation of young players<br />
who couldn’t distinguish between major and<br />
minor). Softer passages use tapping effects,<br />
playing by lightly brushing the strings, playing<br />
beyond the fingerboard, or playing with a bow<br />
to sustain the sound (Page originally used an<br />
actual bow—apparently it’s done electronically<br />
now). We also hear harmonics and passages<br />
that play with the volume control to eliminate<br />
the initial attack and produce the illusion of<br />
sustained sounds. There are passages of<br />
extreme crescendos, created by the amplification.<br />
The close of the work is a series of pounding<br />
notes on the lowest string, which is gradually<br />
lowered in its tuning until it ceases to<br />
vibrate and only rattles.<br />
The structure of the work is coherent, and<br />
if you find the concept interesting, you may<br />
want to hear this. Guitarist Zane Banks performs<br />
like an expert. He is trained in classical<br />
and jazz guitar and is active in the new music<br />
scene (not pop) in Australia. For me it went on<br />
far too long (as did some of those metal solos<br />
back in the day). Maybe I’m showing my age,<br />
but I just wanted to yell out “turn down that<br />
damned guitar!”<br />
KEATON<br />
LIADOV: Polish Variations; see GLAZOUNOV<br />
LISZT: Années de Pelerinage I<br />
Tomas Dratva, p<br />
Oehms 786—59 minutes<br />
The selling point of this release is not the<br />
soloist or the music, but the piano. The instrument<br />
is Wagner’s Steinway grand (Op. 34304)<br />
in Haus Wahnfried in Bayreuth. Dating originally<br />
from 1876, it has had a lot of work since<br />
then: it was overhauled completely in 1979. It<br />
is in good shape now. Based on its sound alone<br />
I would never have guessed its age.<br />
What I noticed most was that the instrument<br />
Dratva selected is not fully up to the task<br />
of handling Liszt. The recording has an overall<br />
pale quality resulting largely from the piano’s<br />
inability to go beyond a certain volume.<br />
‘Orage’, for example, never gets truly loud.<br />
Instead, it is a claustrophobia-inducing performance<br />
that sounds as if it were being played<br />
by a computer running Finale or Sibelius. ‘Vallée<br />
d’Obermann’ is also disappointingly flat.<br />
While some problems can be attributed to the<br />
instrument’s limitations, the performer<br />
exhibits some notable weaknesses too. In ‘Au<br />
Lac de Wallenstadt’, the melodies often trail<br />
off; in the ‘Pastorale’, the two contrasting<br />
themes are played with the exact same character.<br />
Most of ‘Au Bord d’une Source’ is under<br />
tempo, including the end.<br />
Dratva’s strongest attributes are his delicate-yet-full<br />
tone quality and his ability to pull<br />
back expressively for effect. In isolated<br />
instances these are effective, but would be<br />
more so if they were complemented by a larger<br />
array of tricks. Aside from the historical significance<br />
of the piano, then, little else sets this<br />
Liszt release apart from the rest.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
LISZT: Années de Pelerinage, all<br />
Julian Gorus, p—Hänssler 98627 [3CD] 187 mins<br />
This release is remarkable more for its slick<br />
packaging and ambitious program than for the<br />
playing. Gorus does show promise as a Liszt<br />
performer. He has, for example, sufficient<br />
strength and stamina to rocket through the<br />
Dante Sonata. And he has sufficient courage to<br />
both experiment and succeed with unusual<br />
interpretations: the restless tempo he chooses<br />
for the ‘Chapelle de Guillaume Tell’ imparts a<br />
much clearer sense of the piece than the noncommittal,<br />
hesitant approach favored by many<br />
others.<br />
Yet despite all that, too many factors<br />
remain that conspire to scuttle this project.<br />
One of these is the piano, which is soft and<br />
blurry and has a damper pedal that roughly<br />
brushes the strings. Another is the meandering<br />
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and aimless quality of the softer, introspective<br />
pieces. There are plenty of pretty textures on<br />
hand, such as in the ‘Canzone’ from the supplement<br />
to Year 2 and for all the water-themed<br />
numbers from Year 1. These do not sufficiently<br />
compensate us for the sublime works that fall<br />
flat owing to incoherent melodies, among<br />
them ‘Les Cloches de Geneve’, ‘Sonnet 123’,<br />
and ‘Angelus’. The more aggressive numbers<br />
do not rescue Gorus’s case either. As engaging<br />
as they may be at first, later hearings diminish<br />
their luster.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
LISZT: Concertos 1+2; Hungarian Rhapsody<br />
6; Valse Oubliee 1; Petrarch Sonnet 104;<br />
SCHUMANN: Romance 2; Novelette 1;<br />
FALLA: Miller’s Dance;<br />
GUION: The Harmonica Player<br />
Byron Janis; Moscow Philharmonic/ Kiril Kondrashin;<br />
Moscow Radio Symphony/ Gennady<br />
Rozhdestvensky<br />
Newton 8802058—64 minutes<br />
The concertos were recorded in Moscow in<br />
June, 1962; Janis was wrapping up his triumphal<br />
tour and Mercury brought its Living<br />
Presence equipment to the USSR rather than<br />
trusting the sonics to Melodiya. Mr Manildi<br />
was enthusiastic over the first appearance on<br />
silver disc (M/A 1991), praising the Horowitzian<br />
virtuosity tempered by “tonal subtlety and<br />
a true sense of Lisztian style”. These were often<br />
compared to the highly-regarded Richter performances<br />
(Overview, J/A 1990) but I don’t<br />
think the latter are as imaginative or colorful.<br />
Certainly Philips couldn’t match Mercury’s<br />
vivid, you-are-there sonics, one of the label’s<br />
earliest 35mm film recordings. The Russian<br />
orchestras are not always refined, and I’m not<br />
about to part with Pennario and Leibowitz<br />
(RCA). But these Janis performances rank with<br />
the very best and deserve to be made widely<br />
available again.<br />
The concertos can also be found in a fourrecord<br />
“Janis Edition” from Brilliant (9182)<br />
that adds concertos by Rachmaninoff, Prokofieff,<br />
Schumann, and Tchaikovsky, along with<br />
Moussorgsky’s Pictures. The set can be had at a<br />
bargain price, but you won’t get the encores<br />
included here. Mr Manildi considered them<br />
“exceptional” and I concur, particularly the<br />
dazzling Hungarian Rhapsody and a first-class<br />
Petrarch Sonnet.<br />
KOLDYS<br />
LISZT: Bellini & Verdi Paraphrases<br />
Giovanni Bellucci, p—Lontano 690748—63 mins<br />
This is astonishing playing. Almost everything<br />
Bellucci does feels almost impossibly grand in<br />
scale, and by this I mean the passion, volume,<br />
technique, and artistic vision alike. All these<br />
positive qualities are gilded further by an<br />
amazing studio sound, a straight through-thecenter<br />
tone that has no edge. It’s intensely<br />
vivid without ever becoming too bright.<br />
The offering from Norma is beautiful in all<br />
ways—in the “as powerful as a force of nature”<br />
way as much as it is in the “poignant and tender<br />
adagio” way. The piano has an especially<br />
vocal quality: for a demonstration one need<br />
only listen to the aria passages starting at 8:30.<br />
The paraphrase of Don Carlos illustrates<br />
another of his strong suits, the way he projects<br />
colors. The low, rumbling passages appearing<br />
at the center of the piece are as deep and black<br />
as night, yet are apt at any moment to dissolve<br />
into blissful, optimistic melodies guided forward<br />
by stirring accompaniments. Of course,<br />
in skipping to that section I do not mean to<br />
minimize the striking effect created by the<br />
bombastic, waltz-like opening. The music is<br />
forceful and driven, delightfully dry and sharp<br />
while still sounding full and orchestral.<br />
This release truly is a bounty of near-perfect<br />
moments. In addition to the ones I’ve<br />
mentioned are the magnificent squalls in<br />
Norma and Rigoletto that sweep the full length<br />
of the keyboard as the volume grows ever<br />
louder. Aida is an essay of grace, restraint, and<br />
suspense that culminates in an impossibly<br />
soft, vanishing ending.<br />
For fans of Liszt’s paraphrases, it probably<br />
does not get any better than this. Bellucci’s<br />
playing is powerful, deep, and smart. He is<br />
always placing something of musical interest<br />
before us, such that these lengthy pieces—<br />
which stretch out interminably when lesser<br />
musicians sleepwalk through them—pass by<br />
in a few breathless moments. Though ARG has<br />
remained strangely mute about this pianist,<br />
the magazine Diapason has declared this very<br />
release to be one of the ten best ever of Liszt’s<br />
piano music. I am not prepared to follow them<br />
all the way. I will go so far as to agree that it is a<br />
must buy for any serious pianophile who likes<br />
Liszt, opera, or over the top romantic piano. It<br />
is not necessary for you to like all three,<br />
though: checking just one of those boxes qualifies<br />
you as a good consumer target for this<br />
tremendously fine offering.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
LISZT: Wagner & Weber Transcriptions<br />
Steven Mayer, p<br />
Naxos 570562—68 minutes<br />
The main reason I am writing this review is to<br />
warn readers not to expect too much. In contrast<br />
to paraphrases that might infuse the original<br />
tunes with new sensibilities and textures,<br />
these are transcriptions, pure and simple. I<br />
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recommend them to you only if you really<br />
enjoy hearing pianists interpret opera music.<br />
As to the merits of the release itself, I am<br />
pleased to report that it is of high quality. The<br />
sound is outstanding. All the tones are pure<br />
and sweet, with not a single ugly strike to be<br />
found anywhere. Mayer’s technique is well<br />
suited to this difficult and ornate music: the<br />
scale work and flourishes are outstanding. In<br />
addition there are a few truly impressive<br />
moments, such as the concluding minutes of<br />
‘Am Stillen Herd’ from Meistersinger, where<br />
the initially soft tones grow imperceptibly into<br />
the thundering chords of the final cadence.<br />
Another highly satisfying experience is supplied<br />
by the ‘Entry of the Guests’ from<br />
Tannhäuser. This, one of the few works<br />
exhibiting any real zip, was scored modestly<br />
enough by Wagner that it translates directly<br />
into a piano piece of some interest. Most of the<br />
other the music cruises by cleanly and evenly.<br />
While not always thrilling (there is not a hint of<br />
urgency to the Venusberg music), this program<br />
is at least consistently enjoyable.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
but not by much. The Ave Maria benefits from<br />
a supremely light touch; the pure sonic experience<br />
of it is fantastic. The Hungarian Rhapsody<br />
absolutely flies: the late stages are full of<br />
light and vivacious playing coupled with a soft,<br />
calliope touch. It triumphs as a showpiece, giving<br />
evidence that we really do have a talented<br />
performer on our hands. On the other hand,<br />
the Miserere is done well but dispassionately.<br />
It’s not that this isn’t good playing. The problem<br />
is how far it is from Bellucci (above). So it<br />
is solid but not world-class Liszt.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
LISZT: Petrarch Sonnets; Dante Sonata;<br />
Legend of Saint Francis; Aida, Il Trovatore,<br />
Rigoletto Paraphrases<br />
Daniel Barenboim, p<br />
Warner 69785—75 minutes<br />
LISZT: Piano Sonata; Ave Maria; Hungarian<br />
Rhapsody 12; 2 Verdi Paraphrases<br />
Gabor Farkas<br />
Warner 69284—66 minutes<br />
Barenboim made this all-Liszt recital an Italian<br />
affair. The design is cleverer than that, though.<br />
By beginning with the sonnets and closing<br />
with the paraphrases, he opens and closes<br />
with the vocally conceived repertoire, reserving<br />
the middle for two flashy, pianistic works.<br />
It all hangs together brilliantly, and the musicmaking<br />
is of high caliber all the way through.<br />
About the only thing I didn’t love on this<br />
release is the piano’s sound, which is hot and a<br />
little hollow. The balance didn’t seem right<br />
Farkas, a Hungarian, has won a number of either, with the quiet sounds coming off too<br />
national and international competitions, quiet and sometimes ruining the intimacy. I<br />
including first places at the National Piano can lodge few complaints with the perfor-<br />
Competition of the Hungarian Radio and the mance, though, especially in the first three and<br />
Bartok competition in Baden bei Wien as well last three numbers. ‘Sonnet 47’ is unabashedly<br />
as third at the Liszt International in Budapest. lyric: the depth and force of the melody call to<br />
He has a polished style, with evenness seem- mind the idea of a stage singer with deep<br />
ingly prized above all. That is actually some- lungs. There is a more restrained mood in<br />
what of a drawback for Liszt, where occasional ‘Sonnet 104’, which I was initially tempted to<br />
growling (this is meant metaphorically) is mer- label as a sign of boredom. On deeper reflecited.<br />
It also makes for decidedly cool interpretion, I came to view it more favorably as symptations<br />
of some of this composer’s headiest, tomatic of a calmer, mystical reading. This<br />
most mercurial works.<br />
short set of works is rounded out by ‘Sonnet<br />
The Sonata in B minor starts off with nice, 123’, which swells impressively through its<br />
crisp tones that have appreciable power length, seemingly climbing higher with the<br />
behind them. Things go downhill from there, introduction of each new melodic pitch. The<br />
though, with humdrum passages appearing end is especially dramatic. It simultaneously<br />
with growing regularity. For example, nearly exudes stasis and tension—when is that<br />
all of the many eingangs separating the appoggiatura going to resolve?—before land-<br />
episodes float disappointingly without puring on that last, delightful, ringing chord.<br />
pose. So many wasted opportunities to wax A perfect counterbalance to these works is<br />
rhapsodic! Later, at the climax of the lyrical supplied by the Verdi paraphrases. The vocal<br />
episode directly preceding the final fugue, the lines in Aida are consummately shaped. What<br />
intensity of the melody drops off precipitous- impressed me more, though, is that the interly—precisely<br />
one note after the peak is jections of flowing arpeggio material are all riv-<br />
reached. As for that fugue, though it moves eting, too. Never just killing time, Barenboim is<br />
briskly and effervesces in the highest registers, relentlessly expressive. The works based on Il<br />
it failed to excite me. All in all, this is a solid Trovatore and Rigoletto are spectacular show-<br />
performance of this sonata that fails to distinpieces. The former is remarkable for its draguish<br />
itself from the mainstream. Perhaps that matic, dark colors and rich baritone melodies,<br />
is why he programmed it to appear last.<br />
the latter for its speed and intensity.<br />
The other works on the program are better, I’ve concentrated my efforts so far in<br />
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describing the outer portions of the recital<br />
because that is where the most striking music<br />
lies. Barenboim does an admirable job with St<br />
Francis of Assisi, taking great care to set the<br />
peaceful scene between the ecstatic friar and<br />
the warbling birds. On the one hand it stands<br />
as a world-class lesson in proper leggiero technique.<br />
On the other, this struck me as a longwinded<br />
and gimmicky piece. The Dante<br />
Sonata is the only work that actually fizzles a<br />
bit, a result of him holding back on every climax<br />
except for the final one. This is only a very<br />
brief lull in quality, though. Just about everywhere<br />
else, Barenboim is golden.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
LISZT: Benediction de Dieu dans la Solitude;<br />
Don Giovanni Fantasy; Liebestraum 3;<br />
Polonaise 2; Rhapsodie Espagnole; Jeux<br />
d’eaux a la Villa d’Este<br />
Arto Satukangas, p<br />
Alba 303 [SACD] 65 minutes<br />
Satukangas is a Finnish pianist who, though<br />
having played on several continents, has<br />
remained most active and famous near home.<br />
His only noted win at a significant competition,<br />
for example, was in 1979 at the Maj Lind<br />
Competition in Helsinki. This present offering<br />
will not likely garner him appreciably more<br />
attention from the international community. It<br />
is not that it isn’t done well. He has a polished<br />
and pleasant sound that is put to good use primarily<br />
in the opening polonaise. While the<br />
opening is satisfyingly crisp, it is actually the<br />
soft, expressive passages that are the most<br />
impressive. He gets a remarkably large variety<br />
of colors in this bonbon of a work.<br />
The problem, here and elsewhere, is that<br />
the music fails to catch fire. In privileging<br />
evenness and restraint, the refrains of the<br />
polonaise come off as too light. The undulating<br />
accompaniment from the opening of the<br />
Benediction is suave, but doesn’t shimmer. In<br />
the Rhapsodie Espagnole, minutes go by where<br />
there is plenty of volume and speed, but the<br />
intensity level remains stubbornly flat. The<br />
lighter episodes are charming, in particular the<br />
Chabrier-like one that rockets by in triplet 16th<br />
notes. But the ending registers as only a minor<br />
event: strangely, it seems to get softer as each<br />
new theme enters, almost as if the music were<br />
suffering from a bout of shyness.<br />
I can detect no glaring weaknesses in<br />
Satukangas’s technical playing, but it remains<br />
wanting in expressiveness. The best Liszt playing<br />
in this round remains a three-way tie<br />
between De la Salle, Barenboim, and Bellucci.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
LISZT: Ballade 2; Dante Sonata;<br />
Funerailles; Mazeppa; Transcriptions of<br />
Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner<br />
Lise de la Salle, p<br />
Naive 5267—77 minutes<br />
This pianist is steadily emerging as one of the<br />
great talents of her generation. Margaret<br />
Barela praised her Bach for its intelligence,<br />
imagination, and poise (Sept/Oct 2005), and<br />
James Harrington marveled at her Prokofieff<br />
for its vitality and power (Sept/Oct 2007). And<br />
all this for projects completed well before she<br />
reached the age of 20! Here she returns with a<br />
Liszt offering that, while not as unequivocal a<br />
success as those earlier efforts, is certainly<br />
worth taking note of.<br />
De la Salle’s playing in unimpeachable in<br />
almost all respects. She boasts an uncommon<br />
technique that is more than up to the task of<br />
handling Liszt’s most difficult scores. In other<br />
words, her capacities far exceed the classic<br />
requirements of smooth scale work, supple<br />
arpeggios, and fast tremolos. Among them are<br />
her vast reserves of power and the astounding<br />
quickness of her hands. For example, she<br />
blazes through the leap-based episodes of<br />
Mazeppa like no one I’ve heard. I was further<br />
bowled over by two different spots in<br />
Funerailles. The initial section is delivered with<br />
about same energy and volume as a full<br />
orchestra belting out the overture to Prokofieff’s<br />
Romeo and Juliet. The march near the<br />
work’s conclusion absolutely gleams: again,<br />
few players could hope to match her vibrant<br />
sound and relentless forward momentum.<br />
At the same time, I do not regard this<br />
release an unqualified success. Her tone, for<br />
one thing, is too monochromatic. The piano<br />
she uses is consistently dark and full, and it<br />
facilitates her incredible release technique. As<br />
wonderful as that is, it made me miss the<br />
sharper, more brittle timbres that are necessary<br />
for creating drama in the frenzied parts of<br />
longer works like the second ballade. Another<br />
problem is her program, which sprinkles in<br />
minor transcriptions—Mozart’s ‘Lachrymosa’<br />
from the Requiem, Schubert’s ‘Ständchen’,<br />
and Schumann’s ‘Widmung’—among the<br />
anchoring works. These works, having no real<br />
connection to types of sentiment expressed in<br />
original works by Liszt, create potholes in this<br />
otherwise serious program.<br />
I judge this release in the end to be extremely<br />
good. De la Salle’s Liszt is extremely<br />
polished and dependable. While there are not<br />
many lyric surprises on hand, the playing as a<br />
whole is too good to really pass up. It even has<br />
an additional attribute especially suggestive of<br />
its world-class heritage: it grows on you. The<br />
inimitable way she releases notes, or links<br />
them sinuously as in the opening of the Dante<br />
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Sonata, echo in the mind long after listening. I<br />
can recall her sound vividly to mind even now.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
LISZT: Au Lac de Wallenstadt; Ballade 2;<br />
Consolations; Hungarian Rhapsody 3;<br />
Petrarch Sonnet 104; Valse Oubliee 1;<br />
Waldesrauschen<br />
Nelson Freire, p—Decca 4782728—58 minutes<br />
Freire is an international superstar of the keyboard<br />
who, according to the vast literature of<br />
reviews of his releases, it seems can do no<br />
wrong. I approached this release with high<br />
expectations (based in part on my familiarity<br />
with his superlative work with Chopin), but I<br />
am somewhat perplexed by it. Everything<br />
about the design and execution of the product<br />
indicates that I should like it, but I do not. As<br />
to why, I think the main culprit is the piano,<br />
which sounds like it has been miked too close.<br />
In the upper registers, anything louder than a<br />
mezzo forte registers as a hammered note.<br />
Whenever Freire puts effort in to bringing out<br />
the main melody, it sounds as if he’s trying too<br />
hard.<br />
The imbalance between melody and supporting<br />
harmony is great enough to derail<br />
some of the more significant offerings, including<br />
the second ballade. The left hand rumbling<br />
at the opening is too quiet; it is also too bright,<br />
making this music evocative of nothing. The<br />
first important climax near 5:00 is a halfhearted<br />
affair marked by very dry attacks and too little<br />
power. In ‘Sonnet 104’ the lyrical melody is<br />
plunked out too hard. Fortunately it is at least<br />
shaped well, with many expressive dynamic<br />
curves. Where the work gets more agitated<br />
near the end, the scrabbling loud chords<br />
sound forced and not very beautiful. Again, it<br />
sounds as if he’s trying too hard.<br />
One can find a few notable tracks that are<br />
beyond reproach. The Third Hungarian Rhapsody<br />
is wonderful all the way through. The<br />
start is all bold, fat tones. Soon after the color<br />
shifts and we enter the world of the exotic<br />
scales. The notes materialize and run off like<br />
water droplets and slide about with a seductive,<br />
dangerous air. Other great moments<br />
appear in the center of the Consolations. The<br />
third one adopts a very tender sound, incredibly<br />
sostenuto and liquid. Midway through it<br />
begins to get even better: the addition of more<br />
voices doesn’t disrupt the overall serene<br />
atmosphere, and the releases become even<br />
more delicate. No. 4 is just as good. It is a subtle,<br />
reserved, and poignant work highly reminiscent<br />
of Schumann’s ‘Der Dichter Spricht’,<br />
and Freire delivers it with all the solemnity and<br />
grace that it deserves.<br />
These few moments are a testament to this<br />
artist’s limitless talent. I only wish there were<br />
more of them gracing the full release. For anyone<br />
who goes ahead and purchases this, I recommend<br />
listening to it in your car to take<br />
some of the edge off the sound. No matter<br />
where I tried listening, though, I was never<br />
able to completely shake it.<br />
AUERBACH<br />
LISZT: Piano Concerto 2; see SCHUMANN<br />
LOEWE: 20 Songs & Ballads<br />
Florian Boesch, bar; Roger Vignoles<br />
Hyperion 67866—61 minutes<br />
If the tendency in voice recitals these days is to<br />
sprinkle some rarities in amidst the chestnuts,<br />
this recording breaks the trend. All the Loewe<br />
favorites are here—ballads like ‘Erlkönig’ and<br />
‘Edward’; cute songs like ‘Hinkende Jamben’<br />
and ‘Die Wandelne Glocke’; even sappy pieces<br />
like ‘Die Uhr’.<br />
Florian Boesch is a fine singer, a bass-baritone<br />
in color even though the lowest notes are<br />
weak. He also characterizes well, particularly<br />
in the ballads where he has a horrific story to<br />
tell. Roger Vignoles’s accompaniments are as<br />
fine as you would expect from the seasoned<br />
pianist; he does a great job with the challenging<br />
conclusion to ‘Odins Meeresritt’.<br />
This is an ideal introduction to Loewe.<br />
Most of the good pieces are here in excellent<br />
performances, and the production is helped<br />
no small amount by the inclusion of good<br />
notes and texts in German and English.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
LOEWE: 9 Songs;<br />
SCHUMANN: Liederkreis, op 39<br />
Henk Neven, bar; Hans Eijsackers<br />
Onyx 4052—61 minutes<br />
Neven is a young Dutch baritone, a 2003 graduate<br />
from the Conservatory of Amsterdam; this<br />
is his first commercial recording. He has a fine<br />
voice, somewhat rugged in texture, but with a<br />
wide range of color and dynamics. I would like<br />
a little more freedom in his high notes, but<br />
basically his technique is in good shape.<br />
The lovely Schumann cycle is very nicely<br />
done, with careful, imaginative treatment of<br />
text, but I will admit that the loveliest<br />
moments (e.g. in ‘Mondnacht’) don’t have the<br />
same magic that other singers bring to it. More<br />
satisfying are the Loewe songs—mostly familiar<br />
ones—where the rugged, (should I say<br />
blue-collar?) quality of his voice contributes to<br />
the story-telling in the ballads. His ‘Hinkende<br />
Jamben’ (which Hotter did so well) is a touching<br />
example of his fine characterization; and<br />
longer works like ‘Tom der Reimer’, ‘Herr<br />
Oluf’, and ‘Odins Meeresritt’ have just the<br />
right amount of narrative tone. Neven is very<br />
capably accompanied by Hans Eijsackers, who<br />
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earns his pay with a wonderful ‘Odins Meeresritt’.<br />
In short, a very nice debut record and a<br />
name to look for in the future.<br />
If you look for this recording, it carries the<br />
title Auf einer Burg (the seventh song in the<br />
Schumann cycle). Texts in German and English.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
LULLY: Bellerophon<br />
Les Talens Lyriques/ Christophe Rousset<br />
Aparte 15 [2CD] 2:13:46<br />
When Bellerophon was first given in 1679, Lully<br />
was still coping with the dismissal of Philippe<br />
Quinault from court for injudicious allusions<br />
to the King’s mistress, Madame de Montespan,<br />
in his libretto for Isis. When Louis XIV requested<br />
a new opera for 1679, the task of creating a<br />
new libretto fell to Thomas Corneille, who had<br />
never written the text for a complete opera<br />
before. Corneille was still upset by the failure<br />
of Psyché in 1678, a work he had to adapt for<br />
Lully in three weeks—it had caused him to<br />
considered never writing another libretto.<br />
When pressed, Corneille finally suggested the<br />
legend of the Greek hero, Bellerophon, who,<br />
while riding on the winged-horse Pegasus, had<br />
conquered the fire-breathing Chimaera.<br />
(Corneille later wrote the libretto for Marc-<br />
Antoine Charpentier’s Medee, which has a<br />
number of similarities with Bellerophon.)<br />
While the compositional process did cause<br />
occasional strain between the composer and<br />
librettist, the subject allowed Louis XIV to<br />
identify himself with the hero (and be suitably<br />
lauded in the prologue) and during its initial<br />
nine-month run, it was a clear success, and it<br />
was often revived in the 18th Century. It was<br />
also the first of Lully’s tragedies lyriques to<br />
appear in print.<br />
The music of Bellerophon also marked a<br />
change in Lully’s style, including a more colorful<br />
orchestration, his first use of accompanied<br />
recitative, extensive use of the chorus, and the<br />
establishment of a harmonious balance between<br />
the need for the ballet and the dramatic<br />
flow. All of these innovative qualities are evident<br />
in this, the premiere recording of<br />
Bellerophon. While I believe Rousset occasionally<br />
pushes the tempo too much, there is a<br />
clear excitement through the whole opera and<br />
a strong sense of musical flow. This contrasts<br />
strongly with the more stately interpretation<br />
modeled by William Christie’s Atys (Nov/Dec<br />
1987) and followed in a number of other<br />
recordings of Lully operas.<br />
All of the soloists are well chosen, especially<br />
Cyril Auvity for Bellerophon, Celine Scheen<br />
for the love interest, Philonoë, and Jean Teitgen<br />
for a number of the bass roles, including<br />
Apollo in the prologue and the magician<br />
Amisodar. Rousset also has the advantage of<br />
an orchestra filled with responsive musicians<br />
who sensitively support the singers. If I had to<br />
chose just two examples from the many on this<br />
recording of Rousset’s success, one would be<br />
the second-act air for Amisodar, where he is<br />
accompanied by the full string section in deep,<br />
dark tones as the stage is transformed into a<br />
horrible rocky prison. My second would be the<br />
extended description of Bellerophon’s combat<br />
by the off-stage chorus in Act IV. I would question<br />
Rousset’s occasional use of organ and percussion<br />
in a number of passages in the opera,<br />
but in this he is only following the current performance<br />
fashions and has the good taste to<br />
keep both within bounds.<br />
While I love Lully operas and admire many<br />
of the earlier recordings, this may be actually<br />
the first I would recommend to anyone unfamiliar<br />
with Lully’s style who wished to fully<br />
experience the musical drama of these essential<br />
compositions.<br />
BREWER<br />
MACMILLAN: Laudi alla Vergine Maria;<br />
Song of the Lamb; Invocation; Cantos Sagrados<br />
LEIGHTON: God’s Grandeur; St Thomas<br />
Mass; Quam Dilecta<br />
David Saint, org; Birmingham Conservatory<br />
Chamber Choir/ Paul Spicer<br />
Regent 348—75 minutes<br />
James MacMillan (b 1959) studied composition<br />
with Kenneth Leighton (1929-88) at the<br />
University of Edinburgh, so these are works of<br />
teacher and pupil. Many are claimed as first<br />
recordings: Leighton’s St Thomas Mass and<br />
‘Quam Dilecta’; MacMillan’s ‘Laudi alla<br />
Vergine Maria’, ‘Song of the Lamb’, and ‘Invocation’.<br />
Most of the pieces here can be better<br />
described as concert music with a sacred<br />
theme than as church music intended to be<br />
performed in the context of a liturgy. The principal<br />
exception is Leighton’s Mass (1962), commissioned<br />
by the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral<br />
to commemorate the 800th anniversary of<br />
the consecration of St Thomas Becket as Archbishop<br />
of Canterbury. It is a setting of the English<br />
texts from the Book of Common Prayer, so<br />
the Gloria comes as the final movement.<br />
MacMillan’s ‘Song of the Lamb’ (2008) and<br />
Leighton’s ‘Quam Dilecta’ (1967) could conceivably<br />
be sung as anthems, but they are too<br />
ambitious for any run-of-the-mill occasion.<br />
‘God’s Grandeur’ (1957) is Leighton’s setting<br />
for unaccompanied choir of a poem by<br />
Gerard Manley Hopkins. MacMillan’s ‘Laudi<br />
alla Vergine Maria’ (2004) sets a passage from<br />
Dante’s Paradiso for double choir and soloists.<br />
The concluding “Ave” contains a sly reference<br />
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to a well-known melody from Gilbert & Sullivan’s<br />
Pirates of Penzance that would almost<br />
certainly elude the listener unless alerted<br />
beforehand. The piece was jointly commissioned<br />
by the Chapter of Winchester Cathedral<br />
and the Netherlands Chamber Choir. ‘Invocation’<br />
(2006) is a setting for unaccompanied<br />
double choir of the English translation of a<br />
poem by Karol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul<br />
II). It was commissioned by the BBC for the<br />
Oriel Singers, who gave the first performance<br />
at the Cheltenham Music Festival.<br />
MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados (1990) has a<br />
more political connotation, as it springs from<br />
the composer’s interest in liberation theology<br />
applied to the circumstances in Latin America.<br />
In this substantial three-movement work,<br />
MacMillan combines English translations of<br />
poems by Ariel Dorfman and Ana Maria Mendoza<br />
with Latin liturgical texts. The work is<br />
deliberately dramatic, even gut-wrenching,<br />
but there is always a danger in such pieces that<br />
the subservience of art to an ideological agenda<br />
will result in propaganda or posturing. I<br />
cannot say that the composer entirely escapes<br />
this pitfall.<br />
A variety of influences is apparent in<br />
MacMillan’s musical language. Early in his<br />
career he was influenced by the avant garde,<br />
especially in its Polish form as represented by<br />
Lutoslawski and Penderecki. Leighton gave<br />
him a solid grounding in traditional harmony<br />
and counterpoint, and the contrapuntal element<br />
in particular is an important part of his<br />
style, as it was for Leighton himself. More<br />
recently MacMillan has displayed an affinity<br />
for the musical flavors of his native Scotland.<br />
Several of the pieces here show that in their<br />
melodic ornamentation. Varied and arresting<br />
harmonic and textural colors are a conspicuous<br />
part of his vocabulary, but his harmonies<br />
often seem static, produced chiefly for their<br />
color, where Leighton’s harmony more often<br />
sounds goal-driven and forward-moving.<br />
The Birmingham Conservatory Chamber<br />
Choir is a group of 24 students. Their performances<br />
here are technically accomplished and<br />
highly disciplined. They seem to be able to<br />
adapt their sound to the character of the music<br />
they are performing. In Leighton’s ‘God’s<br />
Grandeur’, for instance, the sound may be<br />
youthful, but it is not a close imitation of the<br />
English cathedral sound. In contrast, their<br />
sound is far more churchly in the Mass. Occasionally<br />
the choral tone is brash at climaxes;<br />
some of the male singers push the tone too<br />
hard at the expense of choral blend. On the<br />
whole, these are fine performances and the<br />
disc should be acquired by admirers of either<br />
composer.<br />
GATENS<br />
MACMILLAN: Jubilate Deo; Serenity; Magnificat<br />
& Nunc Dimittis; Tremunt Videntes<br />
Angeli; On Love; Here in Hiding; Give me<br />
Justice; The Lamb Has Come for us from the<br />
House of David; Tombeau de Georges<br />
Rouault<br />
Jonathan Vaughn, org; Wells Cathedral Choir/<br />
Matthew Owens<br />
Hyperion 67867—79 minutes<br />
James MacMillan (b 1959) appears to be a hot<br />
item these days. In July/August we reviewed<br />
two concerts of his works in New York. The<br />
present program is entirely works by him, and<br />
it is worth noting that there is no duplication<br />
of repertory between it and the Leighton-<br />
MacMillan disc (above).<br />
The present program runs the gamut from<br />
fairly straightforward works with triadic harmony,<br />
sometimes within the capabilities of<br />
amateur choirs, and works of daunting complexity<br />
both in terms of technical virtuosity<br />
and in musical language. Program annotator<br />
Paul Spicer points out that MacMillan is adept<br />
at tailoring the technical demands of his music<br />
to the abilities of the performers without any<br />
compromise in aesthetic integrity. Two of the<br />
pieces were written as recently as 2009, and<br />
they represent perhaps the extreme ends of<br />
the range I have described.<br />
‘Jubilate Deo’ was written for Wells Cathedral<br />
and first performed in May of 2009. It is a<br />
curiously grim setting of a text that begins “O<br />
Be Joyful in the Lord”. The grimness derives<br />
from the composer’s obsession with the execution<br />
in Texas of a convicted murderer the composer<br />
had befriended for reasons he cannot<br />
fully explain. There is barely a mention of the<br />
elderly woman murdered in her home in a<br />
robbery in 1993. In writing about Kenneth<br />
Leighton, I have mentioned that his harmony<br />
can be fiercely dissonant but without gratuitous<br />
ugliness. I cannot say the same of<br />
MacMillan.<br />
The other piece of 2009 is ‘Serenity’, written<br />
for the 150th anniversary of St Aloysius<br />
College in Glasgow, where the composer’s<br />
children attended. The text is a combination of<br />
the Latin Eucharistic hymn ‘O Salutaris Hostia’<br />
by St Thomas Aquinas with the famous ‘Serenity<br />
Prayer’ attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr.<br />
Here the harmony is mostly triadic and conventional,<br />
with a straightforward melody that<br />
includes some of the composer’s trademark<br />
ornamentation.<br />
The large-scale Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis<br />
(1999) was the result of two separate commissions.<br />
The Magnificat, originally with orchestra,<br />
was commissioned by the BBC for the first<br />
of their Choral Evensong broadcasts of 2000.<br />
The Nunc Dimittis was commissioned by Winchester<br />
Cathedral and first performed with the<br />
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organ version of the Magnificat in July 15 of<br />
that year, the feast of St Swithun, Bishop of<br />
Winchester (d 862). The Magnificat is mostly<br />
quiet, with the choir singing slow-moving triadic<br />
harmony punctuated by Messiaen-style<br />
bird song in the organ—perhaps a bit too<br />
much like Messiaen for comfort. Jarringly loud<br />
and dissonant chords begin the doxology.<br />
‘Tremunt Videntes Angeli’ (2002), written<br />
for the dedication of the Millennium Window<br />
in St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, is for eightpart<br />
choir. The harmony moves very slowly<br />
and mysteriously with a feeling of time standing<br />
still that reminds me of certain pieces by<br />
Sir John Tavener (but with a Scottish accent).<br />
The text consists of three stanzas of the Ascensiontide<br />
office hymn ‘Aeterne Rex Altissime’.<br />
‘On Love’ (1984), text by Khalil Gibran, is<br />
for solo soprano and organ, written for the<br />
wedding of friends of the composer. ‘Here in<br />
Hiding’ (1993) is for unaccompanied malevoice<br />
quartet (ATTB) and was commissioned<br />
by the Hilliard Ensemble. The text is a conflation,<br />
even a jumble of the Latin hymn ‘Adoro<br />
Te’ by St Thomas Aquinas with Gerard Manley<br />
Hopkins’s English translation of it. On this<br />
recording it is nearly impossible to follow the<br />
printed text because of the conflation and<br />
because of the very reverberant acoustic of<br />
Wells Cathedral. As the work was written for<br />
professional singers, no quarter is given in its<br />
technical demands.<br />
‘Give Me Justice’ (2003) is one of the more<br />
accessible and straightforward pieces on the<br />
program. It is a setting of the liturgical Introit<br />
for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. It is a harmonized<br />
free chant punctuated by a refrain in the form<br />
of a unison chant over a pedal, again reminiscent<br />
of Tavener. The earliest work here is ‘The<br />
Lamb Has Come for Us from the House of<br />
David’ (1979). It was written for an ordination<br />
and sets a text by the Fourth-Century St<br />
Ephrem.<br />
The final work on the program is for solo<br />
organ: ‘Le Tombeau de Georges Rouault’<br />
(2003), written for Thomas Trotter. It is a tribute<br />
to the French painter, much admired by<br />
the composer for “the way he embraces the<br />
divine by using quite ordinary, mundane, and<br />
profane images—of clowns and prostitutes,<br />
etc.” The piece consists of variations and<br />
developments of a strange melody whose<br />
character is defined by the interval of the<br />
minor ninth. It is a virtuoso showpiece that<br />
ranges from quiet apprehension to brash rowdiness.<br />
The performances by the Wells Cathedral<br />
Choir leave nothing to be desired technically.<br />
The same is true for organist Jonathan Vaughn,<br />
who has his hands full with many of the<br />
accompaniments, let alone the solo organ<br />
piece. ‘Jubilate Deo’, ‘Serenity’, ‘On Love’, and<br />
‘Le Tombeau de Georges Rouault’ are claimed<br />
here as first recordings. It is also the first<br />
recording of the organ version of the Magnificat<br />
& Nunc Dimittis. Admirers of the composer<br />
will certainly want this.<br />
GATENS<br />
MACMILLAN: Charpentier Variations;<br />
see KORNGOLD<br />
MADERNA: Ausstrahlung; Biogramma;<br />
Grande Aulodia<br />
Carole Sidney Louis, s; Thaddeus Watson, fl;<br />
Michael Sieg, ob; Frankfurt Radio Symphony/<br />
Arturo Tamayo<br />
Neos 10935—73 minutes<br />
Bruno Maderna (1920-73) was born in Venice<br />
and, after World War II, was a <strong>conductor</strong>, composer,<br />
and teacher. For much of his career he<br />
practiced and taught the 12-tone composition<br />
technique. The works offered here, composed<br />
not long before he died, call for spontaneous<br />
decisions by <strong>conductor</strong> and performers about<br />
what will be played when.<br />
Ausstrahlung (Emanation, 1971) is scored<br />
for female voice, flute, oboe, orchestra, and<br />
pre-recorded tape. Ancient texts are read (by<br />
the singer and by others on the tape) in Persian,<br />
Indian, English, French, German, and<br />
Italian. Seven pieces of music (“emanations”)—some<br />
completely composed, others<br />
indeterminate—are performed in an order<br />
determined by the <strong>conductor</strong>. The music and<br />
readings take place simultaneously but seem<br />
to have little to do with each other. It is as if<br />
we’re listening to music in one room while the<br />
radio is on in another. And while the texts are<br />
lofty, the fact that most listeners do not speak<br />
or read multiple languages means that the<br />
texts (included but not translated in the notes)<br />
are really just collections of sounds. Their subject<br />
matter has no bearing on the listening<br />
experience—they could just as well be from Dr<br />
Seuss or the morning newspapers. It is a very<br />
strange and complex work, and it goes on for<br />
34 minutes.<br />
The other pieces are strange, too, and they<br />
have entertaining program notes. Biogramma<br />
(1972) is based on “highly divergent compositional<br />
procedures ranging between the<br />
extremes of maximum freedom and maximum<br />
rigor”. Silences separate events where “horizontal<br />
sound-surfaces alternate with vertical<br />
blocks of sonority; moments of great timbral<br />
compression alternate with others of scattered<br />
and discontinuous texture”. In other words,<br />
the 12-minute orchestral piece is all about<br />
contrasts. How goes the listening experience?<br />
Well, it is just a collection of abstract sounds<br />
and events, some nebulous and surreal, others<br />
grating. Occasionally we can hear things that<br />
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might be called melodies, but mostly we hear<br />
random pitches and timbres.<br />
Grande Aulodia (1970) is a 27-minute work<br />
for flute, oboe, and orchestra. Some events are<br />
composer-prescribed, others improvised or<br />
aleatoric. Some listeners may be entranced,<br />
but others will find it a waste of time.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
MAHLER: Kindertotenlieder;<br />
WAGNER: Wesendonck Songs;<br />
WOLF: 3 Möricke Lieder<br />
Waltraud Meier, mz; Orchestre de Paris/ Daniel<br />
Barenboim—Warner 67539—56 minutes<br />
This is a reissuel it was reviewed by Mr Vroon<br />
in November/December 1990. He liked it more<br />
than I do, though Meier is a singer (and vocal<br />
actor) that I’ve admired for many years, especially<br />
in her Wagner roles. She’s been one of<br />
the best Isoldes since Birgit Nilsson (and I<br />
can’t think of the others); so it’s no surprise<br />
that her performance of the Wesendonck Songs<br />
are superb here. They suit her voice, and perhaps<br />
her personality, better than the Mahler<br />
and Wolf selections. ‘Schmerzen’ and<br />
‘Träume’, were studies for Tristan und Isolde;<br />
and all are here given the full operatic treatment,<br />
but so are, alas, the Mahler and Wolf.<br />
Meier’s singing of the Kindertotenlieder<br />
lacks the haunting sense of intimacy that Kathleen<br />
Ferrier brought to these sad songs; her<br />
rich contralto made her the ideal singer of this<br />
music. She is a more subtle and more expressive<br />
interpreter than Meier, and she colors the<br />
words better. Other notable recordings were<br />
made by Janet Baker, Christa Ludwig, and, of<br />
course, Fischer-Dieskau. As for the Wolf songs,<br />
I wonder who orchestrated them; the notes<br />
can’t say, since there are no notes. But the<br />
results also sound like excerpts from a Wagner<br />
opera, the orchestra almost covers the singer,<br />
and the words get lost. It would have been better<br />
if Barenboim, who is, after all, a very distinguished<br />
pianist, had accompanied Meier at the<br />
piano. Sometimes more is less. No texts.<br />
MOSES<br />
MAHLER: Das Lied von der Erde<br />
Timothy Sparks, t; Ellen Williams, mz; Duraleigh<br />
Chamber Players/ Scott Tilley<br />
Centaur 3044—60 minutes<br />
Siegfried Jerusalem, t; Waltraud Meier, mz; Chicago<br />
Symphony/ Daniel Barenboim<br />
Warner 67540—60 minutes<br />
Siegfried Jerusalem; Cornelia Kallisch; SW German<br />
Radio/ Michael Gielen<br />
Hänssler 93269—63:31<br />
We have reviewed around 50 CD recordings of<br />
this. Some of them, like the first one here, are<br />
Schoenberg’s chamber reduction. I wouldn’t<br />
bother with them. I cannot understand why, in<br />
the age of recordings, anyone would bother<br />
with any kind of reduction. No Beethoven<br />
symphonies for two pianos for me! And Mahler<br />
is one of the great writers for a full orchestra<br />
and knows exactly what to do to make delicate<br />
passages delicate—no need for a reduced<br />
group of instruments. What’s more, I can’t<br />
stand either soloist on the Centaur.<br />
Siegfried Jerusalem turns up in the other<br />
two recordings, both made in 1992, when his<br />
voice was pretty good. But he sounds much<br />
better for Barenboim than for Gielen. The<br />
Barenboim was reviewed here by Kurt Moses<br />
(July/Aug 1992), who said it was good enough<br />
to be ranked with the very greatest ones. Even<br />
the sound is among the best ever. “This work is<br />
a symphony of songs, and its orchestral score<br />
is one of Mahler’s most original and imaginative;<br />
every detail deserves to be heard clearly<br />
and is here.” No orchestra has ever played this<br />
better on a recording. Barenboim is a cooler,<br />
less romantic interpreter than Bernstein or<br />
Walter or Klemperer, but he lets the music<br />
unfold naturally—and that works well. Some<br />
passages are as good as you will hear anywhere.<br />
Meier has a fresh and sensuous voice—<br />
she was the world’s best Wagnerian mezzo at<br />
the time.<br />
Gielen is slower all around, his orchestra<br />
excellent, his mezzo rather laid back and even<br />
nondescript. Gielen alone can make a Mahler<br />
recording great, when it’s only a symphony;<br />
but the singers don’t help here.<br />
In this contest there is a clear winner: the<br />
low-priced Warner reissue of the Chicago<br />
Erato under Barenboim. It still ranks as one of<br />
the three or four greatest.<br />
VROON<br />
MARTIN: Der Sturm (The Tempest)<br />
Robert Holl (Prospero), Christine Buffle (Miranda),<br />
Simon O’Neill (Fernando), Dennis Wilgenhof<br />
(Caliban), James Gilchrist (Antonio), Andreas<br />
Macco (Gonzalo); Netherlands Radio/ Thierry<br />
Fischer<br />
Hyperion 67821 [3CD] 153 minutes<br />
This is the Swiss composer Frank Martin’s first<br />
opera, composed when he was already 60<br />
years old. He had by then written a significant<br />
amount of music for the theater as well as<br />
church works, including Le Vin Herbé, a version<br />
of the Tristan legend. That was first staged<br />
at Salzburg in 1948, and it has been repeated<br />
there several times. Encouraged by his success,<br />
he composed a number of vocal works and<br />
finally, in 1952, without waiting for a commission,<br />
he began to compose Der Sturm, a musical<br />
setting of the Shakespeare play that uses<br />
the German translation by Schlegel, slightly<br />
cut, as its libretto.<br />
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The music is through-composed; there are<br />
no arias or recitatives and no breaks in the<br />
orchestral score except for the division into<br />
three acts. It’s thoroughly modern and lacks<br />
melodic content; it seems to use Schoenberg’s<br />
12-tone serial technique. The music is expressive<br />
but only in a general way; it doesn’t identify<br />
the characters of the play or tell us much<br />
about their emotions. For that, we must still<br />
read Shakespeare. This opera is, to a considerable<br />
extent, a play with music rather than an<br />
opera. (This is true of many “modern” operas.)<br />
Some of the fairy-like atmosphere of the play is<br />
suggested, primarily, by the assignment of<br />
Ariel’s lines to the chorus; its music is charming<br />
and easy on the ears. There’s sometimes a<br />
striking resemblance to some of the choral<br />
music in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s<br />
Dream. I wish that could be said of the rest of<br />
the score.<br />
Robert Hall, as Prospero, is the dominant<br />
singer in this cast (the role was intended for F-<br />
D). His powerful, vibrant baritone is pleasing<br />
even when the music isn’t. His German diction<br />
is impeccable. As his daughter Miranda, Christine<br />
Buffle shows us a pretty voice that is not<br />
always steady. When it is, it’s quite lovely. The<br />
heldentenor Simon O’Neill as Fernando,<br />
Miranda’s beloved, has a solid voice but it<br />
turns edgy in dramatic passages and so loses<br />
its appeal. Most of the other soloists are adequate.<br />
The orchestral music, often powerful, is<br />
dominated by brass and percussion; the Dutch<br />
orchestra handles it well under Fischer’s energetic<br />
leadership. The world premiere of the<br />
opera was given at the Vienna State Opera in<br />
1956, conducted by Ernest Ansermet. Text and<br />
translation are included.<br />
MOSES<br />
MARTINU: Cello Concerto 1; HINDEMITH;<br />
HONEGGER: Cello Concertos<br />
Johannes Moser; German Radio Saarbrücken/<br />
Christoph Poppen—Hänssler 93276—63 minutes<br />
This is a nicely balanced program containing<br />
three 20th Century cello concertos that relate<br />
to each other very comfortably. This is<br />
Bohuslav Martinu’s first concerto for cello and<br />
chamber orchestra, written originally in 1930<br />
and revised for a larger orchestra in 1939 and<br />
1955, not to be confused with his earlier 1924<br />
Concertino for cello and winds. It is a lovely<br />
concatenation of his early brio with the greater<br />
breadth of his later works.<br />
Paul Hindemith’s concerto is from 1940,<br />
not to be confused with his much earlier effort<br />
from 1916. This also is from his mature years of<br />
compositional grandeur and power and is a<br />
fine example of these qualities. After these,<br />
Arthur Honegger’s 1929 Concerto is a minia-<br />
ture, little more than half as long as its companions<br />
but just as memorable in melodies<br />
and technique.<br />
These are demanding pieces for both<br />
soloist and orchestra. Moser and Poppen handle<br />
them with elan, and one is left with a very<br />
positive feeling about the project. There have<br />
been numerous recordings of each of these<br />
pieces, but if you haven’t already gotten them,<br />
these are some of the most polished readings I<br />
know. They are also three of the most listenable<br />
cello concertos of their time.<br />
D MOORE<br />
MARTINU: Songs 1<br />
Jana Wallingerova, mz; Giorgio Koukl, p<br />
Naxos 572588—79 minutes<br />
Giorgio Koukl recently gave us the complete<br />
Martinu solo piano music on Naxos. At first I<br />
was doubtful about an Italian sounding name<br />
playing Martinu but it turned out that he was<br />
born and began his musical education in<br />
Prague. He is an ideal Martinu pianist.<br />
Jana Wallingerova is a Czech mezzo-soprano,<br />
who, typically, has a bit more vibrato than I<br />
would prefer but sings Martinu with considerable<br />
gusto and good inflection.<br />
There are 41 songs here. Naxos offers good<br />
notes and a superb recording. No texts are<br />
supplied but they are available on the internet.<br />
This collection of early Martinu songs is an<br />
ideal start of the complete set at a bargain<br />
price.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
MATHIEU: Trio; Piano Quintet;<br />
CHAUSSON: Concert<br />
Alain Lefevre, p; David Lefevre, v; Alcan Quartet<br />
Analekta 9286—78 minutes<br />
Andre Mathieu’s music always looked backward.<br />
Though he lived from 1929 to 1968 his<br />
music has more in common with Fauré and<br />
Ravel than any of his contemporaries.<br />
Although most would consider it historically<br />
insignificant for this very reason—and that<br />
may very well be true—it is still beautiful, well<br />
written, thoroughly enjoyable music. In performances<br />
like these the appeal is obvious and<br />
immediate. The piano trio and the piano quintet,<br />
both two-movement works, are passionate<br />
and sumptuous, and these are lush, romantic<br />
performances.<br />
Chausson’s Concert is considered one of<br />
his best works, and it is striking and rich. Virtuosic<br />
in the extreme, it pits violin and piano<br />
soloists against string quartet—almost in the<br />
manner of a double concerto—and alternates<br />
moving climaxes with music of tender sensitivity<br />
and beauty. The texture is thick but never<br />
heavy. After an opening movement full of<br />
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emotional indecision there is a graceful ‘Sicilienne’,<br />
then a ‘Grave’ of extreme pathos and<br />
lyricism. The Finale is virtuosic and fiery—a<br />
fitting end.<br />
BYELICK<br />
MENDELSSOHN: Elijah<br />
Michael Volle (Elijah); Andrea Rost, Letizia Scherrer,<br />
s; Marjana Lipovsek, a; Herbert Lippert,<br />
Thomas Cooley, t; Bavarian Radio/ Wolfgang<br />
Sawallisch—Profil 7019 [2CD] 121 minutes<br />
Both English and German audiences have a<br />
claim on Elijah. The first performance (1846),<br />
conducted by the composer, was in English<br />
even though the music had originally been set<br />
to German text. Mendelssohn probably would<br />
have considered it a German piece, but Englishspeaking<br />
countries have long embraced it as<br />
second only to Messiah. So we have recordings<br />
in both languages, and this one is in German.<br />
Performances of Elijah always run the danger<br />
of becoming sanctimonious, syrupy and,<br />
for me, finally dull. The score has, it would<br />
seem, countless opportunities for little touches<br />
and lingering; and the better, more dramatic<br />
performances always seem to be quickly<br />
paced. This certainly is the case with Sawallisch.<br />
The <strong>conductor</strong> made an earlier recording<br />
in the 1980s that moved well and captured the<br />
drama, even though it was hampered by a<br />
wobbly Theo Adam. This recording, made in<br />
2001, is in the same mold (with Michael Volle a<br />
better Elijah than Adam). The drama moves<br />
swiftly, always holding your attention and<br />
keeping you involved. Volle has a good understanding<br />
of the title role, and the large chorus<br />
and other soloists are also satisfying. This<br />
recording, then, makes a fine alternative to<br />
Masur’s (also German) with the Israeli Philharmonic<br />
and Alistair Miles as Elijah. The notes<br />
here are tri-lingual, but text is in German only.<br />
The question, though, is whether you want<br />
Elijah in German. For English our recent<br />
Overview (N/D 2008) recommended Hickox<br />
(Chandos), Marriner (Philips), and Ormandy<br />
(RCA).<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
WORD POLICE: Palette, Palate, Pallet<br />
These three words are pronounced about the<br />
same (like imminent and immanent) but are<br />
quite distinct. A pallet is a bed, usually narrow<br />
and hard. The palate is the roof of the<br />
mouth but also refers to the sense of taste. A<br />
palette is a board where a painter mixes colors.<br />
Computer spell-checks can't prevent<br />
errors like the one on page 236 in<br />
January/February ("her variegated color<br />
palate"). And an editor who tends to pronounce<br />
questionable words to himself might<br />
not catch it either. Alert readers always do!<br />
MENDELSSOHN: Quartet 6; see HENSEL;<br />
Violin Concerto; see BRAHMS<br />
MESSIAEN: Petites Esquisses d’Oiseaux;<br />
Preludes; 4 Etudes de Rythme; Nativite du<br />
Seigneur; Banquet Celeste; Apparition de<br />
l’Eglise Eternelle; Poemes pour Mi; Chants de<br />
Terre et de Ciel; Quartet for the End of Time;<br />
5 Rechants; Visions de l’Amen; Offrandes<br />
Oubilees; Hymne au Sainte Sacrement; 20<br />
Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus; Harawi; Turangalila<br />
Symphony; Catalogue d’Oiseaux; Fauvette<br />
des Jardins; Reveil des Oiseaux;<br />
Couleurs de la Cite Celeste; Et Exspecto Resurrectionem<br />
Mortuorum; Ascension; 3 Petite<br />
Liturgies; Meditations sur le Mystere de la<br />
Sainte-Trinite; Des Canyons aux Etoiles; 7<br />
Haikai<br />
Yvonne Loriod, Pierre Laurent-Aimard, Katia &<br />
Marielle Labeque, Marie-Madeleine Petit, p;<br />
Olivier Messiaen, Marie-Claire Alain, org; Jeanne<br />
Loriod, Dominique Kim, Ondes Martenot; Maria<br />
Oran, Rachel Yakar, s; Huguette Fernandez, v;<br />
Guy Deplus, cl; Jacques Nielz, vc; ORTF Orchestra,<br />
Ensemble Ars Nova/ Marius Constant; Berlin<br />
Philharmonic, French National Orchestra/ Kent<br />
Nagano; RTF Choir & Chamber Orchestra/ Marcel<br />
Couraud; Strasbourg Instrumental & Percussion<br />
Group, Orchestre du Domaine Musical/<br />
Pierre Boulez<br />
Warner 62162 [18CD] 19:32<br />
This set is called the Messiaen Edition; it came<br />
out in 1988 but has been unavailable for years.<br />
There is a 310-page booklet in English and<br />
French with texts and translations, and most of<br />
the notes are by the composer. One of the<br />
discs is an hour-long interview in French with<br />
Claude Samuel, translated in the booklet;<br />
there’s also a printed interview with Yvonne<br />
Loriod. Many of these recordings were supervised<br />
by Messiaen himself; they’ve all been<br />
issued previously, but only a few have been<br />
reviewed in these pages. Several major works<br />
were not included: Chronochromie, Eclairs sur<br />
l’Au-dela, La Transfiguration de Notre-<br />
Seigneur Jesus-Christ, Oiseaux Exotiques, Concert<br />
a Quatre, and the opera St Francis of Assisi.<br />
Yvonne Loriod plays the Petites Esquisses<br />
d’Oiseaux in a straightforward manner; some<br />
of the Preludes have more shape and phrasing<br />
to them, but the Quatre Etudes de Rythme are<br />
almost hammered, on an almost-in-tune<br />
instrument. Hakon Austbo has a lighter touch<br />
(Naxos 554090, M/J 2000), and his Etudes make<br />
a lot more sense to me (his piano is bassy and<br />
more distant-sounding, though).<br />
I fell in love with the Peter Serkin recording<br />
of Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus years ago,<br />
and rejoiced greatly when RCA finally reissued<br />
it (RCA 62316, M/A 2005); Serkin had an excellent<br />
blend of mystery, respect, delight, and forward<br />
movement—and enough personality to<br />
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keep it interesting but not to overpower the<br />
writing. His ‘View of the Virgin’ and ‘View of<br />
the Spirit of Joy’ are two of my favorite things<br />
on record. Loriod’s account from 1975 sounds<br />
like it was recorded under a blanket and then<br />
passed through a few generations of carelessly<br />
stored tape; the engineering on the Serkin isn’t<br />
the best, but this is noticeably worse—his is<br />
echoey, hers is echoey, boomy, and sometimes<br />
rattly. Her ‘Exchange’, one long crescendo, is<br />
quite powerful, and ‘View of the Virgin’ is as<br />
attractive as Serkin’s. ‘View of the Son by the<br />
Son’ is wide-eyed, full of wonder, and ‘View of<br />
the Heights’ is brilliant and coherent. Her<br />
‘View of the Spirit of Joy’ is possibly more<br />
energetic than Serkin’s, but the boomy bass<br />
hurts it—a shame, because it is really exciting!<br />
A mid-cycle comment: I’ve always respected<br />
Messiaen for this piece: there’s so much unity<br />
yet so much variety; just before the bird songs<br />
get to be too much, there’s a familiar cadence<br />
or theme, or something to break up the texture.<br />
The first of the two discs of the Vingt<br />
Regards ends not with ‘Spirit of Joy’ (10 in the<br />
set) but with 11, ‘First Communion of the Virgin’,<br />
which brings you partway down off the<br />
mountain before you hear the noise of the next<br />
disc being loaded. ‘The All-Powerful Word’ is<br />
almost overpowering, but never brutal; the<br />
imitation of the carillon that begins ‘Noel’<br />
makes you feel like you’re right up in the bell<br />
tower, and ‘The Kiss of the Infant Jesus’ is<br />
unbelievably tender. When I got to ‘View of the<br />
Awesome Unction’, it struck me how Loriod’s<br />
playing of each movement suits the titles perfectly.<br />
This is an astounding recording—it’s<br />
too bad the sound isn’t better. (Arved Ashby<br />
reached similar conclusions—N/D 1988.)<br />
Harawi, from 1945, is new to me: it’s the<br />
first of the “Tristan trilogy”, which takes<br />
human love, especially the story of Tristan and<br />
Yseult, as its subject. The other two parts are<br />
Turangalila and Cinq Rechants); the title is a<br />
Quechua word that means a type of love song<br />
ending with the death of the lovers. This cycle<br />
is nearly an hour long, full of strange poetry,<br />
occasional Quechua words and images, the<br />
expected bird songs and cyclic themes, onomatopoeia<br />
(how unusual to hear the voice<br />
accompany the piano on a “drum”), and a<br />
world of romantic and spiritual intensity.<br />
Rachel Yakar is accompanied by Yvonne Loriod;<br />
Yakar is clear and expressive, always sure<br />
of herself, never stretched beyond comfort.<br />
Her flexibility is most impressive and her<br />
musicality unquestionable. This recording has<br />
been deleted for a while and pricey. I only wish<br />
it had been recorded in a small recital hall<br />
instead of a studio—the acoustic is dry, though<br />
it affects the piano more than the voice.<br />
Marie-Claire Alain recorded La Nativité du<br />
Seigneur, Le Banquet Celeste and Apparition de<br />
l’Eglise Eternelle on the organ at the Hofkirche,<br />
Lucerne. I have listened to precious little of<br />
Messiaen’s organ music, and that was ages ago.<br />
La Nativité, nine meditations for the Christmas<br />
season, is pulling me in, though. My observations<br />
may be obvious to some, but hearing<br />
Messiaen when he’s able to combine the long<br />
tones a piano can’t produce with more intimacy<br />
than the orchestra can afford, while submitting<br />
the result to the organ’s religiosity—this is<br />
giving me a brand new window into his writing.<br />
Somehow, between the bird calls, Hindu and<br />
non-retrogradable rhythms, and all the things<br />
that would have turned into mere systems in<br />
the pen of someone lesser, Messiaen never let<br />
go of his spiritual humanity and humor—<br />
music history has only a few examples of composers<br />
who wrote this much unique music that<br />
was nearly always genius. Even fewer could<br />
give their pieces these titles and have the music<br />
describe them so completely.<br />
La Fauvette des Jardins (Garden Warbler) is<br />
a single-movement 35-minute piece for piano,<br />
a massive tone poem of a day on the Matheysine<br />
Plateau, in sight of the Grand Serre mountain.<br />
Bird songs, flora and fauna, sun and<br />
storm abound. Yvonne Loriod’s instrument is<br />
a little bassy again, but the sound is rich, much<br />
better than before. Loriod is the soloist in<br />
Reveil des Oiseaux, with Nagano conducting<br />
the French National Orchestra. The playing is<br />
stellar and the awakening process very convincing.<br />
Arved Ashby wrote that Turangalila-Symphonie<br />
“promises to become Messiaen’s most<br />
enduring work, by virtue of its crazy,<br />
Dionysian abandon and overwhelming<br />
orchestral display” (N/D 1992), and it seems<br />
performances have become more frequent,<br />
even in the Midwest: the Cincinnati Symphony<br />
premiere was in 2001, and they programmed it<br />
again earlier this year. (It has its detractors:<br />
Jack Daugherty, Oxford, Ohio’s Sol Hurok,<br />
memorably called it Turanga-Looney-Tunes.)<br />
And it is brilliant and bizarre, an absurd<br />
panoply of peacock orchestration, humor, sensuality,<br />
attention-grabbing themes, an occasional<br />
melody you can whistle, steamy strings,<br />
and more; even the space-age sound of the<br />
Ondes Martenot has aged well, at least as well<br />
as the theremin in Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto.<br />
(Allen Gimbel says, “flying saucers really<br />
don’t belong in such a timeless and deeply-felt<br />
vision”.) The Nagano recording here, with the<br />
Berlin Philharmonic, Pierre-Laurent Aimard,<br />
and Dominique Kim (Ondes Martenot), wasn’t<br />
made under Messiaen’s direct supervision—<br />
the Chung on DG was, and in the liner notes<br />
the composer declared it the definitive<br />
account. Also, Nagano uses the 1990 Revised<br />
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Messiaen Edition. The sound is even more colorful<br />
and vivid, and Nagano cuts five minutes<br />
off Chung’s total time (‘Jardin du Sommeil<br />
d’Amour’ is two minutes faster and almost<br />
indelicate). As Mr Gimbel (J/A 2001) said, this<br />
is a very German interpretation of a very<br />
French text; he also described the DG sound of<br />
the Chung as pinched and emaciated—I<br />
wouldn’t go that far, but the Nagano is more<br />
luxurious. I prefer Nagano’s view of Turangalila<br />
from east of the Rhine.<br />
Catalogue d’Oiseaux: 163 minutes, 13<br />
pieces in honor of 13 French provinces, with<br />
the names of the provinces’ most typical birds<br />
for their titles. Yvonne Loriod is the pianist<br />
again; this was recorded in 1970 at Notre<br />
Dame of Liban, a very reverberant space that<br />
makes every splice apparent—in ‘Alpine<br />
Chough’ there are several only seconds apart,<br />
quite noticeable through headphones. There’s<br />
also occasional traffic noise. Messiaen never<br />
shies away from the violence in nature: ‘The<br />
Buzzard’ has a part where six carrion crows<br />
attack the bird for its prey. Perhaps because so<br />
much of her playing is so blunt already, Loriod<br />
does not put that across. Ashby noted in his<br />
review of the Austbo (Fidelio 8827, J/A 1989)<br />
that a common problem with performances of<br />
this is indifference to Messiaen’s dynamic<br />
markings, especially the range from p to mf;<br />
too much of this doesn’t dip below mf. A<br />
thought: the fewer the bird songs, the better<br />
the piece, generally; I’ve found in listening to<br />
this set that the more literal the notation and<br />
the greater the frequency, the sooner the<br />
pieces wear out their welcome. I’ve enjoyed<br />
Sorabji’s four-hour Opus Clavicembalisticum<br />
(in spite of the two half-hour, death-by-eighthnotes<br />
fugues), but I’m not sure I could make it<br />
through the Catalogue in one sitting. It’s a<br />
good thing Messiaen didn’t have a Twitter<br />
account.<br />
Boulez conducted the premiere of<br />
Couleurs de la Cité Celeste in 1964; here he<br />
leads the Groupe Instrumental a Percussion de<br />
Strasbourg and the Orchestre du Domaine<br />
Musical, with Loriod on piano. The brass don’t<br />
have all the skill of the Germans I just heard in<br />
Turangalila; sometimes they sound like a synthesizer.<br />
Mr Ashby reviewed the reissue (Sony<br />
68332, J/A 1996) and preferred Salonen’s reading<br />
(partly because of a bad mix and partly<br />
because of tape hiss). Maybe they’ve cleaned<br />
this one up, because I don’t hear tape hiss. The<br />
sound is bright and nearly too crystalline.<br />
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum,<br />
from the same session, is vastly different from<br />
Boulez’s Cleveland Orchestra recording<br />
(DG)—the latter is more in tune; here the balance<br />
between sections is better, but often the<br />
voicing inside a section is not. Ashby agreed<br />
that Cleveland’s winds and brass are more<br />
immaculate, but stated quite firmly that the<br />
Strasbourg is the most inspiring.<br />
L’Ascension is with the ORTF under Marius<br />
Constant. I is a rich brass chorale, where Jesus<br />
is praying, “Father, the hour is come. Glorify<br />
your Son, so that your Son may glorify you.” II<br />
is titled ‘Serene Alleluias of a Soul Desiring<br />
Heaven’ and contains harmonies unexpected<br />
from Messiaen: the solo winds circle freely<br />
around each other, with intervals and swirling<br />
orchestral effects I’ve never heard in his writing<br />
before. The playing here is bold but serene.<br />
Parts of III sound more like Ravel than Messiaen.<br />
It’s one of his earlier works, completed in<br />
1933, and there are ideas here I wish he hadn’t<br />
let go of as he matured. The orchestra has that<br />
classic mid-century French shine to it—this is<br />
from 1966.<br />
The Trois Petite Liturgies de la Presence<br />
Divine are aggressive concert pieces (written<br />
for the Concerts de la Pleaide), not meditative<br />
church pieces; Marcel Couraud conducts the<br />
ORTF Chamber Orchestra, the women of the<br />
ORTF Choir, Yvonne Loriod (piano) and<br />
Jeanne Loriod (Ondes Martenot). I would gladly<br />
trade the maracas for a more present Ondes<br />
Martenot, which I heard once, barely, in 33<br />
minutes. There are some of the same chords<br />
and melodies as in Turangalila. As Mr Ashby<br />
said in his review of the London Sinfonietta<br />
recording (Virgin, J/A 1992), “III, Psalmodie, is<br />
one of the weirdest things Messiaen has<br />
done...[it] begins as a sort of ecclesiastical, vulgate,<br />
proto-rap.” The words, by the composer,<br />
are mystical and strange, full of color and odd<br />
expressions, some from the Bible, some from<br />
himself. It is an impressive piece, one that provoked<br />
“accusations of vulgarity and sacrilege”<br />
(Ashby). The women are a little flat sometimes,<br />
and there is some distortion in the louder,<br />
higher sections.<br />
Messiaen recorded the Meditations sur le<br />
Mystere de la Sainte-Trinité at the Eglise de la<br />
Sainte-Trinité, Paris, in June, 1972. He took the<br />
B-A-C-H idea even further and constructed a<br />
complex musical alphabet so he could represent<br />
all 26 letters, and literally wrote out text as<br />
music, including words from the Mass and<br />
from Aquinas. You can hear repetitions of<br />
some leitmotifs, but the result is a synapsetwisting<br />
garble for most of I, which ends in<br />
roars of chords. II begins with a plainchant<br />
theme followed by chunks of notes that jolt<br />
between consonance and dissonance. Donald<br />
Metz said, “the first four sections are extremely<br />
demanding to attend to, but Meditations 5-8<br />
contain some haunting, intimate passages and<br />
portions that make them more approachable”<br />
(J/A 1992), and that is true—they are much<br />
more coherent. The sound is perfect, not<br />
muddy at all.<br />
Messiaen wrote Poemes pour Mi in 1936 for<br />
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his first wife, Claire Delbos, who was a violinist<br />
and also a composer. They had just moved<br />
into a summer house at the foot of the French<br />
Alps, surrounded by mountains, lakes, and his<br />
beloved birds. The poems view young love and<br />
the occasional grotesqueness of life in the<br />
shadow of the cross. Maria Oran is the soprano,<br />
accompanied by Yvonne Loriod. Oran has<br />
a strong, healthy voice and terrific diction; she<br />
performs these comfortably if monodynamically.<br />
The sound is pretty dry, but the musicians<br />
are balanced appropriately; Loriod’s<br />
playing could be smoother.<br />
Chants de Terre et de Ciel followed a few<br />
years later, dealing more with the joys of<br />
fatherhood: Olivier and Claire begat Pascal.<br />
The writing in both sets is vintage Messiaen:<br />
no surprises, really, and thanks to the straightedged<br />
performance, no magic either.<br />
The Labeque sisters give us a low-level<br />
recording of Visions de l’Amen in a rather dry<br />
studio on pianos that sound like they haven’t<br />
seen climate control in several months.<br />
Dynamics (and touch), other than the opening<br />
crescendo, are not subtle in the least, but<br />
there’s more excitement and urgency than<br />
others have had. The out-of-tune state results<br />
in a gamelan-like sound sometimes, though,<br />
and you’d swear they used some percussion<br />
instruments at the beginning. Even in the<br />
hushed, Jardin-like ‘Amen of Desire’, the edges<br />
of the notes are steely. The final Amen of the<br />
Consummation is rigid.<br />
The strings of the ORTF, under Constant,<br />
sound digitized in Les Offrandes Oubliées and<br />
Hymne au Saint Sacrament, but the explosion<br />
after Offrande’s first part, ‘The Cross’, is nearly<br />
enough to startle those thoughts out of you.<br />
The sound is so tightly centered it is almost<br />
mono, and there are some disconcerting artifacts<br />
audible even in the loudest passages: it<br />
sounds like a news program was picked up on<br />
the tape! All that (and shallow acoustic) aside,<br />
this orchestra eviscerates you with their insane<br />
vigor; the slow part, ‘The Eucharist’, that follows<br />
the violence of ‘Sin’, is spooky yet peacegiving.<br />
This was Messiaen’s first piece performed<br />
by an orchestra, and the one that put<br />
him in the public eye. Heady stuff from a 22year-old!<br />
It’s hard to believe these works were<br />
recorded five years after L’Ascension by the<br />
same musicians. They’re both a little dry, but<br />
the engineering on the older recording is much<br />
better.<br />
Des Canyons aux Etoiles is Messiaen’s<br />
longest orchestral piece, about 92 minutes; it’s<br />
a depiction of Bryce Canyon in Utah, Zion<br />
Park, Zion itself, the stars, the Resurrection,<br />
and, of course, birds. Yvonne Loriod and<br />
Ensemble Ars Nova with Marius Constant<br />
recorded this in 1973, and the sonics are dated;<br />
it’s very clear, especially the brass and xylophone,<br />
but the piano is too closely miked,<br />
resulting in some distortion. The piece is<br />
haughtier, drier, pricklier than Turangalila—<br />
the swoops of the Ondes Martenot have been<br />
replaced with wind and sand machines; lush<br />
strings make a rare appearance in ‘The Resurrected<br />
and the Song of the Star Aldebaran’—<br />
this is more like The Desert of Love’s Sleep,<br />
with constellations clanging off one another<br />
overhead, ecstatic desolation, and majesty<br />
instead of laughter. The orchestra is solid,<br />
other than the horn player’s wobbly tone; in<br />
keeping with the running theme of this set, the<br />
playing steers clear of subtlety. Sept Haikai are<br />
well-played, with a bright, almost piercing<br />
sound.<br />
With only the Quartet for the End of Time<br />
and Cinq Rechants left to review, I hit Messiaen<br />
overload. After several hours of errands, I<br />
decided to listen to the renowned Tashi<br />
recording of the Quartet in its entirety before I<br />
got to any more of this set. I’m halfway<br />
through the ‘Abyss of the Birds’ as I type, and<br />
hearing non-French playing has given me<br />
some desperately needed refreshing. I’ve concluded<br />
that the French, especially Yvonne<br />
Loriod, are often not the best Messiaen interpreters.<br />
Perhaps my opinions are heterodox,<br />
but after listening to good portions of all these<br />
albums, I need subtlety, dynamic shadings (for<br />
all of Messiaen’s love for color, his approved<br />
interpretations are often monochromatic), and<br />
some rounded piano tone. Tashi is getting into<br />
my soul in a way nothing, nothing, on this set<br />
has. I come from a very intense strain (“strain”<br />
having more than one meaning) of Independent<br />
Fundamentalist Baptists: the pulpitpounding,<br />
shouting, aisle-running, fire-andbrimstone,<br />
King-James-Only kind. There’s a<br />
lot that I like: I think our interpretations of the<br />
major doctrines (what’s in the Apostles’ Creed)<br />
are accurate. But the extraneous stuff has<br />
become almost unbearable, the majoring on<br />
minors, the divisive posturing, the legalism.<br />
After listening to this set, I feel like I’ve just sat<br />
through a week-long revival or campmeeting,<br />
listening to preachers of the junkyard-dog<br />
stripe preaching many things I agree with, but<br />
in such a blunt and abrasive way that I’ve<br />
become exhausted. Hearing Tashi is like listening<br />
to a preacher who is a true shepherd of the<br />
flock, minister to me with grace, care, and<br />
affection. He’s saying a lot of the same truths,<br />
but there’s a universe of difference between<br />
the approaches.<br />
The Quartet from this set began with a<br />
pleasant tone, but the pounding and distortion<br />
came back. Marie-Madeleine Petit doesn’t<br />
sound as brusque as Loriod, but the loud parts<br />
are still harsh. Guy Deplus has a less pure tone<br />
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than Tashi’s Stoltzman, and the long high<br />
notes at the beginning of ‘Abyss of the Birds’<br />
are obnoxious, with the overtones threatening<br />
the integrity of the main note—it sounds like<br />
he put his clarinet through a flange gate and<br />
cranked up the treble. Still, this is worlds better<br />
than a lot of what I’ve heard in the last few<br />
days: there’s more tenderness and subtlety,<br />
and a genuine sense of meditation in ‘Praise to<br />
the Eternity of Jesus’.<br />
Cinq Rechants is for three each of sopranos,<br />
contraltos, tenors, and basses; Messiaen<br />
uses the voices to create some percussive and<br />
orchestral effects. The title is an homage to<br />
Claude le Jeune’s Printemps; the verses are<br />
called chants and the choruses rechants. The<br />
textural contrasts, unusual noises, slides,<br />
angular harmonies, and a language that’s half-<br />
French, half-invented, all make this cycle very<br />
interesting. The singers sound dated (1968, but<br />
better than a Columbia LP of Gesualdo from<br />
the same era I recently bought) but they have a<br />
lot of feeling and a good sense of what to do<br />
with the dynamics. I’m glad that I’m ending<br />
my time with this release with something new<br />
to me, and something I’ll return to.<br />
ESTEP<br />
MOMPOU: Musica Callada; Secreto<br />
Jenny Lin, p<br />
Steinway 30004—75 minutes<br />
I am a huge fan of Jenny Lin. My first introduction<br />
to her extraordinary talents was with her<br />
recording of the Shostakovich Preludes and<br />
Fugues Op.87. Lin plays very well the introspective<br />
miniatures of the four books titled<br />
Musica Callada.<br />
In the short but exceptional program notes<br />
by David Lewis he writes, “Musica Callada<br />
won critical acclaim following Mompou’s<br />
death, most notably from John Rockwell, who<br />
referred to Mompou as an “early minimalist.”<br />
Lewis summarizes Mompou’s “minimalism”,<br />
commenting that it is not the minimalism of<br />
Glass or Young, as it has no relation to 12-tone<br />
idiom of Webern in the case of Young or to<br />
non-Western traditions in the case of Glass. It<br />
is, however, influenced by Satie and reminiscent<br />
of Ravel and Debussy.<br />
This music is simple—simple in its transparency,<br />
nakedness, and unsettling purity. Its<br />
harmonic and rhetorical concepts are incredibly<br />
complex, however. Lin’s sensitivity leaves<br />
me haunted. The engineering and the piano<br />
are exceptional—bringing to life this very<br />
“silent music” is no easy task.<br />
Included is also ‘Secreto’ from Impresiones<br />
Intimas, a much earlier work. It is one of my<br />
favorites here. It is certainly more Spanish, and<br />
leaves me yearning for the music of the Spanish<br />
romantics.<br />
Mompou’s music is both serious and very<br />
moving, especially in the hands of Jenny Lin.<br />
All four books are wonderful visions of white<br />
and simplicity. And while some speak of<br />
peace, many are dark and disturbing, yet<br />
remain strikingly beautiful.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
MOZART: Don Giovanni<br />
Nicola Ulivieri (Giovanni), Anna Samuil (Anna),<br />
Maria Luigia Borsi (Elvira), Maurizio Muraro<br />
(Leporello), Dmitri Korchak (Ottavio), Chen Reiss<br />
(Zerlina), Simon Orfila (Masetto), Marco Spotti<br />
(Commendatore); New Israeli Vocal Ensemble;<br />
Israel Philharmonic/ Zubin Mehta<br />
Helicon 9627 [3CD] 164 minutes<br />
CD Don Giovannis often offer an embarrassment<br />
of riches; this is a very crowded field. So<br />
this concert recording, from 2009 in Tel Aviv, is<br />
up against stiff competition. The Israel Philharmonic’s<br />
music director for life, Mr Mehta,<br />
is in charge. Mehta can be a fine opera <strong>conductor</strong>,<br />
especially in Verdi and Puccini, but<br />
perhaps in an effort to keep things from dragging,<br />
he favors brisk, sometimes over-accented<br />
tempos. He’s somewhat gentler with lyrical,<br />
more reflective moments, though they have an<br />
edgy quality to them. At least his singers seem<br />
to be comfortable.<br />
The Israel Philharmonic in recent years<br />
seems to have gone from a great orchestra to<br />
an uneven ensemble—sometimes fine playing,<br />
sometimes rather rough and ready. That’s the<br />
case here. There are some fine singers in the<br />
cast, and they all sound like they’re doing their<br />
darndest to perform with involvement.<br />
(Hebrew and Yiddish words pop up from time<br />
to time, including an “Oi vey” or two.). Nicola<br />
Ulivieri boasts an attractive basso cantante<br />
sound, but he doesn’t delve into the title role<br />
all that deeply. (Remember how Siepi made<br />
everything sound as natural as breathing?)<br />
Maurizio Muraro as Leporello shows more<br />
personality, with an attractive bass voice<br />
somewhat darker than Ulivieri’s. The other<br />
men sing well enough but aren’t especially<br />
dynamic. (Ottavio is a wimp, and Don Giovanni’s<br />
guest isn’t all that menacing.) There are no<br />
female standouts either. Samuil has no fire, no<br />
anger in Anna’s vengeance aria or anywhere<br />
else. She’s sometimes unremittingly lugubrious.<br />
Some strain can be heard. Ms Borsi doesn’t<br />
play Elvira as a comical shrew and is able to<br />
sound sympathetic. If only she did more with<br />
the words and had more variety of tone. Chen<br />
Reiss’s Zerlina is pleasant to hear but short on<br />
charm.<br />
An essay and synopsis but no libretto, but<br />
Don Giovanni is familiar enough to surmount<br />
these faults.<br />
MARK<br />
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MOZART: Piano Concertos 20+27<br />
Mitsuko Uchida; Cleveland Orchestra<br />
Decca 15498—66 minutes<br />
It’s been a quarter century since Uchida was<br />
making her name with Mozart, both the complete<br />
sonatas and most of the concertos. At the<br />
time, compared with the older generation of<br />
Mozarteans, her playing was notable for its<br />
articulation and energy, though some found<br />
her reticent and inflexible. Now she sounds<br />
very much mainstream, and her playing is as<br />
good as ever. She still obviously values clarity<br />
of texture, and all the movements have a sense<br />
of forward movement, but the music is also<br />
admirably shaped and shaded. There is nothing<br />
mechanical about her playing, but some<br />
listeners may want stronger expression, particularly<br />
in the D-minor. If you remember our<br />
Overview (M/J 2008) and now see Mozart playing<br />
on the Perahia-Brendel continuum—that<br />
is to say, from subtle to straightforward—<br />
Uchida is in the middle, but closer to Perahia.<br />
She plays a modern piano, but with a light<br />
touch, gorgeous tone, and always in an appropriate<br />
expressive range for Mozart.<br />
Her handling of the Cleveland Orchestra is<br />
stylish, but there are moments, such as the<br />
very beginning of the D-minor, where the<br />
playing is slack. There may be benefits to conducting<br />
from the keyboard, but in balance I<br />
would prefer a separate <strong>conductor</strong>. You could<br />
simply get Uchida’s earlier recordings with Jeffrey<br />
Tate. She plays Beethoven’s cadenzas in<br />
the D-minor (none from Mozart survive) and<br />
Mozart’s in the B-flat. If you feel the concertos<br />
need more personality than Uchida offers,<br />
look to Brendel or Ashkenazy, but in its own<br />
way and in spite of orchestral problems, this is<br />
very satisfying.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
MOZART: Quartets 4, 17, 22<br />
Jerusalem Quartet<br />
Harmonia Mundi 902076—77 minutes<br />
I am truly spoiled by ARG this issue; I got to<br />
review a lot of Mozart—a lot of exceptional<br />
Mozart. This one is a necessity. The Jerusalem<br />
Quartet is simply a breath of fresh air and,<br />
indeed, they are an attractive bunch. Their<br />
interpretations of Haydn and Schubert have<br />
been widely praised and I suspect their Mozart<br />
will be as well.<br />
I would consider them Mozart traditionalists,<br />
as they are not trying to get too creative—<br />
a good thing. They balance sophisticated and<br />
classical form with tasteful vibrato. If you<br />
enjoy elegantly played Mozart, this is it.<br />
The program opens with No. 4 (K 157); its<br />
incantations of youth introduce these players<br />
well. II always surprises me, as it is hard to<br />
comprehend that a 17-year old child composed<br />
such perfect music. I am enthralled by<br />
this group. They play the Adagio as if not wanting<br />
to disturb it; they keep their distance and<br />
very respectfully narrate a dim vision. They<br />
simply do what they are told by Mozart, and<br />
the effect is brilliant.<br />
No. 17, The Hunt, is just as precise and elegant.<br />
Again, this ensemble’s talent is certainly<br />
evident in slow movements. The Adagio is<br />
pure, clear, and simple. Nothing else is needed.<br />
The heart-wrenching melody just is. The<br />
finale is a bit slow but very convincing.<br />
No. 22, the other B-flat, ends this performance<br />
as I am reminded of a tortured Mozart,<br />
literally dying at this point but still holding on<br />
to hope.<br />
These pieces are so popular that I often<br />
hear them played very unimaginatively and<br />
standardized. The Jerusalem Quartet does not<br />
do that, but they do not try to reinvent the<br />
wheel either. Rather, they reintroduce us to the<br />
profound simplicity and even plainness of<br />
Mozart’s genius.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
MOZART: Quartets 22+23<br />
Klenke Quartet—Profil 4031—51 minutes<br />
I praised the Jerusalem Quartet as “Mozart traditionalists”<br />
who demonstrate that plainness<br />
and simplicity are important in performing<br />
Mozart. By plain I do not mean boring, and by<br />
simple I certainly do not mean calculated. But<br />
that is what I hear with Klenke Quartet—a boring<br />
and calculated performance.<br />
This is simply not good. Their phrasing is<br />
rigid and cold. Slow down! Breathe! I am<br />
almost at a panic attack with the Finale of 23.<br />
Their notion of dynamics is also odd—”fortes”<br />
suddenly appear, intrusively, while “pianos”<br />
serve as the default dynamic for when the<br />
phrase ends and they are not sure it has. Do<br />
not waste your time with this!<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
MOZART: Quartets 14+15<br />
Casal Quartet<br />
Telos 124 [2CD] 176 minutes<br />
This a beautifully packaged set. One disc has a<br />
performance of 14 and 15; the second has a<br />
repeat of 14 with what seems to be very detailed<br />
commentary sections before each movement.<br />
These are titled “ammanerung”, meaning<br />
“approach”, where Swiss musicologist and<br />
author, Urs Frauchiger unpacks and reflects<br />
on Mozart’s process while composing the masterly<br />
D-minor Quartet. I say, it “seems to be<br />
very detailed commentary”, because it is all in<br />
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German—including the program notes and<br />
essay.<br />
What I can review confidently is the Casal<br />
Quartet. They give a nuanced performance,<br />
historically conscious and precise. Sometimes<br />
they lack drive. But overall, I hear emotion,<br />
lovely vibrato, and elegance. If you know German,<br />
I suspect this is worth exploring.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
MOZART: Quartets 10+19;<br />
HAYDN: Quartet, op 54:1<br />
Amati Quartet—Divox 20401—61 minutes<br />
Spectacular. This is standard Amati playing,<br />
bursting with energy, yet chillingly precise and<br />
accurate. Amati has a strong international reputation.<br />
These three quartets are standards,<br />
and although No. 10 is done very well, the<br />
Haydn and the Mozart 19 are the stars of these<br />
performances.<br />
The Finale of the Haydn is breathtaking;<br />
the suddenness of the theme is communicated<br />
extraordinarily through Amati’s solid sense of<br />
time and rhythm. The Allegretto is sublime. It<br />
was one of the first pieces to capture my heart<br />
as a young boy in New Jersey listening to the<br />
classical station on summer nights. Will Zimmermann—first<br />
violin—leaves me feeling nostalgic<br />
with his magical melody shaping and<br />
vibrato.<br />
The Dissonance Quartet (19) is perfectly<br />
balanced. It is such an easy piece to play badly.<br />
We either hear a completely romanticized performance<br />
or a dead one, where performers are<br />
afraid of vibrato because they are playing<br />
“classical” music. Amati indulges in the quartet’s<br />
milky opening—beautiful legato—but<br />
somehow also sounds dry and distant—a wonderful<br />
effect. There is some truly tender playing,<br />
euphoric, but also anxious and even desperate.<br />
I am almost in tears.<br />
The programming of this disc is not random,<br />
but inspired. The essay, by Wolfgang<br />
Fuhrmann, outlines the history of “Haydn<br />
influencing Mozart and Mozart influencing<br />
Haydn”. Listening to the disc from beginning<br />
to end, I hear a similarity in language, a connection,<br />
a bond between the two masters.<br />
They are both among the most notable and<br />
revolutionary in the string quartet form.<br />
Amati’s Mozart and Haydn are always reliable.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
MOZART: Sacred Arias<br />
Concentus Musicus/ Nikolaus Harnoncourt<br />
Warner 67538 [2CD] 126 minutes<br />
This very enjoyable survey of Mozart’s sacred<br />
arias is apparently one of two recent Teldec<br />
releases that repackage past performances of<br />
Mozart’s sacred music by Nikolaus Harnon-<br />
court and his trusty original-instruments<br />
band, Concentus Musicus Wien, in support of<br />
assorted soloists and choirs. The other release<br />
is considerably more substantial: a 13-CD set<br />
of Mozart’s complete sacred music from the<br />
same forces that includes everything heard<br />
here. The recordings are from 1982 to 1993.<br />
That will be reviewed in the next issue.<br />
You may recall that Harnoncourt founded<br />
CMW in 1953, just as musicologists were getting<br />
serious about researching ancient instruments<br />
as well as performance techniques and<br />
styles. CMW is THE pioneering original-instruments<br />
ensemble that pretty much got the period<br />
performance (PP) ball rolling, ushering in<br />
the explosive international PP craze of the next<br />
several decades. That, in turn, gave rise to the<br />
inevitable backlash from several prominent<br />
corners of the musical establishment.<br />
The critical barbs long directed at Harnoncourt<br />
include allegations of highly idiosyncratic<br />
and recklessly distorted approaches—both<br />
sonically and interpretively. I am neither clearly<br />
for nor against PP—though I consider it an<br />
important musical movement. Truly great<br />
music can easily withstand a wide range of<br />
sonic, stylistic, and interpretive treatments.<br />
And I consider Harnoncourt’s treatments<br />
(most of the time) to be as valid and rewarding<br />
as anyone else’s—if not more so.<br />
In support of that contention, I offer as<br />
“Exhibit 1” the consistent quality of the<br />
soloists. These include (among other worthies)<br />
sopranos Barbara Bonney, Charlotte Margiono,<br />
and Joan Rodgers; alto Jadwiga Rappe;<br />
tenors Josef Protschka and Deon van der Walt;<br />
plus basses Hakan Hagegard and Laszlo Polgar.<br />
“Exhibit 2” is the excellent choirs employed:<br />
the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the<br />
Arnold Schoenberg Choir—again, among others.<br />
These forces—ably supported by CMW—<br />
rarely fail to achieve engaging and spiritually<br />
uplifting performances of superior technical<br />
quality.<br />
The excerpts encompass not only solo<br />
arias, but purely choral movements and<br />
ensemble passages—for example, the ‘Lacrymosa’<br />
and ‘Benedictus’ movements from the<br />
Requiem. Several selections—like the ‘Laudate<br />
Dominun’ aria from the Solemn Vespers—<br />
combine solo and choral elements. Arias from<br />
Mozart’s better-known later works—like the K<br />
427 Mass in C minor—alternate with lesserknown<br />
pieces from his early years at the<br />
Salzburg court. The selections are invariably<br />
well chosen: there’s hardly a track that isn’t<br />
worth hearing.<br />
The digital recording quality is a bit variable,<br />
but generally excellent. The trifold booklet<br />
contains only track listings and the associated<br />
artists—no notes or texts. And don’t let<br />
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the album’s back-panel’s work listings confuse<br />
you: they’re given in different order than in the<br />
booklet.<br />
KOOB<br />
NIELSEN: Symphony 3; Helios; Silken Shoe<br />
on Golden Last; Lower Your Head, O Flower;<br />
Paraphrase on Nearer My God to Thee<br />
Eva Hess-Thayson, s; Jan Lund, t; Liverpool Philharmonic/<br />
Douglas Bostock<br />
Scandinavian 220563—66 minutes<br />
This was formerly Volume 2 of Classico’s series<br />
of Carl Nielsen symphonies conducted by<br />
Douglas Bostock. ARG did not review the original,<br />
though the recording of the symphony<br />
was favorably mentioned in our Nielsen<br />
Overview (May/June 2004). I liked what I heard<br />
of that series, but this is my first acquaintance<br />
with its Third Symphony, and my feelings are<br />
mixed. For one thing, it does not sound like a<br />
work whose nickname is Espansiva. It is generally<br />
a no-nonsense reading that is quick,<br />
direct, and exciting, with clean lines, vigorous<br />
rhythm, clearly defined counterpoint. Everything<br />
moves forward with no slight breath<br />
pauses before phrases. There are no doubts,<br />
no hesitation, and little reflection, nuance, or<br />
breadth of tone.<br />
Those characteristics exist in their purest<br />
form in I. The stuttering opening chords are<br />
fast and short like a machine gun or teletype<br />
machine. Tempos are fast and stay that way,<br />
save for a called-for slower speed at the second<br />
theme. Pacing is propulsive, high-spirited, and<br />
often rollicking, but it is also relentless and<br />
mechanical. And it doesn’t dance.<br />
The Andante Pastorale doesn’t sound<br />
rushed, but it’s not pastoral either. The opening<br />
dialog between the string line and the<br />
accompanying chords in the horns and bassoon<br />
is good. Woodwinds produce clear tone<br />
and clean lines, and the strings play their big<br />
chords with urgency; but Bostock’s tossing off<br />
the turn at the end of phrases sounds flippant.<br />
He need not ritard, but some shaping is<br />
required. When the brass join a string entrance<br />
later, they display muscle but could sound<br />
fuller. The vocal section should be darker and<br />
more mysterious. The tenor sounds too close,<br />
though the real problem may be that his voice<br />
is too operatic for the other-worldly sound<br />
called for. The more distant soprano is more<br />
winning. (As a supplement, this release<br />
includes the only recording of II with Nielsen’s<br />
option of clarinet and trombone standing in<br />
for soprano and tenor. While hardly objectionable,<br />
the instruments are no replacement for<br />
the voices as far as atmosphere is concerned.)<br />
Because of the Andante’s quickish tempo,<br />
the Allegretto un Poco for a moment sounds<br />
like a continuation, though it recovers quickly<br />
enough, if with a tempo that is slightly hurried.<br />
Bostock’s spirit and energy are admirable, but<br />
they come at the cost of deftness and lift.<br />
The Finale responds best to Bostock’s<br />
direct approach. In fact, he allows Nielsen’s<br />
broad melodies to expand a little, which serves<br />
the performance well and leaves a good impression.<br />
Helios maintains Bostock’s direct approach,<br />
but the <strong>conductor</strong> relaxes more while<br />
keeping a Sibelian sparseness of texture. It is<br />
nothing special, but it works if you’re of a mind<br />
for it. The short vocal pieces are straightforward<br />
and well sung. The most novel item is<br />
Paraphrase on Nearer my God to Thee,<br />
Nielsen’s short portrait of the sinking of the<br />
Titanic. The hymn is said to be the music<br />
played by a string quartet on the deck as the<br />
ship went down. Nielsen goes all out—more<br />
like blows up—when the ship explodes. I<br />
wouldn’t play this movement too loudly. Don’t<br />
say I didn’t warn you.<br />
The Liverpool Philharmonic plays well<br />
enough, with clean, smallish tone, neat woodwinds,<br />
polished horns, and sweet violins: the<br />
lack of breadth and weight I write off as a<br />
residue of Bostock’s design. Still, it does not<br />
produce the joy and exuberance of Danish<br />
orchestras, my favorite with Nielsen, or the<br />
polish and elan of the London ensembles.<br />
There are things to enjoy in this Third<br />
Symphony, particularly in the outer movements<br />
(assuming you respond to Bostock’s I),<br />
but I prefer more insight, breadth, and room<br />
for phrases to breathe. For a performance<br />
along the lines of Bostock’s (which I’m told is<br />
similar to the classics by Eric Tuxen and<br />
Thomas Jensen), the closest I know is Schonwandt,<br />
which I prefer. Schonwandt is slower<br />
than Bostock in I, as well as lighter and more<br />
relaxed, but he does produce a clean-cut, neoclassical<br />
interpretation. I also like Berglund,<br />
Bernstein, Ahronovitch—all with Danish<br />
orchestras—as well as Blomstedt’s second<br />
recording, with San Francisco. (Blomstedt’s<br />
earlier Nielsen traversal, with a Danish orchestra,<br />
is not as good as the San Francisco, but<br />
there is much to be said for it.) Consult the<br />
Nielsen Overview for more thoughts. Be<br />
advised that it finds Schonwandt “shadowy<br />
and unsettled”, while I think Overview favorite<br />
Chung is heavy-handed.<br />
The sound on this reissue is good but not<br />
great. Knud Ketting wrote the notes for the<br />
Classico release, and they were probably far<br />
better than the unsigned cursory writings supplied<br />
here (which include nothing about Paraphrase).<br />
HECHT<br />
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NOVAK, PZ: Preludes & Fugues<br />
William Howard, p—Champs Hill 16—76 minutes<br />
Moravian Pavel Zemek Novak (b. 1957) studied<br />
in Brno with a pupil of Janacek’s, in London<br />
(briefly) with George Benjamin, and later in<br />
Paris with Gerard Grisey. He currently teaches<br />
at the Conservatory in Brno.<br />
These are by no means preludes and<br />
fugues in any traditional sense. In fact, there is<br />
very little explicit counterpoint in them at all.<br />
Instead, they open with brief “subjects”, sometimes<br />
harmonized or accompanied, that are<br />
imitated once at the fifth (the procedure is<br />
usually obscured, or what the subject actually<br />
is is hard to identify), and there is no development<br />
or even obvious repetition.<br />
The set is divided into four books, the first<br />
two based on the Old Testament, the last two<br />
on the New (the composer is a devout Roman<br />
Catholic). The genre is extremely telescoped—<br />
the pieces tend to be short and express their<br />
vastness without temporal length. Sometimes<br />
the explanations don’t match up precisely with<br />
what I hear. Fugue 6 (‘King David’) is said to<br />
consist of just seven notes, the subject being<br />
the first note, the second the answer, the next<br />
two the development, and the last three the<br />
recapitulation. Now, that’s minimalism! There<br />
is a short, slow series of chords first, followed<br />
by those single notes. It’s very striking, but<br />
how this is a ‘Fugue’ is lost on me. Some of the<br />
Preludes do illustrate their biblical topics<br />
memorably: 3, ‘The Flood’, and 5, ‘The Burning<br />
Bush’, are vivid.<br />
Book 2 indulges in bits of quotation and<br />
reference: Scarlatti is credited for being behind<br />
two of the pieces (those, and the Scarlatti<br />
pieces involved, are unidentified). 10 quotes<br />
from Mendelssohn’s Elijah and offers five variations<br />
with rhythmic allusions to the second<br />
movement of Beethoven’s kast piano sonata<br />
(allusions to the Hammerklavier pop up in<br />
Prelude and Fugue 12 and leak into the next<br />
Book). Book 3 (titled ‘The Word became flesh<br />
and dwelt among us’) opens with a subject<br />
that becomes the basis for a set of variations.<br />
18 sets ‘The Seven Last Words’ with those<br />
words written into the score.<br />
Book 4 (‘Landscapes of the Lamb’) substitutes<br />
‘Fugues and Postludes’ for ‘Preludes and<br />
Fugues’. The first 10 of these juxtapose aggressive<br />
fanfares with meditative echoes, forming<br />
what amounts to a series of double variations.<br />
24 strings together the whole set’s subjects in a<br />
continuous line, adding a new one as a final<br />
elliptical flourish.<br />
I am following composer David Matthews’s<br />
notes closely, since it is impossible to<br />
understand what is going on in this fascinating<br />
if highly irregular work without a score and<br />
substantial explanatory scholarship. That’s not<br />
to say that the piece is not arresting in and of<br />
itself. Mr Matthews has no doubt that this is<br />
“one of the finest piano works of our time”. It<br />
is certainly one of the most interesting, and I<br />
look forward to learning more about it as time<br />
goes on. Pianist Howard executes his formidable<br />
task with assured technique and glowing<br />
tone. Listeners with interest in contemporary<br />
piano music (not to mention pianists) should<br />
not miss this.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
NYMAN: Facing Goya<br />
Michael Nyman Band/ Michael Nyman<br />
MN 121 [2CD] 134 minutes<br />
Reissue of Warner 45342, reviewed by Charles<br />
Parsons (May/June 2003). The opera concerns<br />
an art dealer who looks for Goya’s skull, which<br />
had disappeared sometime before 1878; her<br />
intention is to reunite it with his body because<br />
he “is the man in [her] life”. Along the way<br />
(Acts 1 and 2), she time travels to a 19th Century<br />
craniometry lab and a 1930s European<br />
(probably German) art gallery; the people she<br />
encounters debate the worth of craniometry as<br />
a measure of character and potential as well as<br />
the ethical implications of eugenics. In Act 3<br />
she takes Goya’s skull to a 1980s cloning lab<br />
and, after some debate, sells his DNA in the<br />
hopes that the secret of his genius can be<br />
reproduced. In Act 4, Goya (who has appeared<br />
briefly in other scenes) confronts the art dealer<br />
and the businessman who hopes to profit from<br />
his DNA; after further debate, Goya and the art<br />
dealer have a final dialog and the latter, now<br />
depressed about her decision and disillusioned<br />
by her hero, smashes the skull. The<br />
opera ends as Goya gathers the pieces and<br />
begins tenderly to reassemble them.<br />
Needless to say, this is an opera driven<br />
more by ideas than by character and character<br />
development, and that has been one of the<br />
chief criticisms leveled at it. Nevertheless, the<br />
characters debating these issues do represent<br />
a number of viewpoints, and one can glean<br />
quite a bit about their (perhaps archetypal)<br />
natures from how these viewpoints are<br />
expressed, and, sometimes, from the music<br />
(passages in Act 2 mentioning Hitler, for<br />
instance, contain some of Nyman’s most dissonant<br />
music). The rest of the music resembles<br />
a kaleidoscope that shows musical images<br />
both from Nyman’s own musical past (a<br />
prominent theme from his Gattaca soundtrack<br />
for instance, appears when the biotech lab is<br />
introduced) and other composers (one critic<br />
recognizes a quote from Beethoven when<br />
Goya appears in the final act); tempos shift<br />
regularly and compellingly; the vocal lines<br />
tend toward very slow declamation, and (as Mr<br />
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Parsons observed) they are difficult to understand,<br />
possibly because the balance between<br />
instruments and vocals is very near equal. Pace<br />
Parsons, however, the music is neither always<br />
tonal nor always merry, and has quite a bit of<br />
variety. Neither would I say the opera is “dramatically<br />
inert”. It’s definitely not, say, Tosca,<br />
but it’s far more operatic than, say, Adams’s<br />
Death of Klinghoffer (May/June 1993), which is<br />
more like an oratorio and about as dramatic as<br />
Handel’s Acis and Galatea. (By the way, Mr<br />
Parsons pronounced this opera a work that<br />
would restore one’s faith in contemporary<br />
opera. Chacun a son gout.)<br />
The ideas in Facing Goya are well worth<br />
considering and they are eminently part of<br />
today’s human condition. If they are presented<br />
in an unorthodox fashion, well, I’m more willing<br />
to think that theater is changing, less willing<br />
to invoke an older (and less relevant) dramaturgical<br />
standard to judge its supposed<br />
problems.<br />
HASKINS<br />
OCKEGHEM & COMPERE: Musiques au<br />
Temps d’Anne de France<br />
La Main Harmonique/ Frederic Betous<br />
Ligia 202217—64 minutes<br />
This is a delightful recording of some very<br />
pretty French polyphonic songs by two of the<br />
greatest masters active around the turn of the<br />
16th Century. The premise behind this release<br />
is that Anne de France may have employed<br />
these composers while she was Duchess of the<br />
Bourbon court of Beaujeu. The program consists<br />
mainly of virelais and chanson-motets by<br />
Johannes Ockeghem and Loysete Compere<br />
and Alexander Agricola, who may have been<br />
his students. One additional song by Johannes<br />
Ghiselin, ‘O florens rosa’, is played by instruments<br />
alone.<br />
It is impossible to distinguish between the<br />
quality of works and their performance here,<br />
because they are all so beautiful. Ockeghem’s<br />
‘Mort, Tu as Navré de Ton Dart/Miserere’<br />
deserves special mention, though. Besides its<br />
sensitive performance, it is a work of great historic<br />
importance, having been composed on<br />
the death of Ockeghem’s own mentor, Gilles<br />
Binchois. The chanson-motet mentions Binchois<br />
by name over a quotation from the<br />
Requiem Mass in the tenor. Ockeghem also<br />
indulges in some clever references to Binchois’s<br />
rather dated style of Burgundian composition,<br />
with its use of under-third cadences,<br />
etc. Compere’s ‘Plaine d’Ennuy/Anima Mea’<br />
also makes reference to outdated uses, but I<br />
am not clear on its purpose.<br />
I really like the instrumental interludes and<br />
introductions. These are not composed, of<br />
course, but improvised; they add tremendous-<br />
ly to the performance. The notes are in English,<br />
but not the texts.<br />
LOEWEN<br />
PEJACEVIC: Symphony; Phantasie Concertante<br />
Volker Banfield, p; Rhineland Orchestra/ Ari Rasilainen<br />
CPO 777418—63 minutes<br />
Dora Pejacevic was born in 1885 in Budapest<br />
but moved to Zagreb in Croatia, where her<br />
father, a member of a noble Croatian family,<br />
became governor. Her mother, a Hungarian<br />
countess and a fine pianist, gave Dora her first<br />
piano lessons, and she began composing at<br />
age 12. Later, her parents sent her to study in<br />
Dresden and Munich, where she became an<br />
accomplished pianist and violinist. She also<br />
studied composition, though to a great extent<br />
she was self-taught in that area. She was a person<br />
of great curiosity and initiative who made<br />
the rounds of intellectuals like Karl Kraus,<br />
Rainer Maria Rilke, and Maximilian Vanka. Her<br />
music was played fairly often, and she performed<br />
regularly on both her instruments. Her<br />
greatest period of creativity was during the<br />
Great War. She died in 1923 at the age of 38.<br />
Pejacevic’s romantic style puts strong<br />
emphasis on melody with an Eastern European<br />
or Russian tint. Her music is rich, colorful—quite<br />
ruddy in a way—as well as cinematic<br />
and emotional. Its vigor is remarkable, even<br />
in slow movements. Her structures are traditional<br />
but quite free because of the linear way<br />
she develops motifs with counterpoint, expansion,<br />
etc. Most of those motifs are based on a<br />
dropping interval and a short-long rhythm.<br />
The drop has the effect of a sigh or a swoon<br />
typical of the future Hollywood, and the<br />
rhythm works as a springboard. There is a<br />
touch of the improvisatory to her music that<br />
gives the impression that she derived a real joy<br />
from writing for the orchestra. She was a tonal<br />
composer whose harmonies were chromatic,<br />
modulated often, and sometimes employed a<br />
whole-tone scale. There may also be a folk element,<br />
but without knowing something about<br />
Croatian folk music, I cannot be certain. Many<br />
composers come to mind when listening:<br />
Richard Strauss and early Scriabin especially,<br />
with doses of Dvorak, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-<br />
Korsakoff, Tchaikovsky, and even Wagner and<br />
Mendelssohn. Mahler may belong on this list,<br />
but it is hard to point to an example. Because<br />
Pejacevic’s romanticism looks backward, not<br />
forward, I do not liken her to post-Mahlerians<br />
like Zemlinsky, Schreker, and Schoeck. For all<br />
these influences, her music has a distinctive<br />
voice, and if one wants to conjure a “Balkan<br />
sound”, hers may be it. She deserved better in<br />
terms of reputation, but like many early 20th<br />
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Century romantics, she was plowed under by<br />
the nihilism and disgust generated by the<br />
Great War.<br />
The Symphony in F-sharp minor (1917)<br />
begins aggressively with a fanfare and a passage<br />
of downward dissonant chords. A stormy<br />
movement seems on the horizon, but what we<br />
get is a well-structured romantic ramble in the<br />
best sense of the term. Strauss comes quickly<br />
to mind, but Scriabin does not wait long,<br />
though the main motif, introduced in the<br />
horns, suggests Rimsky-Korsakoff. Its development<br />
dominates the movement. Several climaxes<br />
are Russian in flavor, but Strauss<br />
returns when the music exhibits more drama<br />
and conflict in the last sections. The ending<br />
resembles the overt nature of the opening but<br />
with less strife and more triumph.<br />
The gorgeous Andante Sostenuto opens<br />
with a modal English horn solo singing hauntingly<br />
over a softly trodding low brass passacaglia.<br />
This theme gains strength only to be<br />
succeeded by a more “agile and undulating”<br />
(the notes) melody that takes us from Moussorgsky<br />
to Tchaikovsky. After a clashing climax,<br />
a lone bass clarinet restates the opening<br />
theme. Pejacevic imaginatively combines the<br />
two melodies before the English horn closes<br />
the movement over soft chords.<br />
The scherzo opens like a village dance with<br />
occasional demonic coloring. The second section<br />
is slower, more mysterious, and spooky,<br />
producing images of fairies and goblins, with a<br />
touch of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s<br />
Dream and low horn calls adding a rustic<br />
atmosphere.<br />
The final Allegro Appassionato is stormy,<br />
vigorous, and lyrical at the beginning followed<br />
by a flowing second subject that sounds as if<br />
drawn from the main motif from I. Pejacevic<br />
spins out a variety of ideas before combining<br />
the main theme of this movement with the<br />
first theme from II, culminating triumphantly<br />
but with ominous overtones.<br />
The Phantasie Concertante (1919) is one of<br />
those cinematic pieces where the orchestra<br />
rhapsodizes, rising and falling, developing<br />
ideas in similar fashion to the first movement<br />
of the symphony, while the piano (sometimes<br />
furiously) fills in textures and goes on long virtuosic<br />
rides of its own. This is piano-andorchestra<br />
writing in the grandest of romantic<br />
traditions—a real showpiece. Think of a flamboyant<br />
white-tuxedo-clad heart-throb soloist<br />
(which is what this piece requires) playing with<br />
an orchestra that is quite busy in its own right.<br />
CPO has done a great service (as it so often<br />
does) in bringing us what I believe are the first<br />
recordings of this fine composer’s music. More<br />
are promised. I can imagine a lusher sound<br />
both from the orchestra and the engineers—<br />
particularly in bass reproduction—but the<br />
playing and sound we get will more than do.<br />
Rasilainen’s interpretation seems on the<br />
money, and pianist Volker Banfield produces a<br />
muscular tone with panache in the Phantasie.<br />
Koraljka Kos’s notes do a good job with the<br />
composer and her music. If you want to know<br />
more about Pejacevic, seek out a documentary<br />
called Countess Dora from 1993.<br />
HECHT<br />
PERGOLESI: Stabat Mater; Nel Chiuso<br />
Centro; Sinfonia to La Conversione die San<br />
Guglielmo; Questo e il Piano<br />
Anna Netrebko, s; Marianna Pizzolato, mz; St<br />
Cecilia Academy Orchestra/ Antonio Pappano<br />
DG 15444—72 minutes<br />
Pergolesi was only 26 when he died, but he left<br />
behind a considerable body of work, including<br />
his much-recorded, brief comic opera, La<br />
Serva Padrona, and his undisputed masterpiece,<br />
a setting of the Stabat Mater. Anna<br />
Netrebko, perhaps taking a cue from the musical<br />
explorations of Cecilia Bartoli, is stepping<br />
out of her usual repertory to participate in this<br />
“Tribute to Pergolesi”, joined by the young<br />
mezzo Marianna Pizzolato. They each sing a<br />
secular cantata, then join in the Stabat Mater.<br />
The orchestra too has its chance to shine in a<br />
very brief overture. The two cantatas make<br />
easy listening: vigorous, florid vocal lines, very<br />
well crafted and not extended enough to wear<br />
out their welcome but not particularly memorable<br />
either. The ladies are up to their<br />
demands, as they are to the Stabat Mater. This<br />
performance is, by modern standards, on the<br />
heavy, operatic side, and it seems even weightier<br />
because both soloists have dark voices, easy<br />
to hear but not strongly contrasted. I wish they<br />
were quicker on the draw, so to speak, with all<br />
the trills; but they have the tragic measure of<br />
the piece and they never trivialize it. Pappano<br />
is an enthusiastic partner for them.<br />
If I wanted this type of Stabat Mater, I’d<br />
sooner choose the even :lovelier and more<br />
agile Freni and Berganza on DG. The two rarities,<br />
Nel Chiuso Centro (based on the Orpheus<br />
and Eurydice story) and Questo e il Piano (the<br />
complaint of a jilted lover), take up about half<br />
an hour of the playing time, so Pergolesi seekers<br />
will have to decide if that’s enough justification<br />
to buy this. Fans of Netrebko will probably<br />
want it anyway. The sound is excellent, but<br />
no texts are supplied, though they can be<br />
found at the DG website.<br />
LUCANO<br />
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PERSICHETTI: Band Divertimento; Masquerade;<br />
Pageant; Band Symphony; Psalm;<br />
Parable IX<br />
Illinois State University Wind Symphony/<br />
Stephen Steele—Albany 1253—70 minutes<br />
I have never really been moved or excited by<br />
the music of Vincent Persichetti (1915-87), but<br />
there is no question that his dozen or so works<br />
for concert band constitute an important part<br />
of its literature. They give individual musicians<br />
standard, approachable things to do while<br />
challenging ensembles with modern harmonies<br />
and intricate rhythms.<br />
I am aware of three Persichetti band collections.<br />
The best one is by the London Symphony<br />
winds, a Naxos bargain. Also excellent is<br />
the one by Eugene Corporon’s fine wind<br />
ensembles at the University of North Texas<br />
and Cincinnati College-Conservatory<br />
(Sept/Oct 2006). Stephen Steele’s young Illinois<br />
State musicians might not quite be in that<br />
league, but they are very good. Intonation is<br />
fine most of the time, and solos are secure,<br />
expressive, and skillfully delivered.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
PETROV: Creation of the World Suites 1+3;<br />
Master & Margarita; Farewell to...<br />
Maria Lyudko, s; St Petersburg Philharmonic,<br />
Chamber Orchestra, State Kapella Symphony/<br />
Yuri Temirkanov, Edward Serov, Alexander<br />
Dmitriev, Alexander Tchernushenko<br />
Northern Flowers 9983—72 minutes<br />
Andrei Petrov (1930-2006) was born in<br />
Leningrad to a father who was a doctor and an<br />
artist mother. The family lived in Siberia during<br />
World War II. After they returned to<br />
Leningrad, the young Petrov attended the<br />
Rimsky-Korsakoff School of Music and the<br />
Leningrad Conservatory. His early pieces were<br />
mostly ballets and other programmatic works.<br />
In the 1960s he turned to scoring films and is<br />
probably best known in the West for those<br />
efforts, particularly The Blue Bird, which was<br />
produced through Soviet-<strong>American</strong> cooperation.<br />
Later he wrote more abstract instrumental<br />
works, including three symphonies. He<br />
served as the head of the St Petersburg Composers’<br />
Union from 1964 and as president of<br />
the St Petersburg Philharmonic Society from<br />
1998. He won many prizes including the honor<br />
of a small newly discovered planet named for<br />
him in 1994.<br />
At first hearing, Petrov is a “kitchen sink”<br />
composer, often throwing everything but that<br />
proverbial item into a work. In fact, he resorts<br />
to that technique mostly in fast and loud passages<br />
(which are sometimes derivative, as<br />
well). His slower passages are often quite<br />
beautiful and would not be out of place with<br />
second- or third-drawer efforts from the post-<br />
Mahler romantics. Alas, they are always interrupted<br />
by that sinkful of explosive percussion,<br />
screaming brasses, wailing woodwinds, and<br />
maniacal strings. Some of his sink passages are<br />
clever and well crafted—most would work in a<br />
film score—but I cannot escape the notion<br />
that Petrov was just trying to be “with it”. The<br />
effect is inspiration broken up by the hackneyed.<br />
Master and Margarita (1985), based on the<br />
novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, is a fantasia that he<br />
called a “symphony in free form” and is one of<br />
several Petrov works based on artistic figures.<br />
It begins with a somber string bass solo that<br />
spreads darkly through the string section.<br />
There follows several passages of instruments<br />
calling (or screaming) to each other, interrupted<br />
twice by percussion. A furious string section<br />
releases an outpouring of trumpets and horns<br />
over a wave of thundering percussion. A contemplative<br />
Mahlerian passage that includes a<br />
beautiful oboe solo and bells is swept away by<br />
an orchestral tidal wave of chortling bassoons<br />
and clarinets, roaring horns, chugging strings,<br />
etc. Everything comes to a halt but for the<br />
organ, sounding at first like an old TV soap<br />
opera before evolving into something more<br />
sophisticated, sad and sentimental. The<br />
orchestra rises to a climax with grinding brass<br />
chords, and the middle and low strings spread<br />
out like a wave. After a childlike tune in the<br />
strings and harp, what sounds like an ondes<br />
martinet fades into the distance.<br />
Farewell to... (2005) begins like Ives’s<br />
Unanswered Question, with strings moving<br />
chordally, their top notes forming the melody.<br />
This leads to a flute and horn duet and a quiet<br />
interval of percussion and heavy string chords.<br />
The sink takes over with piano and high hat<br />
cymbals, glissando strings, and a string bass<br />
that takes us to a West Side Story-type gym,<br />
though one less spiffy than Bernstein’s. A<br />
hurdy-gurdy motif from the organ then turns<br />
into a string canon—not a bad development,<br />
literally. With the entry of the “ondes-martinot”<br />
I’m “watching” a 1950s space movie. The day<br />
is saved by soprano Maria Lyudko beautifully<br />
singing lines from a poem in Dr Zhivago. After<br />
a solo flute picks up her melody with sneers<br />
from a muted trombone, the opening material<br />
returns to a quiet ending.<br />
Creation of the World (1971) is Petrov’s<br />
most famous work of the three, but I find it the<br />
weakest. Creation may work as a ballet—it was<br />
produced internationally, with Mikhail<br />
Baryshnikov starring in some performances—<br />
but musically it is the kitchen sink. The first<br />
suite begins with ‘Angels’ Round Dance’,<br />
based on a little tune in the woodwinds, but<br />
that is kicked aside by a flatulent contrabas-<br />
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soon, car horns, Bronx cheers, and whatnot. they do) is their elegance, grace, and the ability<br />
After charging brass triplets, the xylophone of <strong>conductor</strong> and orchestra to sustain line and<br />
maintains the tune with smirking simplicity intensity despite the lack of bite wit, irony, and<br />
before the onslaught resumes. Part II begins as brutality that we associate with Prokofieff.<br />
a string hymn, but soon a jazzy trombone solo The French National Orchestra is on the<br />
leads to a wild dance with riffs and wild per- top of its game with beautifully colored strings,<br />
cussion. The revelers shake off the craziness bright woodwinds, and strong brass. French<br />
with a hymn before another jazzy ride leads to orchestras are known for the soloistic tenden-<br />
a snide ending. The Third Suite begins with a cies of their players; and that, combined with<br />
weird semi-jazzy and very clever Ivesian “vari- Rostropovich’s slow tempos and the engineerations<br />
on a major scale” (my term). That culing, adds up to a lot of nice detail. At the risk of<br />
minates in a rousing hymn suitable to a barn oversimplification, you can call these perfor-<br />
raising. The next section plays on ‘Cool’ from mances a blend of Russian breadth with<br />
West Side Story (Petrov should have written French color. Erato’s big open soundstage with<br />
“Thanks, Lenny” in the score), while ‘The a lot of bass serves them well.<br />
Merry Chase’ combines Prokofieff’s Romeo 1. Elegant, slow, and serious are the watch-<br />
and Juliet with the humor of Poulenc and Milwords. The first movement seems reluctant to<br />
haud. ‘Ave, Eve’ is Broadway schmaltz.<br />
find its way, but eventually does. Either that, or<br />
This mix of styles frustrated me, but it may I adjusted. The dotted theme in I picks up sur-<br />
appeal to some listeners. Playing and sound prising majesty as it gains volume at this slow<br />
serve it well. The notes read like overwritten tempo. II is balletic, like a dancer gliding<br />
hagiography from the Soviet era.<br />
across the floor. IV comes in closest to a stan-<br />
HECHT dard tempo. In doing so, it points to what<br />
PLEYEL: Trios in C, E minor, A, F minor<br />
many will consider a weakness of the entire<br />
set—a lack of rhythmic energy that is some-<br />
Trio 1790—CPO 777 544—72 minutes<br />
what hidden by that remarkable ability of the<br />
There is a fair number of recent recordings of<br />
Ignatz Pleyel (1757-1831)—fitting, considering<br />
his high standing in his lifetime. A student of<br />
Haydn, he was hired in London to compete<br />
with Haydn in the 1790s. The resulting rivalry<br />
was good humored and affectionate, with each<br />
including some of the others works in his concerts.<br />
He wrote about 50 piano trios, most in the<br />
1790s. (This was before establishing his music<br />
publishing house and piano factory, which<br />
came after his return to France.)<br />
These trios are all well written and include<br />
several Scottish themes, since they were commissioned<br />
by George Thomson, the Scot who<br />
also commissioned trios from Beethoven,<br />
Kozeluch, Haydn, Hummel, and Weber.<br />
Trio 1790 is the foremost German organization<br />
of period instruments. They play very<br />
well, though with a rather thin tone. Good<br />
notes and a splendid recording.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
PROKOFIEFF: Symphonies, all<br />
French National Orchestra/ Mstislav Rostropovich—Warner<br />
69675 [4CD] 281 minutes<br />
orchestra to sustain the line at slow tempos.<br />
2. Rostropovich’s softening romantic<br />
approach works well in a piece that would<br />
seem to resist it. Apparently, there is so much<br />
steel already built in that searching for beauty<br />
of line and tone yields rewards, especially in<br />
the multifaceted II. The tempos are not that<br />
slow, and Rostropovich handles the motor<br />
rhythms so that things chug along. Annotator<br />
David Nice contends that under the “right <strong>conductor</strong><br />
the eminently singable tunes buried in<br />
the wreckage of [I] should come across loud<br />
and clear”. Rostropovich proves him right. He<br />
is also very good in the slow music from II,<br />
which is clean and atmospheric. The same goes<br />
for the light-hearted variations that follow. The<br />
tough march ending gets its due, and the final<br />
chords are nicely open and balanced. I liked<br />
this reading of my least favorite Prokofieff symphony<br />
as much as I would like anyone’s, but it<br />
might not please people who insist on more<br />
harshness in the first movement.<br />
3. The Third Symphony is energetic, spiky,<br />
hotly atmospheric, lush, lyrical, and complex.<br />
Because it combines the composer’s aggressive<br />
and romantic sides so thoroughly, it presents<br />
problems to a one-sided approach like<br />
Rostropovich is known for slow, expansive Rostropovich’s. To an extent, he is able to<br />
tempos and a romantic, broad treatment even maintain the required structural balance, but<br />
of harsh or sharp-edged works. He lives up to this is still an odd interpretation. Sometimes it<br />
that reputation in this reissue of an Erato set seems to meander, and instrumental levels are<br />
from the 1980s. Tempos range from very slow unusual here and there. Still, there is plenty of<br />
to the slow side of normal. Textures are color and more fire than the rest of the set<br />
weighty and built up from a powerful bass. would suggest, particularly in III, where, rela-<br />
Attacks tend to be soft and broad. What makes tively speaking, Rostropovich unleashes a fury.<br />
these performances work (assuming you think The sound is a little less open, vibrant, and<br />
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impressive than in the other symphonies, but<br />
it’s still quite good.<br />
4. The Fourth was a commission for the<br />
Boston Symphony’s 50th Anniversary, so it is<br />
surprising that Prokofieff essentially tossed the<br />
piece off by plugging in a lot of material from<br />
his ballet, The Prodigal Son. The result is not a<br />
bad work, but as the Prokofieff Overview wrote,<br />
it lacks the “hysterical tension of the previous<br />
symphonies [and it also is missing] drama and<br />
hardly seems symphonic much of the time”.<br />
Rostropovich’s performance is OK, but the<br />
Fourth’s balletic and often witty nature takes a<br />
hit from Rostropovich’s style and slow tempos.<br />
The opening is serenely beautiful, promising<br />
much; and indeed, I has some life and is the<br />
best performed of the movements. In II, the<br />
line moves nicely despite a tempo that is too<br />
slow for the content. The slower parts of III<br />
have a musing effect, so that is pleasing<br />
enough. The spiky Finale suffers most, save for<br />
the brash trombone outbursts.<br />
Prokofieff revised the Fourth in 1947, fattening<br />
it up, adding material, and increasing<br />
its length by half. (The opus numbers are 47<br />
for the original and 112 for the revision.) Judging<br />
from this performance, I assume that Rostropovich<br />
prefers the revision: it certainly takes<br />
to his approach better than the original. It is<br />
one of the best performances in the set, particularly<br />
in a second movement that is wonderfully<br />
warm and dreamy. The string tone is rich<br />
and colorful, I don’t mind the slow tempos at<br />
all, and the sound is especially good.<br />
5. The Fifth is not as slow as usual, but is<br />
otherwise true to type. It is a war symphony,<br />
and this is one of its darker, more brooding,<br />
and menacing (though not brutal) readings.<br />
The opening is typically slow, but things pick<br />
up at the second subject, and inner detail is<br />
revealing. Excellent orchestral balances lend a<br />
thoughtful aspect—more so than in some of<br />
the other readings here, where beauty and<br />
richness are so dominant. The growling bass is<br />
important and telling; and the very slow, percussive<br />
ending sounds like the artillery barrage<br />
that it is. II is not that slow, but there is still<br />
plenty of detail; the trio is stylish with excellent<br />
horn work, and there is some rare bite in the<br />
low muted trumpets. III is the core of the performance—a<br />
slow and dreamy funeral march<br />
that is steady, deadly, and in a way, Mahlerian.<br />
The dirge becomes very powerful toward the<br />
end, like a slow ‘Mars’ from Holst’s Planets.<br />
The Finale is more standard in tempo, and<br />
while the low passages in the second half are<br />
strong, the movement is a little anticlimactic<br />
after its powerful predecessor.<br />
6. This “beautiful” Sixth is definitely not for<br />
everyone. Tempos are very slow, with the<br />
accent on dark, contemplative lyricism and<br />
gravitas, but not mass. Like the Fifth but more<br />
so, the Sixth is built from the bottom up; and<br />
that is emphasized, with real breadth in the<br />
low strings and the bass trombone-tuba pairing,<br />
with weight applied to fill it out. II is so<br />
slow that III feels like an Olympic sprint in<br />
comparison. It is actually slightly slow, but it is<br />
nicely turned and supplies the required lightening<br />
up and release in its context better than<br />
several recordings. Many people will say that<br />
Rostropovich has this piece all wrong, but it<br />
works if you are of a mind for it.<br />
7. This is a large scale, grand reading that is<br />
rich, lyrical, and more serious than most. It is<br />
one of the best of the set and one of my favorite<br />
Sevenths, period. I is slow, but not terribly<br />
so, and the tempo reveals interesting inner<br />
lines in the strings. II opens powerfully, the<br />
midsection is colorful especially in the basses,<br />
the oboe solo is nicely dark, and the ending is<br />
muscular with a lot of bass drum. III opens<br />
with wonderful string tone that is maintained<br />
all the way through. IV is leisurely, yet powerful,<br />
and moves along well to the original quiet<br />
ending.<br />
The notes are of moderate length, but they<br />
tell us some interesting things about Prokofieff<br />
and these works.<br />
This set makes as good a case for an overtly<br />
romantic approach to Prokofieff as I’ve heard.<br />
I would limit recommendation to listeners<br />
who are seeking something along these lines,<br />
never cared for these works but might in this<br />
kind of approach, or are looking for something<br />
different to supplement to their Prokofieff collection.<br />
I am in Category 3. Anyone else should<br />
probably avoid them.<br />
I know of eight other sets and have heard<br />
parts of all but Martinon’s Vox. My favorites<br />
are Kitaenko (the most powerful; often slower<br />
than Rostropovich, but more probing, muscular,<br />
and brutal, with great playing from<br />
Gurzenich Orchestra); Gergiev (neutral and<br />
mainstream); Kosler (mainstream, sleek,<br />
sometimes too laid back, with a great Czech<br />
Philharmonic), and Weller (big, warm, too<br />
smoothed over for some, but excellent analog<br />
sound).<br />
Jarvi is undercharacterized, sometimes<br />
uncertain, with a good, not great, Scottish<br />
National Orchestra. Kuchar’s somewhat crude<br />
performances were inexpensive stopgaps<br />
when they came out in the 1990s, but are now<br />
dispensable. What I’ve heard of Ozawa is dead<br />
and clueless.<br />
The Overview did not recommend a particular<br />
set. Looking through the reviews, Mr<br />
Vroon loved Kitaenko and said it revised his<br />
thoughts on these pieces (Jan/Feb 2009, a long<br />
review worth consulting). He did not care for<br />
Ozawa. John McKelvey (Sept/Oct 1996) loved<br />
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Weller, ranking it slightly ahead of Kosler, and<br />
did not care for Jarvi or Martinon. Mr Godell’s<br />
favorite was Weller, followed by Jarvi (but not 1<br />
and 5, which precludes buying as a set), noting<br />
the <strong>conductor</strong>’s ability to allow even the brutal<br />
passages to sing (Jan/Feb 1999). We never<br />
reviewed Gergiev.<br />
HECHT<br />
RACHMANINOFF: Corelli Variations<br />
with Elegie, op 3:1; Preludes, op 3:2; op 23:2,4,5,6;<br />
op 32:2,3,4,5,10,12<br />
Vassily Primakov, p<br />
Bridge 9348—77 minutes<br />
with Sonata 2; Vocalise; 6 Duets, op 11<br />
Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Emanuela Friscioni, p<br />
Centaur 3062—75 minutes<br />
with BACH-BUSONI: Chaconne; RAVEL: Valses<br />
Nobles et Sentimentales; STRAVINSKY: Petrouchka<br />
movements<br />
Freddy Kempf, p—BIS 1810—64 minutes<br />
Rachmaninoff’s last major work for solo piano<br />
has been called by Vladimir Ashkenazy “perhaps<br />
his most perfect work”. It has been a staple<br />
of his repertoire all through his career.<br />
With three recordings (2 on LP only: EMI 1813<br />
and London 7236 or Decca 6996; CD: Decca<br />
417671 or 455234) along with a DVD discussion<br />
and complete performance (Ashkenazy:<br />
Master Musician by Christopher Nupen, Allegro<br />
9, Mar/Apr 2009), I admit that I learned<br />
this work through Ashkenazy’s performances<br />
and consider his readings without peer. It is<br />
also special to me because I’ve had the opportunity<br />
to hold the manuscript in my hands (at<br />
the Library of Congress) and observe the markings<br />
made for publication and even a correction<br />
or two glued and pasted in.<br />
Written in France in the summer of 1931,<br />
these Variations represent a significant change<br />
in compositional style from the Etudes-<br />
Tableaux, Op. 39, Rachmaninoff’s previous<br />
solo piano opus and his last composition written<br />
in Russia. There is an economy of means<br />
and less redundancy in his expression of emotion<br />
in all of his works written in the last dozen<br />
years of his life. The piano writing is clearer<br />
and cleaner than in the big works from the<br />
middle of his life.<br />
Fritz Kreisler recommended the original<br />
Corelli Violin Sonata (Op. 5:12) to Rachmaninoff,<br />
and it is not a stretch to imagine the two<br />
privately reading through it. Corelli used an<br />
old, well-known tune called La Folia as his<br />
theme and followed it by 23 variations. Rachmaninoff<br />
was well-acquainted with this old<br />
tune, as it figures prominently in Liszt’s Rhapsodie<br />
Espagnole a work he played often in<br />
recital. Rachmaninoff took Corelli’s setting of<br />
‘La Folia’ verbatim as his theme, following it<br />
with 20 variations and a coda. In between vari-<br />
ations 13 and 14, he inserts an unusual Intermezzo,<br />
based loosely on the theme, highly<br />
ornamented in a baroque manner, and interrupted<br />
by three cadenzas, the last of which<br />
leads into variation 14. It is so strikingly different<br />
that it serves as a break in the normal flow<br />
of variations. It also allows the work, so far<br />
solidly in D minor, to move far afield to D-flat<br />
major for a simple variation—a statement of<br />
the theme in a major key. This is followed by<br />
the most beautiful variation of the set, a delicate<br />
nocturne that shows us that while his<br />
compositional technique was evolving, Rachmaninoff<br />
was still a master of melody.<br />
It is often noted that this work is the precursor<br />
to the Rhapsody on a Theme of<br />
Paganini; the works share many similarities.<br />
The very famous (and beautiful) 18th variation<br />
from the Paganini work (his next opus) is also<br />
in the key of D-flat major. Both works follow<br />
their romantic D-flat variation with an immediate<br />
return to the home key, much quicker<br />
tempos and virtuosic writing in the remaining<br />
variations leading to the end. Unlike the fireworks<br />
that end the Paganini work, the Corelli<br />
coda returns to beauty, with an ambiguous<br />
alternation between D major and minor and a<br />
very quiet ending back in the minor key.<br />
Primakov’s all-Rachmaninoff program is<br />
built around an excellent performance of the<br />
Variations. His is the poet’s Rachmaninoff,<br />
each piece unhurried and lovingly crafted. I<br />
have enjoyed other Primakov discs, and miss<br />
some of the excitement that I found in his<br />
youthful concert recordings reviewed a couple<br />
of issues ago (Bridge 9322, May/June 2011).<br />
Here everything is carefully crafted, and I dare<br />
say slower than most other recordings (both<br />
the variations and preludes). Each is worth<br />
study for the excellent legato phrasing and<br />
voicing control Primakov is a master of. Since<br />
there are no breakneck speeds or “throw caution<br />
to the wind” moments, there is also a<br />
scarcity of exciting spots. Four of the preludes<br />
he selected here are ones that I also have performed,<br />
but with different tempos. Primakov<br />
can conjure up wonderful sounds, and the<br />
slower, melodious variations and preludes<br />
can’t be beat.<br />
Antonio Pompa-Baldi also offers an all-<br />
Rachmaninoff program. I’ll only speak of the<br />
Variations here and deal with Sonata 2 later.<br />
His is a fine, well-balanced performance with<br />
good attention to details, but not so much that<br />
it gets in the way of the flow of the music. Of<br />
the five releases covered in this and the next<br />
Rachmaninoff review, Pompa-Baldi is the<br />
most enjoyable. Much of this has to do with<br />
the other works, but the Variations are as solid<br />
and musical as I could hope for, and Centaur’s<br />
production values (recording and booklet<br />
qualities) are excellent.<br />
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Freddy Kempf first came to my attention a<br />
decade ago via an ARG review of his Rachmaninoff<br />
Sonata 2 and Etudes-Tableaux, Op.<br />
39 (BIS 1042, Jan/Feb 2001). This great-sounding<br />
SACD recital opens with a fine performance<br />
of the Variations. If I am very picky, I<br />
would find a little fault with Variation 8 (too<br />
slow), Variation 13 (over-pedaled), the Intermezzo<br />
and Variation 17 (brittle, too loud<br />
melody with not enough legato). On the other<br />
hand it is, overall, the best performance of this<br />
group, the most exciting performance, and<br />
only the opening piece of four 20th Century<br />
masterpieces on this program. I have heard<br />
several performances of the great Bach-Busoni<br />
Chaconne in the past year, but none as engaging<br />
as this. I did find the back-to-back programming<br />
of two large works in the key of D<br />
minor a choice I would not have made. The<br />
following work, Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales,<br />
is one of the more restrained of the<br />
French master’s large scale works. Its lack of<br />
overt virtuosity and Schubertian delicacy are<br />
well played by Kempf, who should have placed<br />
it second in the program. The spectacular<br />
Petrouchka is so suited to Kempf’s strengths<br />
that it alone would make this release worth<br />
getting. He doesn’t quite knock Pollini’s DG<br />
recording out of first place, but he’s solidly in<br />
second place for best recorded performance of<br />
this very difficult piece.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concertos 1+4;<br />
Paganini Rhapsody<br />
Simon Trpceski, Liverpool Philharmonic/ Vasily<br />
Petrenko—Avie 2191—77 minutes<br />
There is no magic or romance here.<br />
All the notes are present; all is played accurately.<br />
But the listener is left unmoved. There<br />
is no majesty; there is no swell of passion, no<br />
build-up of feeling. It is sterile and cold. It is<br />
English, even if the <strong>conductor</strong> is Russian.<br />
Further comment would be superfluous.<br />
VROON<br />
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Sonata 2<br />
with SCHUMANN: Carnaval; CHOPIN: Polonaise-Fantasy<br />
Anastasia Voltchok<br />
Genuin 11201 59 minutes<br />
with ABRAMYAN: 4 Preludes; BABAJANYAN:<br />
Capriccio; Improvisation; Folksong; Elegy; Poem<br />
Sona Shaboyan—Gallo 1321—55 minutes<br />
Following the completion of the Variations on<br />
a Theme of Corelli (see above review), Rachmaninoff<br />
began revising his Piano Sonata 2. “I<br />
look at my early works and see how much<br />
there is that is superfluous. Even in the sonata<br />
so many voices are moving simultaneously<br />
and it is too long. Chopin’s Sonata is 19 minutes<br />
long and says everything.” So Rachmaninoff<br />
set about applying his new leaner compositional<br />
techniques to the 1913 sonata. Any<br />
note or section not deemed essential was subject<br />
to revision or outright deletion. What<br />
works well in the Corelli Variations does not<br />
always fit a work composed in the heart of<br />
Rachmaninoff’s big, complex, virtuoso middle<br />
period. Consider the Piano Concerto 3, Opus<br />
32 Preludes, and Etudes-Tableaux and remember<br />
that the original sonata (Op. 36) came from<br />
the same time. The revision was not effective<br />
for Rachmaninoff the pianist, and after a few<br />
years it fell from his repertoire.<br />
The success of this work, now one of the<br />
most recorded piano sonatas written in the<br />
20th Century, has to be attributed to Vladimir<br />
Horowitz. He had learned the original version<br />
while still living in Russia, and he looked at the<br />
revised version and approached Rachmaninoff<br />
about combining it with the original. With the<br />
composer’s blessing, he set about his task,<br />
relying more on the original than the revision,<br />
but taking freely from both. The third version<br />
was completed only a couple of months before<br />
Rachmaninoff’s death, and it is not known<br />
whether or not he ever had the opportunity to<br />
review what Horowitz had done. It was certainly<br />
his performances over the years, always<br />
guaranteed to produce a standing ovation, that<br />
kept the work alive. As editions of both the<br />
original and revised version became readily<br />
available, so too were detailed essays on what<br />
Horowitz had done in his combined version.<br />
It is the revised version that we most often<br />
hear on recordings and in concert. While the<br />
original comes around about one in four<br />
times, the Horowitz or similar combinations<br />
that were popular in the last quarter of the<br />
20th Century seem to be going away. It should<br />
be noted that, while the revised version is significantly<br />
less difficult than the original, many<br />
passages are exactly the same, and a complete<br />
virtuoso technique is required to perform<br />
either version. The three recordings here are<br />
all of the 1931 revised version, and each is fully<br />
satisfying. I might quibble about a passage<br />
here and there, but the reader would be best<br />
served by selecting the disc where the other<br />
works are most to their liking.<br />
Antonio Pompa-Baldi’s (see earlier review)<br />
Sonata 2 earns very high marks for the number<br />
of inner voices he brings out. Considering that<br />
I have probably listened to 20 different recordings<br />
of this work in the past year, someone<br />
who brings something new to their performance<br />
is always appreciated. Sometimes the<br />
inner voice is given prominence to the detriment<br />
of the main voice, especially in the sec-<br />
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ond movement. Pompa-Baldi is an Italian<br />
pianist who currently lives and teaches in<br />
Cleveland. His biography, discography, competition<br />
prizes, and concert schedule are quite<br />
impressive (www.pompa-baldi.com) and I<br />
imagine that he makes a fantastic teacher. His<br />
own transcription of the famous Vocalise is<br />
included and simply presents the voice and<br />
piano parts combined and exquisitely voiced.<br />
He is joined by his talented wife (also a professor<br />
of piano at the Cleveland Institute of<br />
Music) in Rachmaninoff’s piano duet. While<br />
these are not considered among his greatest<br />
works, they have been making more and more<br />
appearances on CDs and even in concert halls<br />
in the past decade. They are fun to learn and<br />
perform and are quite well received by audiences.<br />
They may lack compositional sophistication<br />
that calls for detailed analysis, but given<br />
as good a performance as they get here they<br />
are very enjoyable. Of the five discs covered in<br />
this and the previous Rachmaninoff review,<br />
Pompa-Baldi would be the first one I would<br />
purchase if I were not fortunate enough to<br />
have them all.<br />
Anastasia Voltchok combines a fine performance<br />
of the sonata with a very good Schumann<br />
Carnaval and Chopin Polonaise-<br />
Fantasy. Here I found the Schumann to be the<br />
best performance. All of the mercurial musings<br />
embodied in these miniature masterpieces are<br />
played to the hilt by Voltchok. Carnaval had its<br />
first concert performance played by Liszt and<br />
its first recording by Rachmaninoff. Here it is<br />
followed by a late Chopin masterpiece, which<br />
is also given a strong performance. The sonata,<br />
at just under 20 minutes, is the quickest of the<br />
three dealt with here. That might be deceptive<br />
if you just listened to the final big tune and<br />
coda, where she is more deliberate than the<br />
others with a big ritard into the final Presto.<br />
She gives us the most beautiful second movement,<br />
too. The long build-up to the first climax<br />
is perfectly paced. After the cadenza, as the big<br />
sustained sonority fades away, the final page<br />
begins out of the vanishing sound haze in what<br />
can only be described as a perfect manner.<br />
Sona Shaboyan is an exciting young<br />
Armenian pianist who places the sonata<br />
between two groups of shorter Armenian<br />
pieces by Abramyan and Babajanyan (which<br />
I’ve also seen spelled Babadjanian). The four<br />
Preludes by Abramyan are from a complete set<br />
of 24 and most definitely worth hearing. The<br />
Babajanyan are in more of a “Pops” idiom,<br />
such as Khachaturian’s famous ‘Sabre Dance’.<br />
There is a clear modal Russian oriental flavor<br />
to these enjoyable pieces. Rachmaninoff’s<br />
sonata is well voiced and has a great flow.<br />
Melodies and counter melodies are balanced,<br />
and her bravura is engaging. My only criticism<br />
is in the final pages, at the final Presto, 27 bars<br />
from the end. The headlong rush to the end<br />
begins with four two-bar phrases, and Shaboyan<br />
uses a lot of pedal and makes them muddy.<br />
A very small criticism for a wonderfully executed<br />
performance. I am quite impressed with the<br />
piano sound here as well as some good and<br />
well-translated booklet notes. I’ll look forward<br />
to more from both the label and the pianist.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
RACHMANINOFF: Vespers<br />
Lotte Hovman, a; Poul Emborg, t; Copenhagen<br />
Oratorio Choir/ Torsten Mariegaard<br />
Scandinavian 220576—56 minutes<br />
Here’s a very nice rendition of Rachmaninoff’s<br />
ever-popular Vespers, bringing the number of<br />
recordings I’ve covered for ARG to ten. It’s an<br />
apparent reissue under licence of a 2002<br />
recording that never came our way. I like to<br />
keep in touch with this glorious music; being a<br />
choral “basso profundo”, I invariably dig out<br />
my dog-eared score and sing along at least<br />
once as I listen to each new recording—in part<br />
to reassure myself that age hasn’t yet robbed<br />
me of all those low notes that form this work’s<br />
foundation. Besides, what better way to experience<br />
music than from the inside out? The<br />
only thing that beats listening to great choral<br />
music is singing it.<br />
I find little, if any real fault with this<br />
account. The Copenhagen Oratorio Choir is<br />
made up of two reputable chamber choirs—<br />
Pegasus and Terpsichore (I’m familiar with the<br />
latter)—both led by Mr Mariegaard, the <strong>conductor</strong><br />
here. Their combined singing is smooth,<br />
sonorous, and technically assured. Their bass<br />
section, while lacking the seismic rumble of<br />
real Russian “oktavists”, anchors the music<br />
admirably. Interpretively, Mariegaard emphasizes<br />
the work’s more meditative qualities.<br />
Yet I miss the Slavic intensity that you get<br />
from choirs that specialize in music of the<br />
Orthodox tradition. While most of the performances<br />
I’ve reviewed are from non-Russian<br />
ensembles, the Brilliant label offers an<br />
idiomatically convincing, yet refined account<br />
from a fine Ukrainian choir under Yevhen<br />
Savchuk (J/A 2005); the same review compares<br />
that one to another top pick of mine: a particularly<br />
radiant, yet very different performance<br />
from the Dale Warland Singers. But my alltime<br />
favorite remains Paul Hillier’s shattering<br />
reading, with his Estonian Philharmonic<br />
Chamber choir, on Harmonia Mundi (S/O<br />
2005).<br />
Still, the performance at hand is most<br />
enjoyable, and its low price (under $10) makes<br />
it a good choice for the budget-conscious listener.<br />
<strong>Record</strong>ing quality is very good; we get<br />
brief notes and bios, but no texts.<br />
KOOB<br />
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RACHMANINOFF: Paganini Rhapsody;<br />
see SAINT-SAENS<br />
RAJTER: Orchestral Works<br />
Janacek Philharmonic/ David Porcelijn<br />
CPO 777574—75 minutes<br />
Ludovit Rajter (1906-2000) was well known as<br />
a <strong>conductor</strong> and teacher but much less so for<br />
his compositions. Though Slovakian by birth<br />
he spent much of his career in Hungary and<br />
only later in (what had become) Czechoslovakia.<br />
His music was rather old-fashioned when<br />
it first appeared in the early 1930s—very much<br />
in the manner of the Hungarians of the generation<br />
preceding his, notably Leo Weiner,<br />
Kodaly, and (his teacher) Dohnanyi. Though<br />
he continued to write into his 90s he retained<br />
his tonal, East-European conservative style.<br />
There are folk-style tunes aplenty (though with<br />
the rough edges rounded off and sans Bartokian<br />
asperities) and a few faint echoes of<br />
Janacek, but the five works here (one gathers<br />
they are representative of his orchestral output)<br />
are for the most part genial, melody-rich<br />
works that would have been easily digested by<br />
contemporaneous audiences. Think a somewhat<br />
tamed-down, more heavily scored Hary<br />
Janos with a little less personality and sass to<br />
get an idea of Rajter’s typical manner—or, if<br />
you know it, Leo Weiner’s Hungarian Folk<br />
Song Suite.<br />
Included are Divertimento from 1932,<br />
Symphonic Suite from 1933, Suite from the<br />
ballet Pozsonyi May Festival from 1938, Sinfonietta<br />
from 1993, and Impressionist Rhapsody<br />
from 1995. Most listeners will enjoy these<br />
unassuming, appealing, lively pieces with no<br />
problem. Movements tend to be unfussy and<br />
modestly proportioned. Just don’t expect anything<br />
cerebral or profound. Rajter has little<br />
interest in the extensive symphonic workingout<br />
of thematic ideas or dramatic conflict; he<br />
aims simply to please, charm, and edify without<br />
strain or struggle. Indeed much here would<br />
fit very comfortably onto a Proms concert—<br />
certainly the delightful eight dances excerpted<br />
from Pozsonyi May Festival.<br />
Performances and sonics are, as we’ve<br />
come to expect from CPO and its distinguished<br />
artists, excellent.<br />
LEHMAN<br />
REBAY: Clarinet & Guitar<br />
Luigi Magistrelli & Massimo Laura<br />
Brilliant 94171—76 minutes<br />
Milan Conservatory clarinet professor Luigi<br />
Magistrelli and La Scala guitarist Massimo<br />
Laura have done much to illuminate the little<br />
known repertoire for clarinet and guitar. Here,<br />
in a series of recordings from 2005 and 2006,<br />
they offer the entire clarinet and guitar portfolio<br />
of early 20th Century Viennese composer<br />
Ferdinand Rebay (1880-1953). Although Rebay<br />
studied with eminent teachers at the Vienna<br />
Conservatory, including pianist Joseph Hofmann<br />
and composer Robert Fuchs, he never<br />
achieved the fame of other students past and<br />
present; and while he wrote music at a time of<br />
modernist upheaval, he preferred the boundaries<br />
he knew as a youth. He served as a choral<br />
director and a piano teacher and produced<br />
strongly tuneful and folk-influenced pieces in<br />
a romantic and neo-classical idiom. His music<br />
for clarinet and guitar include three multimovement<br />
sonatas, a set of three small recital<br />
pieces, and a brief theme-and-variations on a<br />
melody by Chopin.<br />
As heirs to the Italian treble-dominated<br />
tradition, Magistrelli and Laura offer knowledgeable<br />
and heartfelt renditions, but the simple<br />
melodies and the transparent textures also<br />
leave them little room to hide. Most of the<br />
problems lie with Magistrelli, who cannot<br />
overcome his German set-up to complement<br />
his otherwise delightful phrasing. His sound<br />
lacks vibrancy and ring; he often has intonation<br />
problems; his tongue sometimes bounces<br />
off the reed; and he often presses too much,<br />
always preferring to be an extrovert when a<br />
more delicate and understated approach<br />
would work better. Laura understands this, but<br />
he defers to Magistrelli too much, and the<br />
result is often a pleasant guitar line far in the<br />
background and a dominating clarinet presence,<br />
even when the guitar has the melody.<br />
Nevertheless, Rebay comes across as a<br />
bonafide minor master, boasting all the craft<br />
of his better-known contemporaries and lacking<br />
only in name recognition. His melodic gifts<br />
and skillful handling of the melody-harmony<br />
framework between these two seemingly very<br />
different instruments make his library a wellspring<br />
for both serious concerts and light<br />
chamber recitals.<br />
HANUDEL<br />
REGER: Violin Concerto; Romances; Aria<br />
Kolja Lessing; Göttingen Symphony/ Christoph-<br />
Mathias Mueller—Telos 97—79 minutes<br />
In this performance of the concerto, we hear<br />
violinist Adolf Busch’s 1938 re-orchestration of<br />
its accompaniment. I understand Busch’s<br />
trepidation—Reger’s scores look like he got<br />
paid by the note. But his re-scoring doesn’t<br />
sound greatly different from Reger’s own. I<br />
suspect <strong>conductor</strong>s and recording engineers<br />
on other recordings have kept a close eye on<br />
balances. Furthermore, in the heavier tutti<br />
passages, the soloist is often silent.<br />
For most listeners, a greater drawback will<br />
be the excessive length of the piece. Reger<br />
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sometimes lacked a sense of scale. My favorite<br />
of his works, the Symphonic Prologue to a<br />
Tragedy, lasts 32 minutes. (It is a stupendous<br />
achievement—really a great one-movement<br />
symphony.) The piece originally ran 50 minutes,<br />
but apparently even Reger flinched at the<br />
prospect of an overture lasting nearly an hour.<br />
The concerto needed similar revision; it’s<br />
simply too long. The first movement alone is<br />
nearly half an hour, with much of the solo part<br />
given to what sounds like endless noodling of<br />
rhythmically monotonous pattern work. Things<br />
pick up in the finale. It has a peppy theme, with<br />
an elegantly contrasted second subject; but<br />
even here you soon get the picture of a composer<br />
who simply won’t weed the garden.<br />
The shorter works are more contemplative<br />
and quite beautiful in their understated eloquence.<br />
Kolja Lessing makes the most of the<br />
music. His excellent playing in the violin’s<br />
lower register is particularly attractive in the<br />
Romances and Aria, as they exploit that part of<br />
its range so movingly.<br />
O’CONNOR<br />
REICH: Electric Counterpoint; Vermont<br />
Counterpoint; 6 Marimbas<br />
Kuniko, perc—Linn 385 [SACD] 41 minutes<br />
Kuniko is an exciting and expressive percussionist<br />
who has performed a great variety of<br />
20th Century music. She has made idiomatic<br />
arrangements of two pieces from Reich’s<br />
“Counterpoint” series (Electric Counterpoint<br />
was originally scored for guitars; Vermont<br />
Counterpoint, for flutes) and produces a<br />
delightful multitracked recording of Six<br />
Marimbas. I cannot fault the ingenuity and<br />
care of the arrangements and am awed by her<br />
technique and musicality. Unfortunately, the<br />
percussion instruments she uses (including<br />
steel drums and marimbas) obligate her to<br />
transpose much of Electric Counterpoint up an<br />
octave, and I miss the solid foundation for the<br />
harmony that the lower notes supply in the<br />
original. On the other hand, the Vermont<br />
arrangement (scored for vibes) improves on<br />
the flute original in many ways, not least in<br />
rhythmic incisiveness.<br />
HASKINS<br />
RONTGEN: Violin Concertos 1+3; Ballad<br />
Liza Ferschtman; Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic/<br />
David Porcelijn<br />
CPO 777 437—74 minutes<br />
These are traditional works of high quality. In<br />
Concerto 1 (1902), the soloist has the first<br />
word—and most of the others. The accompaniment<br />
furnishes good support with some<br />
unusual darkly colored harmonic progressions.<br />
Like several Rontgen pieces, the finale<br />
uses a Dutch folk song as its basis. The general<br />
effect is like an updated Mendelssohn, charm<br />
included.<br />
Concerto 3 (1931) is more conservative,<br />
austere even. I’d describe the music as a controlled<br />
rhapsody. It’s thoughtful in mood, but<br />
the brief, lively finale wraps it up in style.<br />
The Ballad (1918), an autumnal piece,<br />
sounds like a symphonic poem with an elaborate<br />
violin part. Rontgen’s biographer Jurjen<br />
Vis theorizes that it may express his relief at<br />
the ending of World War I. (Though he lived<br />
mostly in Holland, Rontgen was always sentimental<br />
about his German homeland. In the<br />
1920s he used to visit the exiled Kaiser at<br />
Doorn.) The music makes skilful use of the<br />
harp in its accompaniment. The great English<br />
analyst Donald Francis Tovey once wrote that<br />
nobody should be foolish enough to use a harp<br />
in a violin concerto. Rontgen proves him<br />
wrong, but as he and Rontgen were good<br />
friends, Tovey no doubt made allowances.<br />
This likeable music stretches the soloist<br />
every bit as much as many far less graceful<br />
offerings, and with a far more entertaining<br />
effect. Soloist Ferschtman clears every hurdle<br />
with a strong, sweet tone, not only in the<br />
extremes of range, but while negotiating some<br />
drastic leaps of register. Porcelijn’s conducting<br />
displays sympathy in breadth and depth.<br />
Justin Davidson described violin concertos as<br />
“an unfair contest where the underdog always<br />
wins”. Here everybody wins.<br />
O’CONNOR<br />
ROSLAVETS: Piano Pieces; see SCRIABIN<br />
ROSSI: Cleopatra<br />
Dimitra Theodossiou (Cleopatra), Alessandro Liberatore<br />
(Marc Antony), Paolo Pecchioli (Caesar);<br />
Macerata Sferisterio Festival/ David Crescenzi<br />
Naxos 660291<br />
In March/April I expressed mild enjoyment of<br />
the DVD of Rossi’s opera. It’s a restrained work<br />
with more drama in the recitatives than in the<br />
arias. The music is innocent enough—no great<br />
outbursts of emotion, no “take home tunes”.<br />
It’s all very professional, finely crafted, pleasantly<br />
enjoyable, but hardly memorable.<br />
If one simply has to have a recording of<br />
Cleopatra go for the video. It’s attractive<br />
enough to distract the ear, but the park-andbark<br />
staging does not help.<br />
PARSONS<br />
ROSSINI: Arias<br />
Julia Lezhneva, s; Sinfonia Varsovia/ Marc<br />
Minkowski—Naive 5221—58 minutes<br />
Russian-born Julia Lezhneva is only 22 years<br />
old, yet she has chalked up an impressive<br />
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number of credits, including with the Rossini<br />
festival in Pesaro and master classes given by<br />
the great Rossini interpreter, Teresa Berganza.<br />
I like her; she’s very promising and may well<br />
have a future in Rossini operas.<br />
There is a rich, dark quality to her lyric<br />
soprano that enables her to cope quite well<br />
with the Cenerentola rondo, a mezzo aria. But<br />
her voice can easily manage the uppermost<br />
reaches of the soprano aria without losing<br />
beauty of tone. Hers is indeed a lovely sound<br />
with no awkward glitches. Ms Lezhneva could<br />
use more variety of expression and vocal colors<br />
from time to time. Semiramide’s ‘Bel raggio’,<br />
for example, needs more sparkle. She<br />
sounds very comfortable and confident in<br />
these arias.<br />
Shame on Naive for not making this<br />
recording 15 to 20 minutes longer. Marc<br />
Minkowski, perhaps best known for his<br />
recordings of baroque repertory and classical<br />
and romantic French operas, is a very supportive<br />
colleague. The Sinfonia Varsovia<br />
(Minkowski is its music director) plays with<br />
sparkle and grace for the arias, but sparkle is<br />
only intermittently present in Minkowski’s<br />
sometimes deliberate pacing of the Cenerentola<br />
Overture. Bios, texts, and translations.<br />
MARK<br />
ROSSINI: Petite Messe Solennelle; Dal Tuo<br />
Stellato Soglio<br />
Katia Ricciarelli, Margarita Zimmermann, Jose<br />
Carreras, Samuel Ramey; Craig Sheppard, Paul<br />
Berkowitz, p; Richard Nunn, harmonium;<br />
Ambrosian Singers/ Claudio Scimone<br />
Newton 8802059 [2CD] 85 minutes<br />
Thanks to this release, we now have first-rate<br />
performances of Rossini’s 80-minute oddball<br />
tailored to fit small, medium, and large -sized<br />
tastes. An intimate and jaunty approach was<br />
taken by Rolf Beck and his South German Chorus<br />
on a Berlin issue we liked very much<br />
(Jan/Feb 2001). On a more expansive scale,<br />
there’s Marcus Creed and the 37 singers of his<br />
RIAS Chamber Choir who whisked the work<br />
out of the Paris salon it was written for and<br />
into the concert hall as the band—a pair of<br />
19th Century Pleyels and an 1869 Debain harmonium—played<br />
on. And now, re-entering the<br />
arena, are Maestro Scimone and company<br />
who went before the microphones 28 years<br />
ago to accord Rossini’s original version of the<br />
Mass the most operatically-charged performance<br />
of all.<br />
No question that Scimone’s grand, molto<br />
drammatico approach takes us even further<br />
away from that salon. But the keyboard<br />
accompaniment combined with a tasteful<br />
sense of restraint keeps the work sounding<br />
enough like the liturgical curio Rossini intend-<br />
ed. Besides, it’s all brought off with so much<br />
flair that the finished product is impossible to<br />
resist. Ramey sounds like the voice of God, but<br />
a deity with enough spring in his vocal step to<br />
move smartly through the registers and blend<br />
nicely with his colleagues. Ricciarelli delivers<br />
an attractive ‘O salutaris hostia’, and croons<br />
gorgeously with the mezzo in a gently rippling<br />
‘Qui tollis’. Carreras was very much in “Old<br />
Carreras” form in 1983, delivering his ‘Domine<br />
Deus’ with such power and feeling he could<br />
continue into Verdi’s ‘Ingemisco’ without<br />
missing a step.<br />
I have no idea how many Ambrosians were<br />
on duty for Scimone, but the ensemble sounds<br />
larger than Creed’s. They are very good,<br />
though they don’t convey the spiritually rapt<br />
innigkeit the RIAS choir achieved in the<br />
‘Christe eleison’ when they turned Rossini into<br />
a direct descendant of Palestrina and Byrd. But<br />
their two big fugues—’Cum sancto spiritu’ and<br />
‘Et vitam venturi’—really jump for joy.<br />
Everything sounds terrific, thanks to astute<br />
work from the Erato engineers of yesteryear.<br />
Adding to the joy is a delightfully slushy performance<br />
of the choral prayer from Mose in<br />
Egitto, with Ruggero Raimondi, June Anderson,<br />
Sandra Browne, and Salvatore Fisichella<br />
doing the solo honors. This is where notes and<br />
a libretto (neither is supplied) would have<br />
helped the most.<br />
If I had to pick one reading of the PMS to<br />
live with, it would be Marcus Creed. The harmonium,<br />
which adds so much to the individuality<br />
of the piece, is more prominent there,<br />
plus I like the vivacity of his oratorio-scaled<br />
soloists. Nifty choral touches, such as an imaginative<br />
change of articulation in the middle of<br />
the ‘Et vitam’ counterpoint, help make it extra<br />
special (Harmonia Mundi 901724; July/Aug<br />
2001). But whether you choose small, medium,<br />
or large, do stay with the work in its original<br />
format, which is more distinctive and interesting<br />
than the overblown orchestrated version<br />
Rossini crafted a few years after. That way, the<br />
PMS won’t sound like anything else—as it definitely<br />
shouldn’t.<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
ROTA: Symphony 3; Divertimento Concertante;<br />
Concerto Soiree<br />
Barry Douglas, p; Davide Botto, db; Filarmonica<br />
900/ Gianandrea Noseda<br />
Chandos 10669—62 minutes<br />
I liked Nino Rota’s first two symphonies a lot<br />
for their charm and feel of spring (Chandos<br />
10546, N/D 2009), but most of this program is<br />
disappointing. The Concerto Soiree, for piano<br />
and orchestra, reminds me of one of the magnificent<br />
visual jokes in Val Kilmer’s hilarious<br />
1984 movie Top Secret: German soldiers on<br />
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jeeps and motorcycles are hurriedly leaving a<br />
military compound; on the right side of the<br />
screen, a soldier is flagging them to turn to<br />
your left—until the camera pulls back and<br />
instead of a battalion, you see the same seven<br />
or eight vehicles driving in a circle. When the<br />
Concerto starts, you think, “Oh boy, we’re<br />
going somewhere, somewhere worthwhile”,<br />
but there is repetition instead of development.<br />
The piece reminds me of a lesser version of<br />
Gavin Bryars’s Fiancailles (which I love), but<br />
sunnier, and with oboes; maybe I should like it<br />
on its own terms, but I expect better things of<br />
Rota.<br />
In I of the Divertimento Concertante, for<br />
double bass and orchestra, Rota tried to construct<br />
the melody from arpeggios that should<br />
have been relegated to the cadenza; II, ‘Marcia’,<br />
also over-uses them as thematic material.<br />
III and IV are more interesting, partly because<br />
of a nice climax in III and some fascinating<br />
chromatic turns in IV. But the double bass’s<br />
voice simply isn’t strong enough to carry concerto<br />
material; when I first played this in my<br />
car, it sounded like they recorded the soloist<br />
from backstage.<br />
Symphony No. 3 is much better; it was<br />
written nearly 20 years after the first two symphonies.<br />
It’s neoclassical, with a formally<br />
structured first movement; II is a fetching adagio—what<br />
struck me the most are the trills,<br />
which sound nearly baroque for a few measures,<br />
then turn into something mysterious.<br />
Rota’s writing is tonal but chromatic, and the<br />
symphonies have many interesting ideas and<br />
solid development. I hear little hints of<br />
Prokofieff in his writing, in the lightness of the<br />
music and the puckish orchestration; some of<br />
the harmonic progressions in IV are echoes of<br />
the last movement of Prokofieff’s Classical<br />
Symphony. If you liked Symphonies 1 and 2,<br />
you may like this one even better—there’s<br />
more variety and depth. The sound is excellent,<br />
crisp and rich; there are a few minor intonation<br />
problems, but overall the orchestra<br />
plays quite well. Notes in English, French, and<br />
Italian.<br />
ESTEP<br />
RUDERS: Piano Concerto 2; Bel Canto; Serenade<br />
on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean<br />
Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen, v; Vassily Primakov, p;<br />
Mikko Luoma, acc; iO Qt; Norwegian Radio<br />
Orchestra/ Thomas Sondergard<br />
Bridge 9336—64 minutes<br />
Volume 6 in Bridge’s Poul Ruders series.<br />
The Second Piano Concerto (2009-2010)<br />
opens with a sweet, gentle solo but almost<br />
immediately goes on to nastier business. The<br />
slow movement interrupts meandering diatonic<br />
introspection with hideous blasts of<br />
crassness. The wild finale has cartoon-like<br />
bombast in its outer sections and a brief spell<br />
of that gentle music at its center. “Lots of fun<br />
for everybody”, says the composer.<br />
Bel Canto (2004) is a six-minute solo violin<br />
piece written for that year’s Carl Nielsen Violin<br />
Competition. Essentially lyrical, as the title<br />
suggests, it comes across as a sort of dreamy<br />
cadenza to a nonexistent violin concerto. The<br />
effect is unconvincing.<br />
Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean<br />
(2004), inspired by Carl Sagan, is a nine-movement<br />
suite for accordion and string quartet.<br />
The mostly brief pieces explore the moon, the<br />
sun, and the Milky Way with quotations from<br />
Darwin, Shakespeare, and Sagan himself and a<br />
nod to Joseph Conrad for good measure.<br />
Accordion and string quartet proves an interesting<br />
blend. The music spans a variety of textures<br />
and moods, from explosive (1) to expressive<br />
(5), quietly soulful (6) to grotesque (7).<br />
Ruders has a loyal following. His fans will want<br />
to investigate.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
RUTTER: Gloria; Magnificat; Te Deum<br />
Elizabeth Cragg, s; Tom Winpenny, org; Ensemble<br />
DeChorum, St Alban’s Cathedral Choir/ Andrew<br />
Lucas<br />
Naxos 572653—65 minutes<br />
The Gloria is given a deft performance that’s a<br />
bit too small and careful to rival Rutter’s own.<br />
But the delightful Magnificat is as good as any.<br />
Cleobury (EMI) did it well but this is better;<br />
lighter, brighter, and more sumptuously<br />
recorded. The ‘Esurientes’, which might be the<br />
loveliest Rutter interlude of all, is sung gorgeously<br />
by soprano Elizabeth Cragg. (Cleobury<br />
used a choirboy, with predictably pale results.)<br />
Here the work is heard in the composer’s<br />
scaled-down version for choir, organ, and<br />
chamber orchestra. If the jacket hadn’t mentioned<br />
it, I wouldn’t have noticed. (Or cared,<br />
for that matter.) The 8-minute Te Deum also<br />
goes well. Here’s hoping these folks get a crack<br />
at Rutter’s Requiem with the same engineering<br />
crew in tow. English and Latin texts are supplied.<br />
For the Magnificat, exit Cleobury and<br />
enter Lucas.<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
SAINT-SAENS: Piano Concerto 2;<br />
RACHMANINOFF: Paganini Rhapsody;<br />
LISZT: Hungarian Fantasy<br />
Elisso Bolkvadze, Tbilisi Symphony/ Jansug<br />
Kakhidze<br />
Cascavelle 3151—66 minutes<br />
These recordings have been around for nearly<br />
20 years. They first appeared on Infinity Classics,<br />
a super-budget label created by Sony to<br />
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compete with Pilz, LaserLight, et al. Though<br />
the list price was set at $4.98, they sold in<br />
many stores for as little as $2.99. Cascavelle’s<br />
reissue is at full price.<br />
Is it worth it? Ms Bolkvadze is a competent<br />
pianist, but these are rather dull run-throughs.<br />
In the Saint-Saens II lacks any playfulness,<br />
while III is earthbound. The abysmal Tbilisi<br />
orchestra is at its worst in the Liszt—it plods<br />
lifelessly until the final pages, where Ms Bolkvadze<br />
and Maestro Kakhidze go horribly out of<br />
sync. And there’s nothing very rhapsodic in the<br />
Rachmaninoff, where some glaring orchestral<br />
bloopers give the performance an amateurhour<br />
feel. Perhaps the substandard playing of<br />
the Tbilisi ensemble explains why the balances<br />
are so ridiculous in the Saint-Saens and the<br />
Rachmaninoff. The orchestra sounds like it’s at<br />
the other end of the hall, while the piano is in<br />
your lap.<br />
I’m a firm believer in the theory that<br />
exceptional performances can be found in<br />
unlikely corners, but these are exceptionally<br />
bad.<br />
KOLDYS<br />
SARASATE: Fantasy on Magic Flute; on<br />
Faust; Navarra; Muineiras; Barcarolle Venitienne;<br />
Introduction et Caprice-Jota<br />
Tianwa Yang, v; Navarra Symphony/ Ernest Martinez<br />
Izquierdo<br />
Naxos 572275—59 minutes<br />
In my review of the second volume of this set<br />
(M/A 2008), I described Tianwa Yang’s playing<br />
as “perfect”, a word I reserve for only the rarest<br />
of circumstances and the rarest of violinists. I<br />
have to use it again for this recording. In addition<br />
to perfection, this third volume is full of<br />
surprise and delight; surprise because aside<br />
from ‘Navarra’ all the music is new to me, and<br />
delight because I love it all.<br />
The orchestra is as present as the soloist on<br />
this recording, and Izquierdo brings out all the<br />
delightful details of wind writing in the orchestrations,<br />
particularly in the Mozart Fantasy<br />
and the Faust Fantasy. Yang plays both solo<br />
violin parts in ‘Navarra’, but she does each<br />
using a different Vuillaume violin. One is her<br />
Vuillaume, and the other is the Vuillaume that<br />
Sarasate played. I don’t even want to think<br />
about how Sean Lewis, the remarkable engineer,<br />
was able to make this work. Then again,<br />
he wasn’t working with an ordinary virtuoso or<br />
an ordinary orchestra.<br />
This is the third volume of eight. I’m<br />
already looking forward to Volume 4, which I<br />
hope Yang records with the same orchestra<br />
and engineer.<br />
FINE<br />
SCARLATTI: Sonatas<br />
Alexandre Tharaud, p<br />
Virgin 42016—71 minutes<br />
Tharaud has a supple touch. He allows the<br />
sound of the piano to bloom and breath, especially<br />
in the slower sonatas, where his messa di<br />
voce would make Caccini proud. The fast<br />
sonatas reveal a dissonance between Tharaud<br />
and the instrument. The ceiling of the piano’s<br />
sound and threshold Tharaud (or perhaps<br />
Scarlatti) is pushing toward exist on parallel<br />
lines, most of the time. In K 141, the tension<br />
between the pianist and the piano becomes a<br />
source of inspiration and energy. In that<br />
sonata, Tharaud and the piano meet halfway.<br />
This is an honest recording that does not<br />
whitewash or ignore the peculiar challenges of<br />
performing Scarlatti on the modern piano.<br />
KATZ<br />
SCARLATTI: Sonatas<br />
Alberto Mesirca, g—Paladino 3—80 minutes<br />
Jan Sommer, Per Dybro, g<br />
Scandinavian 220572—56 minutes<br />
Two new releases devoted to Scarlatti transcriptions,<br />
one particularly wonderful. A little<br />
more than a year ago, I reviewed a performance<br />
by Luigi Attademo on Brilliant (M/J<br />
2010) and remarked that entire discs devoted<br />
to Scarlatti on guitar were rather rare. Ask and<br />
ye shall receive. The next issue I got another by<br />
Steven Marchionda (J/A 2010), with a completely<br />
different program and a completely different<br />
approach. Now here are two more, again<br />
with transcriptions mostly by the players, and<br />
only two duplications (K 109 and K 466).<br />
Mesirca’s performance is the best of the<br />
four. Indeed, this the best Scarlatti I’ve ever<br />
heard on solo guitar. It even rivals the magnificent<br />
Assad brothers’ recording on Nonesuch—<br />
and they had the advantage of two guitars.<br />
This is sparkling playing. Passage work is<br />
tossed off effortlessly, no matter how rapid;<br />
ornamentation is graceful and elegant, perfectly<br />
and stylishly realized. He has a wonderful<br />
range of dynamics and color and a flawless<br />
tone. He has obviously listened to Kirkpatrick’s<br />
advice that one should not let the tonal restrictions<br />
of Scarlatti’s harpsichord restrict the<br />
range of expression on an instrument with a<br />
wider palate. He can express melancholy and<br />
mystery when the music requires it, but he is<br />
best in passages of sheer joy and exuberance—<br />
and that, for me, is what Scarlatti does best.<br />
I might have had a more positive response<br />
to the Sommer and Dybro recording if this<br />
weren’t up for a side-to-side review. Their performance<br />
is certainly enjoyable—they also<br />
have a lovely tone and a nice dynamic range.<br />
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Ensemble is good, and they play with ease<br />
except in the most demanding passages, where<br />
they can’t match Mesirca’s virtuosity. Their<br />
approach to ornamentation is old-fashioned—<br />
the sort of thing Segovia might have used. It’s<br />
more 19th Century than baroque, so if that<br />
annoys you, you’d best avoid this release.<br />
Notes are scant, and there is a short bio of<br />
Sommer, though no mention of his partner.<br />
Still, they also have a nice sense of joy here,<br />
and there are few duplications between the<br />
two recordings, so if you love Scarlatti on the<br />
guitar, you won’t regret getting both. But you<br />
certainly should seek out Mesirca’s outstanding<br />
record.<br />
KEATON<br />
SCHARWENKA: Piano Concerto 4;<br />
Mataswintha Overture; Andante Religioso;<br />
Polish National Dances (3)<br />
François Xavier Poizat, Poznan Philharmonic/<br />
Lukasz Borowicz<br />
Naxos 572637—67 minutes<br />
“Energy, harmonic interest, strong rhythm,<br />
many beautiful melodies, and much Polish<br />
national character—all that and much more is<br />
to be found in the music of Franz Xaver Scharwenka”,<br />
writes HV Hamilton in the pages of<br />
Grove’s (Fifth Edition). Reviewing Seta<br />
Tanyel’s Collins CD of Scharwenka’s First<br />
Piano Concerto (July/Aug 1992), Donald<br />
Manildi reminds us that this sort of effusive,<br />
heart-on-sleeve keyboard writing is “an exhilarating<br />
celebration of what the piano can really<br />
sound like when a skilled virtuoso-composer<br />
produces a brilliant vehicle aimed at nothing<br />
more (or less) than the pure enjoyment of<br />
soloist and audience”—a sentiment I was<br />
pleased to echo on reviewing Ms Tanyel’s<br />
splendid follow-up of 2 and 3 five years later<br />
(May/June 1997).<br />
Why then is his music played so seldom in<br />
concert these days? The only piece you’re likely<br />
to recognize from recital programs is the<br />
‘Polish National Dance’, Op. 3:1, one of the<br />
three offered here. Like Rachmaninoff’s Prelude<br />
in C-sharp minor and Paderewski’s Minuet<br />
in G this one piece came to be not only<br />
Scharwenka’s “calling card” but also his curse,<br />
the one piece audiences clamored to hear.<br />
Certainly Scharwenka took great pride in his<br />
Polish heritage; and even when he strays far<br />
from home, as in the tarantella that caps the<br />
Fourth Concerto, his music is always highly<br />
emotional, deeply felt, and by any standard<br />
fully equal to anything by his far better known<br />
compatriots, Chopin and Paderewski.<br />
In the Fourth Concerto Scharwenka compels<br />
attention right away with a massive<br />
orchestral tutti ending with a drum roll—<br />
reversing the order set by Brahms in his D-<br />
minor Concerto—that soon develops into a<br />
melody vaguely redolent of the Dvorak concerto<br />
written some 30 years before. There’s a<br />
broadly nostalgic episode with rippling keyboard<br />
configurations that will no doubt<br />
remind you of Liszt before the opening movement—by<br />
far the longest of the four—closes<br />
out in suitably dramatic style.<br />
The Intermezzo, Allegretto molto tranquillo,<br />
starts out in the manner of a courtly minuet,<br />
with an unmistakable Gallic quality that<br />
suggests Saint-Saens; but it turns quite stormy<br />
midway in, with echoes of the very opening<br />
theme (something of a “motto” apparently)<br />
flailing about with abandon. Somber Wagnerian<br />
trombones introduce the dark Lento,<br />
which allows both soloist and audience time<br />
for respite and reflection before the grumbling<br />
bassoons lead into the finale, where the stark<br />
“motto” is miraculously transformed into a<br />
mercurial tarantella that offers the soloist little<br />
chance to catch his breath, alternating with a<br />
hearty, galumphing secondary theme before<br />
everyone rushes to the final bar, once again<br />
spewing clear Lisztian cascades right and left.<br />
How such a fine piece could remain almost<br />
unknown to modern-day audiences I find difficult<br />
to understand.<br />
And I might add it’s also difficult to understand<br />
why Seta Tanyel never completed her<br />
Scharwenka concerto survey after the great<br />
success of the first two entries. Perhaps that<br />
decision was made for her by Hyperion—who<br />
later reissued 2 and 3 in their “Romantic Piano<br />
Concerto” series (Nov/Dec 2003): they already<br />
had a perfectly good performance by Stephen<br />
Hough in their catalog (Jan/Feb 1996). The two<br />
recordings—not just the performances—could<br />
scarcely be more different. Grenoble-born<br />
pianist François Xaver Poizat may not be a<br />
Pole, but he plays this music as you might<br />
expect Paderewski or maybe even Scharwenka<br />
himself to play it. Certainly the “veritable<br />
orgies of virtuosity” the composer found in the<br />
final tarantella pose no difficulty for Poizat,<br />
and yet at such a reckless pace one can only<br />
marvel that the strings don’t break under the<br />
strain. Hough, without suppressing the boisterous<br />
quality of the music in the least, gives<br />
you just enough space between the notes to<br />
bring out the inherent humor of the dance. An<br />
even clearer distinction may be found whenever<br />
Scharwenka waxes lyrical, as you can hear in<br />
the second subject of the opening movement:<br />
Poizat positively swoons over it, while his<br />
glacial account of the Lento—9:22 next to 7:24<br />
for Hough—turns every melody into a disjointed<br />
series of notes. From a sonic standpoint,<br />
the auditorium of Adam Mickiewicz University<br />
where this recording was made seems fairly<br />
diffuse; certainly Lawrence Foster and his<br />
Birmingham players register with far greater<br />
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effect and detail on Hyperion, while the massive<br />
sound of Hough’s instrument far surpasses<br />
anything put forth by Poizat. (Neither company<br />
identifies the manufacturer, but I’m willing<br />
to bet Hough is playing a Steinway and<br />
Poizat is not.)<br />
Apparently the Polish engineers moved the<br />
mike a lot closer to Poizat when he was playing<br />
the three dances; I programmed them to come<br />
after the ‘Andante Religioso’ and had to jump<br />
up and turn down the sound. More to the<br />
point, why didn’t Naxos have Poizat offer more<br />
of them? (There are 16 in all.) Everyone who<br />
attends solo recitals with any regularity knows<br />
No. 1 (in E-flat minor), a heady mazurka; No. 8<br />
in B-flat minor is charming and coquettish,<br />
and No. 15 in B-flat closes out the program in a<br />
veritable explosion of octave passagework that<br />
like the finale of the concerto would seem to<br />
me as a non-pianist well-nigh impossible, yet<br />
for Poizat is clearly mere child’s play.<br />
Scharwenka’s ‘Andante Religioso’ would<br />
have made a splendid encore or “lollipop” for<br />
Beecham, had he but known of it. It’s the composer’s<br />
own arrangement of the slow movement<br />
from his Cello Sonata for strings divisi,<br />
harp, and organ and may well remind you of<br />
the famous ‘Air on the G String’ from Bach’s<br />
Third Suite. This warmly expressive episode is<br />
played beautifully here by the Poznan strings;<br />
yet once again they are to some extent stymied<br />
by the diffuse engineering and you can hardly<br />
even feel, let alone hear the organ—unlike the<br />
Sterling with Christopher Fifield and the Gävle<br />
Symphony that accompanies the only extant<br />
recording of Scharwenka’s C-minor Symphony<br />
(Sept/Oct 2004).<br />
If you made it all way through our exhaustive<br />
Overview of overtures, it should come as<br />
no surprise that for me the real find here is the<br />
one to Mataswintha, Scharwenka’s only opera,<br />
perhaps dating from the late 1890s when the<br />
composer opened up a branch of his highly<br />
esteemed Berlin school of music in New York<br />
City. But despite great critical praise when it<br />
played at the Met, it soon faded into oblivion.<br />
It opens amid evocative horn calls and builds<br />
to a grand chorale in the brass before ebbing<br />
once again very much in the manner of Lohengrin.<br />
I’m happy to finally set aside my ancient<br />
aircheck with the Detroit Symphony under<br />
Karl Krueger, as this marvelous account by the<br />
Poznan players is all anyone could ask for.<br />
HALLER<br />
SCHMITT: Piano Quintet; A Tour d’Anches<br />
Berlin Soloists Ensemble<br />
Naxos 570489—74 minutes<br />
Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) avoided labels of<br />
all sorts. His early music, like this piano quintet,<br />
reminds me of a Gallic Richard Strauss: the<br />
three movements in the 58-minute work bristle<br />
with thematic material and dense, sinewy<br />
polyphonic textures. A Tour d’Anches (1939-<br />
43)—for piano, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon—is<br />
more spare, less chromatic, and very witty. It’s<br />
hard to imagine two pieces from the same<br />
composer that differ as much as these.<br />
The performances and sound engineering<br />
are first-rate, and Naxos’s price makes the disc<br />
a justifiable frivolous purchase for people<br />
looking slightly off the beaten path for early<br />
20th Century French music.<br />
HASKINS<br />
SCHMITT: La Tragedie de Salomé; Psalm<br />
47; Le Palais Hanté<br />
Sao Paulo Symphony & Choir/ Yan Pascal Tortelier—Chandos<br />
5090 [SACD] 68 minutes<br />
Yan Pascal Tortelier and the Sao Paulo<br />
Symphony (he’s now their Principal Conductor)<br />
are, it must be said, coming to the table<br />
rather late with their pairing of Florent Schmitt’s<br />
Tragedie de Salome and the blockbuster<br />
Psalm 47 previously coupled by Thierry Fischer<br />
for Hyperion (Mar/Apr 2008), Marek<br />
Janowski on Warner (Jan/Feb 2007; Sept/Oct<br />
1990) and before them Jean Martinon for<br />
EMI—the gold standard for anyone wanting to<br />
have both works on one CD. Nor has Salomé<br />
exactly gone begging, with separate recordings<br />
by Paul Paray (Mercury; Mar/Apr 1995, p 229),<br />
Antonio de Almeida (ReDiscovery; was RCA)<br />
and more recently Sascha Goetzel (Onyx;<br />
July/Aug 2010) and Yannick Nezet-Seguin<br />
(May/June 2011).<br />
What does this Salomé have that the others<br />
don’t? Well, more singers for one thing. In the<br />
atmospheric central episode, ‘Les Enchantements<br />
sur la Mer’ Schmitt calls for a haunting<br />
siren call from the abyss, and many recordings<br />
offer a distant soprano voice—among them<br />
Fischer, Martinon, Janowski, and De Almeida.<br />
Yet it would appear the composer encouraged<br />
multiple voices, and so here we have a cohort<br />
of two sopranos and six mezzos whose wonderfully<br />
evocative melisma suggests that the<br />
Aurora Borealis (or some Eastern counterpart)<br />
has somehow taken human form. (Paray,<br />
Nezet-Seguin, and Goetzel substitute an oboe,<br />
also sanctioned by the composer, though considerably<br />
less effective.) In such serene<br />
imagery Tortelier is clearly in his element, and<br />
the concluding ‘Danse des Eclairs’ and ‘Danse<br />
de l’Effroi’ at his torrential pace could have<br />
been mightily effective were it not for the<br />
immensely resonant Sao Paulo hall that swallows<br />
up all manner of critical detail, including<br />
(I’m sorry to say) the forceful low brass that<br />
you can hear far better on most other recordings.<br />
Tortelier really presses his men until<br />
things threaten to get out of hand, and in the<br />
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final pages they pretty much do. If it’s Salomé<br />
you’re after, oboe or not, it’s the Paray I return<br />
to most often, while for many listeners Fischer’s<br />
sumptuous sound may trump his languorous<br />
tempos.<br />
But if Salomé is all you know, the massive<br />
spectacle that is Psaume 47 will surely come as<br />
a revelation. Mr Hansen’s awestruck description<br />
(in his review of the Hyperion) is just as<br />
over the top as the music: “blazing brass fanfares,<br />
thundering organ, pounding drums, cascading<br />
strings, and exuberant chorus”—I wish<br />
you could hear all that in this recording. But<br />
even more than Salomé, Psaume 47 is rendered<br />
as a thrilling, yet thoroughly homogeneous<br />
wash of sound, with wind detail all but<br />
indistinguishable and the choir totally incomprehensible<br />
even with libretto in hand. You<br />
hear trumpets to the left of you, trumpets to<br />
the right of you, but what the other players<br />
might be doing is anyone’s guess—at least<br />
played over a normal CD player. Maybe SACD<br />
sorts everything out, but why make the non-<br />
SACD owner pay for a poor miking job?<br />
I switched to the Hyperion and heard so<br />
much more; indeed even at more measured<br />
tempos Thierry Fischer makes this the thrilling<br />
experience it’s supposed to be. Even the<br />
Janowski (at considerably faster tempos) that<br />
dates back to 1989 and suffered from horribly<br />
phlegmatic sound on Erato sounds better than<br />
this in Warner’s radically superior remastering<br />
that Mr French praised to the skies—and on<br />
buying the remake after reading his review I<br />
must enthusiastically concur. Yet for me all<br />
pale next to Jean Martinon’s driving and<br />
immensely exciting EMI (49748) that goes all<br />
the way back to 1973 and boasts some truly<br />
heroic organ playing from Gaston Litaize. I’ll<br />
grant you Martinon’s solo violinist in the<br />
almost sinfully rich central section cannot<br />
match Fischer’s lustrous soloist, who might<br />
even rival the fair Scheherazade; still, he seems<br />
rather more seductive than Tortelier’s man. In<br />
the ensuing vocal solo both Fischer’s Jennifer<br />
Walker and Martinon’s Andrea Guiot are more<br />
fresh-voiced and buoyant than the matronly<br />
Susan Bullock heard here. (It’s odd that neither<br />
the Chandos nor the Warner translation<br />
bears any relation whatever to the French<br />
words proclaiming our Lord’s great love for<br />
Jacob. The others get it right.) If you’re fortunate<br />
enough to have the Martinon in your collection,<br />
hang onto it.<br />
Filling out the program is something of a<br />
rarity, the evocative essay Le Palais Hanté (The<br />
Haunted Palace) after Edgar Allen Poe, setting<br />
a poem that the tortured Roderick sings to the<br />
strains of a guitar in Poe’s masterpiece, The<br />
Fall of the House of Usher. In his never-completed<br />
opera on the subject Debussy included<br />
the poem, and you may have the EMI under<br />
Georges Prêtre that combined the Schmitt and<br />
Debussy essays with André Caplet’s Masque de<br />
la Mort Rouge (Masque of the Red Death)<br />
(Jan/Feb 1994). Much of it is gloomy and pensive,<br />
as you would expect from Poe, beginning<br />
with an almost Tristanesque sound and a soliloquy<br />
from the bass clarinet that clearly<br />
presages Salomé; sudden outbursts alternate<br />
with a broadly lyrical passage that lulls the<br />
King and his court into complacency, before<br />
“evil things, in robes of sorrow” storm the<br />
palace in force, “a hideous throng (that) rush<br />
out forever and laugh—but smile no more”.<br />
While sonics could be more pellucid, the dark,<br />
dank colors perfectly suit this music, and<br />
Tortelier at far more gripping tempos creates a<br />
frisson of excitement, a tingling along your<br />
spine that Prêtre with his relentless treatment<br />
and crude ensemble cannot begin to match.<br />
You may come to the feast for Salomé or<br />
Psaume 47; but Tortelier’s marvelously atmospheric<br />
Palais Hanté is the real main course of<br />
this repast.<br />
HALLER<br />
SCHNITTKE: Concerto for Chorus;<br />
Requiem; 2 Organ Pieces<br />
Daniel Munkholm Bruun, org; Hymnia Chamber<br />
Choir/ Flemming Windekilde<br />
Scandinavian 220591 [2CD] 84 minutes<br />
The Choir Concerto is Schnittke’s true choral<br />
masterwork—a set of four Lamentations<br />
inspired by the writing of Gregory of Narek, a<br />
10th Century Armenian poet. Some of the<br />
time, the composer is busy creating great,<br />
imposing walls of sound in the manner of<br />
Rachmaninoff and other composers in the<br />
grand tradition of the Eastern church. Elsewhere,<br />
he’s fashioning grating dissonances<br />
from which participants break off, leaving<br />
stiller, smaller voices in their wake. It is, in<br />
short, an echt Russian work requiring the full<br />
Slavonic treatment—which, frankly, it doesn’t<br />
get from this small (25 singers), capable, distantly<br />
recorded Danish choir.<br />
For the real thing, head for Valery Polyansky<br />
and the Russian State Symphonic Cappella<br />
(Chandos 9332, July/Aug 1995) who continue<br />
to trump the field. A more recent one comes<br />
from New York’s Choir of St Ignatius Loyola<br />
(MSR 1251, Sept/Oct 2009) who do some terrific<br />
things with the music and are caught in rich,<br />
reverberant sound that dwarfs the engineering<br />
accorded these earnest but overmatched<br />
Danes.<br />
More enticing is the 36-minute Requiem<br />
scored for choir, soloists, a pair of trumpets,<br />
electric guitar and bass, celeste, organ, piano,<br />
and percussion. Again there’s a better performance<br />
to be had; a real hair-raiser from the<br />
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Swedish Radio Choir under Tonu Kaljuste on<br />
Caprice 2515 (July/Aug 1996). But this one has<br />
its moments too, with eerie, sometimes menacing<br />
sounds emanating from a murky sound<br />
stage that actually adds to the atmosphere of<br />
the performance. If this ‘Dies Irae’ doesn’t<br />
make you jump, dial 911. The two bits for<br />
organ are pretty much along for the ride. (I<br />
guess even the King of Instruments gets stuck<br />
with some busywork now and again.)<br />
Brief, perfunctory notes are included, but<br />
texts and translations are not. What we get,<br />
then, is one-stop shopping for two worthy<br />
contemporary pieces. While neither performance<br />
is a first choice, some might appreciate<br />
the convenience.<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
SCHNITTKE: Sketches<br />
Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra/ Andrei Chistiakov<br />
Brilliant 9215—52 minutes<br />
Listening to the music from the 1985 ballet<br />
Sketches (Esquisses) is like watching Terrence<br />
Malick’s film The Tree of Life, a kaleidoscope of<br />
sounds (images) but mercifully minus the portentous,<br />
inflated moralizing. In other words,<br />
Schnittke knows enough not to take himself<br />
seriously.<br />
The liner notes describe the music best. It’s<br />
based on characters from Gogol, “common<br />
and petty, trashy, filthy, with everything that<br />
has been crumpled and bruised and thrown<br />
into the street”. It involves “the abundant use<br />
of the most widely known dance types and the<br />
introduction of grotesque variants of the intonations<br />
of Russian urban folk music. The<br />
orchestra is handled with inexhaustible imagination.<br />
The usual instruments are supplemented<br />
with two electric guitars (solo and<br />
bass), a flexatone, and a prepared piano.”<br />
The essentially tonal music couldn’t help<br />
but (1) make my feet tap and (2) make me<br />
laugh out loud at the incredible display of<br />
imaginative sounds—electric organ (or was it<br />
guitar or flexatone?), percussion (tuned or otherwise),<br />
little blips, squeaks, honks, piano glissandos,<br />
etc., as the music swirls with waltzes,<br />
marches, comical shifts of tempo, hilarious<br />
rubatos, quotes from Beethoven, Mozart, and<br />
Tchaikovsky, and on and on. Sometimes it<br />
reminded me of Shostakovich’s airy suites,<br />
sometimes of the entrance to the Shrovetide<br />
Fair parade in Petrouchka.<br />
Sketches is an entertainment; each of the<br />
22 movements is played with consummate<br />
styles (plural) as Chistiakov and his superb<br />
orchestra give marvelous flow and form to<br />
each section, no matter how short. <strong>Record</strong>ed<br />
in Moscow in 1996, the engineering is ripe and<br />
balanced, even with the electric instruments.<br />
Yes, my mind began to wander after about 40<br />
minutes, but so what! Here’s the perfect budget-priced<br />
album for the person who thinks he<br />
knows it all, thinks he has everything, or is in<br />
need of a good laugh. I’d love to see what Mark<br />
Morris would do with this ballet!<br />
FRENCH<br />
SCHOENBERG: Quartet 3; Scherzo in F;<br />
Presto in C; Chamber Symphony<br />
Prazak Quartet; Jaromir Klepac, p<br />
Praga 255 278 [SACD] 65 minutes<br />
It always strikes me to hear the voice of the<br />
immortal master (Schoenberg) composing<br />
such brilliance in the idioms that he was so<br />
intent on destroying. This is certainly the Viennese<br />
Schoenberg. Both the Scherzo and Presto<br />
are fine examples of the German tradition that<br />
he so loved—a German spirit that he could not<br />
stand to be without, a German idiom that he<br />
was so passionately trying to transform. Yet, as<br />
Schoenberg left the musical language and<br />
structure he inherited, I hear, especially in the<br />
Third Quartet, a reluctance to lose a part of<br />
himself—a culture, a tradition, a community, a<br />
sense of belonging.<br />
The Scherzo is a masterly example of counterpoint<br />
and tonal sophistication. The Presto is<br />
an obvious homage to Beethoven, playful and<br />
bursting with joy and brilliance. The Chamber<br />
Symphony Op.9, arranged by Webern in 1923<br />
for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano<br />
(played here by string quartet and piano) is<br />
another youthful work that is more reflective<br />
of a romantic tradition. While the richness of a<br />
Brahms symphony seems to set the landscape,<br />
the obsessive counterpoint and piercingly<br />
rhythmic gestures assault (beautifully) and<br />
interrupt the romantic “idea”, if you will; yet,<br />
the synthesis of this internalized argument<br />
creates a harmonic wholeness and unity.<br />
The Third Quartet is the piece that points<br />
out most clearly Schoenberg’s struggle to<br />
understand the two worlds that he composed<br />
in and his refusal to accept how incredibly<br />
similar they were.<br />
The Prazak Quartet is lustrous and highly<br />
distinguished in these performances. I review<br />
the Fred Sherry Quartet below, and both<br />
ensembles give ground-breaking performances<br />
of this piece. I am more taken by Fred<br />
Sherry Quartet in the Intermezzo, while the<br />
Prazak projects a melancholy in first movement<br />
that I think is missing with Fred Sherry<br />
Quartet. Regardless, both performances are<br />
spectacular. Naxos is certainly more of a bargain,<br />
but the Scherzo and Presto are also a<br />
must.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
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SCHOENBERG: Quartets 3+4; Phantasy<br />
Fred Sherry Quartet; Rolf Schulte, v; Christopher<br />
Oldfather, p<br />
Naxos 557533—75 minutes<br />
Naxos has been recording Schoenberg for<br />
quite some time with Robert Craft. While I<br />
enjoy the reasonable pricing and their commitment<br />
to making classical music more<br />
accessible, they are hit or miss, especially with<br />
Schoenberg. Here we have one of their latest,<br />
and it is a hit!<br />
Before I listen, I think of the difficulty of<br />
this music and the level of musicianship that is<br />
required just to get through it. To then hear the<br />
Fred Sherry Quartet take this music to a level<br />
that is clearly beyond notes is a joy. Everything<br />
about 3 is perfect. The articulation in the Intermezzo<br />
is some of the most driven, clear, and<br />
crisp I have ever heard. The Rondo is a transcendent<br />
moment that I think many musicians<br />
dream of only achieving once. These musicians<br />
certainly do. Their playing is filled with<br />
life, determination, and uncompromising<br />
drive. They know what they want, and I fear, as<br />
I listen, that the unapologetic character of<br />
Schoenberg will get the best of them, whether<br />
technically or rhetorically—yet it never happens.<br />
They own this music.<br />
Cellist Fred Sherry is remarkable, but the<br />
entire group is a stunning example of what<br />
musicians can do with this music. The opening<br />
of 4 leaves me shaken. Also on this disc is the<br />
Phantasy for Violin and Piano Accompaniment.<br />
I am not sure why. The playing is nice<br />
enough, but I am not moved by it in the slightest.<br />
The engineering is superb.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
SCHOENBERG: Transfigured Night;<br />
see BRAHMS;<br />
Variations; see TCHAIKOVSKY<br />
SCHOENDORFF: La Dolce Vista Mass;<br />
Usquequo Domine Mass; Magnificat Sexti<br />
Toni; Veni Sancte Spiritus; Te Decet Hymnus;<br />
DE MONTE: La Dolce Vista; Usquequo<br />
Domine; Magnificat Quarti Toni<br />
Cinquecento Renaissance Vokal<br />
Hyperion 67854—60 minutes<br />
Although Philipp Schoendorff (1565-c. 1617)<br />
was only a child when he left his native Liege<br />
in the 1570s, he was following a generationslong<br />
tradition among his countrymen. We<br />
often read about the great Netherlandish exodus<br />
of musicians who headed to Italy in this<br />
era to seek their fame and fortune, but the<br />
imperial court in Vienna was also a common<br />
destination. For some 30 years Schoendorff<br />
served three successive emperors as a singer,<br />
trumpeter, and composer. While in Vienna,<br />
Schoendorff studied with senior musicians at<br />
court who also hailed from Liege and its environs.<br />
This accounts for Schoendorff’s complete<br />
grasp of the Netherlandish polyphonic<br />
style that we hear on this recording. The program<br />
includes two of Schoendorff’s early parody<br />
Masses, a five-voice Magnificat, and settings<br />
based on chant of ‘Veni Sancte Spiritus’<br />
and ‘Te Decet Hymnus’.<br />
The programmatic connection between<br />
Schoendorff and Philippe de Monte on this<br />
release illustrates a crucial relationship<br />
between these composers and their music. As<br />
the youngest composer at court, Schoendorff<br />
appears to have been eager to honor the imperial<br />
chapel master by parodying his compositions<br />
in his two masses. De Monte’s madrigal<br />
‘La Dolce Vista’ from 1569 is the model for one,<br />
and his motet ‘Usquequo Domine’ from 1587<br />
is the source for the other.<br />
Cinquecento Renaissance Vokal performs<br />
De Monte’s polyphonic models and Schoendorff’s<br />
parody masses in sequence in order to<br />
give us the best view of the connection between<br />
the works. The parody is most obvious<br />
at the beginning of the mass movements. Otherwise,<br />
the masses are quite independent of<br />
their models.<br />
The singing here is absolutely gorgeous.<br />
This group demonstrates their grasp of the<br />
Netherlandish polyphonic style in their facility<br />
with this dense material. Like master weavers,<br />
they handle the delicate interplay between<br />
contrapuntal parts and dovetailing with perfect<br />
ease. The shifts that occur between<br />
polyphony and homophony are also handled<br />
quite organically—that is, they show in their<br />
pleasing phrases how one texture grows naturally<br />
out of the other. Notes and texts are in<br />
English.<br />
LOEWEN<br />
SCHUBERT: Piano Sonatas, D 537+664;<br />
Wanderer Fantasy<br />
Eldar Nebolsin<br />
Naxos 572459—62 minutes<br />
It takes a few moments for the ear to adjust to<br />
the in-your-face, brittle, and strident sonics<br />
supplied by the Naxos engineers. Once acclimated,<br />
these are pleasant, straightforward<br />
Schubert performances. Nebolsin certainly has<br />
the technique and musicality not to be thwarted<br />
by any of the composer’s daunting challenges.<br />
The Allegretto quasi andantino from D 537<br />
is particularly felicitous, and the final Allegro<br />
vivace has sparkling articulation. The same<br />
can be said for D 664, but the aggressive sound<br />
does tend to get in the way.<br />
The famous Wanderer Fantasy, long a<br />
favorite of pianists, is played with vigor and<br />
stunning control, especially in the more taxing<br />
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passages. Nebolsin is able to move ahead<br />
without slowing down for the real challenges,<br />
especially in the concluding fugal Allegro. But<br />
despite some fine playing, this is really not that<br />
competitive given the superior sound of many<br />
other performances.<br />
BECKER<br />
SCHUBERT: Symphonies, all<br />
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields/ Marriner<br />
Newton 8002033 [6CD] 365 minutes<br />
The heading here understates the case. This is<br />
not only all of Schubert’s symphonies, it’s all<br />
plus. Thanks to Brian Newbould, we get not<br />
only the canonical 8 (1-6, 8 and 9), but Symphony<br />
7, Symphony 10, and a pair of substantial<br />
symphonic fragments. This means that you<br />
are going to wind up buying two more discs<br />
than usual for a Schubert symphony set, but<br />
Newton has issued this set at a very modest<br />
price ($29 or so), so why think twice? You can<br />
probably get Karajan’s set of Schubert symphonies<br />
for about $19, Böhm’s for about the<br />
same price, Barenboim for about $30, Abbado<br />
about $23, and Harnoncourt’s for $19 used<br />
and $32 new.<br />
I wanted to write this review in a way that<br />
put Marriner in perspective in performance<br />
style with detailed comparisons, but realized<br />
that this wasn’t necessary. This could be summarized<br />
in a useful way.<br />
The Academy, although founded without<br />
record label support in 1959, has functioned as<br />
the de facto house ensemble for a series of<br />
record labels since the early 1960s. Under Marriner,<br />
a violinist from the London Symphony<br />
who studied conducting with Pierre Monteux,<br />
it developed a kind of generalized style:<br />
streamlined, really well played, superficially<br />
exciting, emotionally cool. It also gathered<br />
very skilled players who could record almost<br />
anything in one or two takes, which meant that<br />
the recording process was very efficient. And<br />
so the Academy with its streamlined style<br />
prospered.<br />
Schubert is a composer whose works<br />
encompass almost Rossini-like lightness and<br />
motor rhythms and deep feeling expressed in<br />
strange harmonies and song-like melodic<br />
lines.<br />
Marriner is fine with the extroverted side of<br />
Schubert, and his orchestra is really quite<br />
good. He blows Böhm (who is mostly dull and<br />
pedantic) and Barenboim (who goes back and<br />
forth among slack, too aggressive, and too portentous)<br />
out of the water. He doesn’t match<br />
the sheer joy of the early symphonies or the<br />
power of the late ones under Karajan or the<br />
odd, but compelling rhetoric of the Harnoncourt<br />
performances (not to mention the charm<br />
of individual performances by the likes of<br />
Beecham and Walter); but as a mainstream,<br />
plain-vanilla set of Schubert symphonies, this<br />
is more than acceptable.<br />
The two extra symphonies don’t add much<br />
to the picture. The notes, oddly enough, ignore<br />
them. Both have lovely melodies and striking<br />
harmonies. Most haunting to me is the last<br />
movement of 10, which seems to come from<br />
the haunted world of late Schubert, but all too<br />
often the music just doesn’t sound like Schubert.<br />
It sounds like some odd mixture of<br />
Beethoven and Weber, the next channel over<br />
from real Schubert. Newbould has Schubert’s<br />
orchestral language down nicely, but the<br />
music itself sounds not-quite-cooked.<br />
Symphony 8 is no longer unfinished here.<br />
There’s a scherzo that’s nothing special and a<br />
finale drawn from the Rosamunde music.<br />
The fragments are more of the same: some<br />
striking ideas, some good orchestration—not<br />
quite there, though one of them is practically a<br />
symphony in its own right.<br />
My sense of the fragments is that I understand<br />
why they weren’t finished. Newbould<br />
speaks Schubert’s language, but that doesn’t<br />
mean that what he has found is necessarily<br />
worth saying.<br />
If you can have only one set of the Schubert<br />
symphonies, go for Karajan, or perhaps<br />
Abbado. This set is a good backup for the extra<br />
materials and decent, but unremarkable performances<br />
of the standard works.<br />
CHAKWIN<br />
SCHUBERT: Symphony 9<br />
Budapest Festival Orchestra/ Ivan Fischer<br />
Channel 31111 [SACD] 69:47<br />
Flemish Philharmonic/ Philippe Herreweghe<br />
Pentatone 5186372 [SACD] 57:49<br />
The timing reflects the fill on the Channel disc:<br />
five German Dances. The Ninth takes Ivan Fischer<br />
about 55 minutes.<br />
Mr Fischer has entered the ranks of “period<br />
performance practice” lately. Here he has<br />
fussed over natural horns, narrow-bore trombones,<br />
and small C clarinets—and, naturally,<br />
there is no vibrato and no legato. The playing<br />
is stark and raw and detached. There is no<br />
warmth, polish, or expression. The violins<br />
squeak where they should sing. The recording<br />
is cold and dry.<br />
Mr Herreweghe always had one foot in the<br />
PPP world, so it is no surprise that he also<br />
encourages detached playing with little<br />
warmth or expression. But he has a big advantage<br />
in the hall—Queen Elisabeth Hall in<br />
Antwerp. It puts a nice halo of space around<br />
the instruments, and the lack of vibrato here is<br />
much less distressing than with Mr Fischer. In<br />
fact, it sounds to me as if the orchestra plays its<br />
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usual instruments and sometimes falls back on<br />
normal playing habits, too—including some<br />
vibrato and expression. The interpretation can<br />
still be stark and plosive, though—and Herreweghe<br />
is nothing if not eccentric.<br />
Both take so many repeats in the Scherzo<br />
that you end up screaming. Will they ever get<br />
to that lovely trio? We’re talking three or four<br />
minutes longer than ALL the traditional<br />
recordings. Fischer’s I is fast; Herreweghe’s<br />
Andante (II) is fast.<br />
Neither will please anyone who likes the<br />
rich Viennese interpretations of people like<br />
Böhm and Walter and Furtwangler. In fact, I<br />
can’t figure out whom they will please. I would<br />
never have grown to love this music if this<br />
were the way I had heard it.<br />
SCHUMANN: Album For the Young<br />
Alessandra Ammara, p<br />
Arts 47756 [SACD] 74 minutes<br />
VROON<br />
Consisting of 43 short pieces for children, this<br />
might seem a strange choice for her second<br />
Schumann album. While other recordings<br />
exist, some quite good, these gentle, uncomplicated<br />
essays require advocacy, sensitivity,<br />
and determination not to make of them more<br />
than they are. Of course, what pianist can forget<br />
early learning days wrestling with ‘Wild<br />
Horseman’ or ‘Happy Farmer’?<br />
As with her other new Schumann disc<br />
(below), this one gives us a first-rate view of<br />
these simple, but not simplistic pieces. The<br />
sound is mellow and cozy, Roberto Prosseda’s<br />
notes superior to much of what passes these<br />
days. Score another for Ammara: I cannot<br />
think of a recording I would recommend<br />
before this one.<br />
BECKER<br />
SCHUMANN: Carnaval; Davidsbundlertanze<br />
Alessandra Ammara, p<br />
Arts 47755 [SACD] 69 minutes<br />
A plush, warm, and cozy sound from the engineers.<br />
It falls gratefully on the ear, but does<br />
require a substantial volume boost to make its<br />
full effect. As with Ammara’s recording of<br />
Chopin’s Ballads, her Schumann playing is<br />
really something special—something to make<br />
one sit up and take notice. Dynamic contrasts<br />
abound, and she often makes use of subito<br />
piano (suddenly soft). Since she has the rare<br />
ability to let the piano speak at very low volumes,<br />
few would be troubled by her refined,<br />
but certainly not understated performance.<br />
With always clear and undistorted playing,<br />
total avoidance of artifice, and plentiful color,<br />
the full nature of Carnaval blooms most beautifully.<br />
With spare use of pedal, the left hand<br />
sounds in bold relief. Nothing is ever blurred,<br />
and Schumann’s character studies sound ever<br />
fresh. Individual sections, such as ‘Reconnaissance’<br />
and ‘Pantalon et Colombine’, are amazing<br />
feats of technical control; and Ammara’s<br />
judicious use of rubato could serve as a model<br />
of how to do it without affectation. This Carnaval<br />
will make you smile, admire, and wonder<br />
that something new to say about an old<br />
brew is still possible.<br />
Davidsbundlertanze, once rarely performed,<br />
has been making its presence felt<br />
more often in the past several decades. To<br />
Ammara, the finale of Carnaval ‘Marche des<br />
Davidsbundler’ has a direct relationship to<br />
these dances and seems almost a lead in to the<br />
work. Her approach is similar though more<br />
reflective, and her playing endlessly fascinating<br />
as this once dormant major composition<br />
takes on a new life.<br />
While her gentle caressing of the individual<br />
dances sets out in new directions, there is no<br />
lack of tension or forward momentum. This is<br />
the Schumann of multiple personalities and<br />
emotions laid bare for us to explore and discover<br />
for ourselves. No matter how many performances<br />
you already might have of these<br />
works, the special treasures you will find here<br />
are of unique value. The notes are perceptive,<br />
and the sound beyond reproach. Dare I ask for<br />
more Schumann?<br />
BECKER<br />
SCHUMANN: Dichterliebe; Liederkreis, op<br />
24;<br />
SCHUMANN,C: 3 Songs<br />
Maximilian Schmitt, t; Gerold Huber, p<br />
Oehms 819—57 minutes<br />
Maximilian Schmitt is a young German tenor<br />
with a few recordings to his credit (Haydn Creation<br />
under Jacobs and the St Matthew Passion<br />
with Chailly), but this is his first solo recital.<br />
This program is tied together by the poetry—<br />
all pieces have a text by Heine. Schmitt has an<br />
especially lovely voice, well controlled and<br />
even from top to bottom. He sings the songs<br />
beautifully, well in tune, and with fine diction.<br />
The problem for me is that he rarely goes<br />
beyond the goal of beautiful singing to color<br />
his sound and bring more of the emotional<br />
message home. There is too little sense of<br />
regret at love lost, too little acknowledgement<br />
that so much of Heine is ironic. The poet leads<br />
you in one direction, then devastates you with<br />
some kind of twist. Here’s an example (condensed)<br />
from Dichterliebe:<br />
When I look into your eyes,<br />
All my cares disappear.<br />
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But when you say: “I love you”,<br />
Then I must cry bitterly.<br />
Ironic twists like this need to be reflected<br />
by the singer, and my sense is that Schmitt<br />
hasn’t lived with this music long enough.<br />
Nonetheless, this is such a lovely voice that I’m<br />
sure we’ll hear from him more in the future,<br />
and I look forward to his development. The<br />
accompaniments by Gerold Huber are detailed<br />
and supply a lot of the commentary I missed in<br />
the singer. Bilingual notes, but in view of the<br />
importance of Heine’s texts it is unfortunate<br />
the poems are not translated. Should you look<br />
for this recording, it carries the title Trämend<br />
Wandle ich bei Tag.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
SCHUMANN: Manfred<br />
Martin Schwab (Manfred), Sigrid Plundrich<br />
(Astarte), Michelle Breedt (Nemesis), Johannes<br />
Chum (Chamois Hunter), Florian Boesch (Abbot),<br />
Vienna Singverein, Tonkunstler Orchestra/ Bruno<br />
Weil<br />
Preiser 90788 [SACD] 69 minutes<br />
When it comes to romanticism, we love its<br />
paintings and music, but except for scholars,<br />
most of its literature is truly a closed book. An<br />
instance would be Lord Byron. It’s hard nowadays<br />
to imagine even bookworms slogging<br />
through his more ambitious poetic concoctions,<br />
or that they were once best-sellers. His<br />
Manfred, though little read now, inspired a<br />
slew of composers from Tchaikovsky to<br />
Friedrich Nietzsche and, of course, Robert<br />
Schumann. This record has his complete incidental<br />
music to Byron’s dramatic poem.<br />
Schumann’s overture has always been<br />
considered one of his masterpieces, but much<br />
of the rest of the music is also on a high plane,<br />
including ‘The Exorcism of the Spirits’ and<br />
‘Ahriman’s Hymn’. Schumann used his most<br />
colorful orchestra, including the piccolo, English<br />
horn, tuba, and harp with impressive and<br />
expressive results. (The myth that Schumann<br />
couldn’t orchestrate deserved a stake through<br />
its heart 150 years ago.) The cowbells in the<br />
Alpine Cowherd’s solo, however, are studio<br />
additions, and not for the better—they distinctly<br />
sound like brake-drums.<br />
The orchestral playing is sensitive to Schumann’s<br />
style, with good tone quality. Weil conducts<br />
with fine phrasing and sensitive dynamic<br />
shading. The solo singers are competent. Martin<br />
Schwab narrates with sincere feeling and<br />
clear diction. The spoken text, which only<br />
takes about 15 minutes, is an adaptation of<br />
Byron by the German writer Christian Lackner.<br />
For what it’s worth, my German isn’t that<br />
great, but I was still able to follow the action<br />
from the notes and performance. An English<br />
text is supposedly available from<br />
www.tonkuenstler.at/manfred, but, as often<br />
happens on websites, you have to clear away a<br />
jungle of PR kudzu. I found it easier simply to<br />
bring up Byron’s original on Google.<br />
O’CONNOR<br />
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto; Introduction<br />
& Allegro Appassionato;<br />
LISZT: Piano Concerto 2<br />
Etsuko Hirose; Orchestre de Pau Pays de Bearn/<br />
Faycal Karoui<br />
Mirare 135—68 minutes<br />
Pau is a French commune on the northern<br />
edge of the Pyrenees. It is the capital of the<br />
Bearn region and only 50 Km from the Spanish<br />
border. In addition, they have a particularly<br />
fine orchestra—not a big one in the string<br />
department, but impressive in all other ways.<br />
Their French <strong>conductor</strong>, Faycal Karoui, has<br />
been with them since 2002 and has largely<br />
been credited for the orchestra’s excellence.<br />
Japanese pianist Etsuko Hirose won First<br />
Prize at the Martha Argerich Competition in<br />
1999, which launched her solo career. Armed<br />
with this information it only remains to play<br />
the recording and be transfixed, as I was, by<br />
performances that enter into an enchanted<br />
land, reserved for a very few.<br />
Liszt’s Piano Concerto 2 is not always the<br />
easiest concerto to bring off. The form, sometimes<br />
referred to as “The adventures of a<br />
melody”, requires the utmost in phrasing ability,<br />
control of rubato, and delicacy of tonal<br />
palette. While it treads close to bombast, in the<br />
right hands it never crosses into that realm.<br />
Hirose knows just what to do and when to do<br />
it. Her performance, aided by Karoui’s control<br />
of his glorious sounding ensemble, sends this<br />
right to the top, alongside Richter—but with<br />
superior sound. All of the poetry, the composer’s<br />
extraordinary creative genius, and the<br />
life-giving force of the music is realized to a<br />
degree rarely experienced.<br />
Schumann’s concerto is, in the eyes of<br />
many, the quintessential romantic piano concerto.<br />
Over the years it has been fortunate, as<br />
many artists have revealed its secrets. Hirose is<br />
among those who have been able to accomplish<br />
this, and the Pau orchestra has given her<br />
ideal accompaniment—from the sweet, supple<br />
clarinet solos to the expressive and true intonation<br />
of the strings. The gentle qualities of the<br />
music have been revealed by Leon Fleisher,<br />
Stephen Kovacevich, Wilhelm Kempff, Dinu<br />
Lipatti, and Radu Lupu, to name several that<br />
come to mind first.<br />
As an added incentive, Hirose includes<br />
Schumann’s Introduction and Allegro Appassionato<br />
in a performance of near incomparable<br />
loveliness. Special kudos to the first clarinet<br />
and French horn in their exquisite open-<br />
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ing solos, and to the balance of the entire<br />
orchestra when the Allegro takes flight. Add to<br />
the many excellences a recording of great<br />
transparency and some fascinating notes, and<br />
you have a not-to-be-missed entry for any discriminating<br />
music lover.<br />
BECKER<br />
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto; Introduction<br />
& Allegro Appassionato; Introduction &<br />
Allegro;<br />
SCHUMANN, C: Concerto Movement<br />
Oleg Marshev, South Jutland Symphony/<br />
Vladimir Ziva<br />
Danacord 688—74 minutes<br />
Oleg Marshev’s curt handling of the concerto’s<br />
opening pages signals his no-nonsense<br />
approach. The smallish orchestra and slightly<br />
dry acoustics add to the businesslike air. In II<br />
Marshev’s phrasing is a bit awkward in spots,<br />
while III proceeds with unsmiling efficiency.<br />
The pianist shows more warmth in the other<br />
two Schumann works, and if you’re looking for<br />
all three pieces on one record I’d rate this a<br />
notch above Jando (Naxos; J/A 2005). Of<br />
course Serkin and Ormandy excelled in this<br />
music, but no CD couples all three works (a<br />
British Sony did, but it’s long deleted).<br />
What none of the competitors offer is the<br />
concerto movement from Clara Wieck Schumann<br />
(in F minor, not to be confused with her<br />
Concerto in A minor). The composer only<br />
completed 175 bars; the rest was realized by<br />
Jozef de Beenhouwer. Stylistically it’s extremely<br />
similar to Chopin’s concerto in the same<br />
key, only not so memorable. Beenhouwer goes<br />
through the motions, but this unoriginal imitation<br />
of Chopin is no match for the real thing.<br />
The performers turn in an earnest reading, and<br />
like the rest of the program it’s captured in<br />
unassuming, natural sonics.<br />
SCHUMANN: Piano Quartet;<br />
THALBERG: Trio in A<br />
Atlantis Trio & Ensemble<br />
Musica Omnia 211—58 minutes<br />
KOLDYS<br />
Richard Hickox made recordings with Collegium<br />
Musicum 90, a period group, where<br />
you’d hardly guess the group wasn’t the Academy<br />
of St Martin in the Fields (modern instruments).<br />
This Schumann recording, though, is<br />
very period-sounding, and, fine though the<br />
playing is, your decision will probably rest on<br />
your response to the sound. The nasal string<br />
sound with sparing vibrato is very prominent,<br />
but even more striking are the pianos. The<br />
Schumann uses an 1835 Conrad Graf, made in<br />
Vienna, while the Thalberg has a London-built<br />
Erard from around 1868. The Graf in particular<br />
has a thin, clunky sound and doesn’t produce<br />
a good legato.<br />
The members the Trio are violinist Jaap<br />
Schröder, cellist Enid Sutherland, and fortepianist<br />
Penelope Crawford; they are joined in the<br />
Schumann by violist Daniel Foster. Their playing<br />
is excellent—sensitive, but propelled with a<br />
good measure of expressiveness. If you are<br />
partial to the sound of period instruments, this<br />
would be a fine acquisition because the playing<br />
is first rate. If you’re not wholly sold on the<br />
sound, though, you’ll not be able to drive it out<br />
of your mind.<br />
A word should be said about the Thalberg.<br />
His name always shows up in discussions of<br />
piano virtuosos—particularly his rivalry with<br />
Liszt—but his compositions have been largely<br />
ignored. This trio, though, is quite a fine piece,<br />
far from a virtuoso showcase. The ideas are<br />
interesting, and his harmonic language is<br />
sophisticated and full of surprises.<br />
A fine recording, then, but you have to<br />
want period sound.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
SCHUMANN: Piano Sonata 1; Fantasy in C<br />
Jin Ju<br />
MDG 947 1681 [SACD] 68 minutes<br />
This Shanghai-born pianist takes much pride<br />
in having performed in Vatican City before<br />
Pope Benedict XVI and an audience of thousands<br />
in 2009. She was also the recipient of the<br />
third prize in the 2002 International Tchaikovsky<br />
Piano Competition in Moscow. At present<br />
she is on the faculty of Beijing Central<br />
Conservatory and is a professor at the International<br />
Piano Academy of Imola, Italy.<br />
As a Schumann interpreter she makes a<br />
notable impression on this record with a sane<br />
and beautifully proportioned Fantasy in C.<br />
Since the competition in this work is so<br />
intense, it would be foolish to claim any special<br />
superiority for her interpretation. Suffice it<br />
to say that anyone wanting this work, or this<br />
particular coupling, would not go wrong. It is<br />
splendidly recorded as well.<br />
In the sonata her handling of rubato moves<br />
to the fore. The subsidiary theme of the first<br />
movement is gently coaxed with the most<br />
expressive of means, and her Allegro vivace is<br />
well controlled, yet capricious and strong. The<br />
brief ‘Aria’ is effectively held back until the<br />
‘Scherzo e Intermezzo’ takes off with energy<br />
and strong accents. She effectively ties all the<br />
strands together in the finale.<br />
I would definitely applaud this recital had I<br />
heard it in performance. Would I rise for a<br />
standing ovation? Probably not.<br />
BECKER<br />
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SCHUMANN: Requiem; Der Konigssohn;<br />
Nachtlied<br />
Sibylla Rubens, Ingeborg Danz, Christoph Pregardien,<br />
Adolph Seidel, Yorck Felix Speer; Saarbrücken<br />
Radio/ Georg Grün<br />
Hänssler 93270—72:20<br />
It’s not easy to find recordings of Schumann’s<br />
Requiem, and it’s rather nice music, if rather<br />
austere. EMI issued a recording led by Bernhard<br />
Klee and made in Dusseldorf, where<br />
Schumann led his choirs (Nov/Dec 2004). If<br />
you have that, the new one is not better. It’s a<br />
little slower and heavier, and I think I prefer<br />
that; the Dies Irae is less frantic here, more<br />
gloomy—and I think I prefer that, too. But<br />
there is little difference between the two. If the<br />
EMI is still available somewhere, you may prefer<br />
it because of the coupling of the Mass led<br />
by Sawallisch. (The Mass is Opus 147, the<br />
Requiem Opus 148. They are a pair.)<br />
Whether you buy this will depend largely<br />
on whether you want Der Königssohn, a ballad<br />
for soloists, chorus, and orchestra that lasts<br />
about 25 minutes and seems rare on records.<br />
Schumann wrote four of these ballads; this is<br />
the first. The choral music sounds very German,<br />
especially the parts for men alone. You<br />
may be reminded of Pilgrimage of the Rose or<br />
Paradise and the Peri, though neither of those<br />
is a “ballad” (and they are much longer). I find<br />
myself in the mood for music like this now and<br />
then, but not often. It’s not main course stuff;<br />
it’s side dishes.<br />
The other side dish—the obvious one, the<br />
Nachtlied—gets rather dramatic for a night<br />
song. It’s ten minutes, and the choir sings<br />
almost the whole time but there are only three<br />
short stanzas. Slow tempos are only part of the<br />
explanation.<br />
The package says on the outside, “Booklet<br />
in German and English”. Be not deceived; the<br />
texts are not given in English, but only in the<br />
original languages (Latin and German).<br />
VROON<br />
SCHUMANN: Trios<br />
Peter Laul, p; Ilya Gringolts, v; Dmitri Kouzov, vc<br />
Onyx 4072—84 minutes<br />
Earlier this year (Jan/Feb) I reviewed the fantastic<br />
Benvenue Fortepiano Trio playing two of<br />
the trios. They are still the best I have heard.<br />
This performance is a mixed bag. Sometimes<br />
the playing is stunningly beautiful and together—the<br />
second movement of the F major, for<br />
example. Other times it is careless, like the<br />
opening of the D minor. It sounds as if they are<br />
not sure that they have started playing.<br />
I am disappointed with Ilya Gringolts’s<br />
performance. He is especially quiet and laid<br />
back, the wrong attitude to have with this<br />
music. Peter Laul has the correct intensity, but<br />
neither Gringolts nor Kouzov seem to respond<br />
in a timely manner. There are sections where<br />
Laul is just banging away and the balance is all<br />
over the place. In the final movement of the D<br />
minor they finally get into it. How could they<br />
not? They are playing perhaps the highest<br />
quality music the 19th Century produced. I<br />
simply expect more from such international<br />
players.<br />
The G minor is far too relaxed and lazy. But<br />
in the second movement of the D minor their<br />
playing is brilliant. These performances are<br />
very inconsistent.<br />
Overall, I am not terribly impressed. The<br />
playing is good, but only because these are<br />
highly skilled and sophisticated players, not<br />
because their hearts are in it. These pieces<br />
need more desperation, yearning—insanity,<br />
even. They require full-body playing—something<br />
they are capable of but do rarely. The<br />
Finale of D minor is a perfect example of the<br />
tremendous talent they have. I wish I could<br />
hear that type of driving vitality in all the trios.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
SCHUMANN: Violin Sonatas;<br />
SCHUMANN,C: Romances<br />
Bruno Monteiro; Joao Paulo Santos, p<br />
Centaur 3086—59 minutes<br />
These performances are interesting. Bruno<br />
Monteiro plays with many mannerisms of an<br />
era long past. He uses frequent portamentos<br />
and sparse vibrato, as you would expect to<br />
hear from contemporaries of the Schumanns.<br />
Also, this duo’s tempos are ideal; they never let<br />
the music’s energy wind down, and they use<br />
effective rubato. Monteiro has a perfect sense<br />
of how the music must flow, and that is what I<br />
nearly always complain about in recordings of<br />
these sonatas.<br />
The Three Romances by Clara Schumann<br />
are, if not quite up to the level of her husband’s,<br />
very good music that violinists might<br />
consider adding to their recitals.<br />
Listening to this would be like going back<br />
in time to hear a performance by a mid-19th<br />
century virtuoso if it weren’t for a certain fly in<br />
the ointment—Monteiro’s technique. His intonation<br />
is often flawed, and his attacks and<br />
bowing are extremely coarse. There are even<br />
passages where he cannot play all the notes,<br />
and this is hardly virtuoso music. The impression<br />
I have of Monteiro is of a violinist who<br />
lacks the technique needed to realize his artistic<br />
vision, and that is tragic. Joao Paulo Santos<br />
is a vigorous yet considerate partner. Mediocre<br />
sound.<br />
MAGIL<br />
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SCHUMANN: Liederkreis, op 39;<br />
see LOEWE; Symphony 3; see GAL<br />
SCHUTTER: Mass; Bap Nos;<br />
HENKING: Ich Bin ein Schwebendes Luftblatt;<br />
JANACEK: Otce Nas<br />
Michael Feyfar, t; Susanne Doll, org; Vera Schneider,<br />
hp; Cappella Nova/ Rafael Immoos<br />
Guild 7349—63 minutes<br />
A week ago, Janacek’s Otce Nas—his setting of<br />
the Lord’s Prayer—was unknown to me. Now<br />
we’re old friends, because here’s the second<br />
recording of that 16-minute mini-oratorio to<br />
have crossed my path. Once again it’s performed<br />
nicely, this time by a chamber choir<br />
from Basel, Switzerland. It differs in two ways<br />
from the other account, which you can find in<br />
the Pater Noster anthology reviewed in Collections.<br />
First, it’s performed in Czech, and the<br />
other is in German. Second, this one is more<br />
lyrical, especially in the gentle crooning of the<br />
solo tenor. (By comparison, the other fellow’s<br />
“Dein Reich” hits you like a ton of liturgical<br />
bricks.)<br />
Both performances are worthy, and Janacek<br />
is a must-hear. So perhaps your decision<br />
will be influenced by what’s on the surrounding<br />
programs. On the other, it’s different settings<br />
of the Lord’s Prayer crafted by Cherubini,<br />
Liszt, Nicolai, et al. Here it’s contemporary<br />
Swiss fare sung with proprietary affection by<br />
the 20 voices of the Cappella.<br />
Meinrad Schutter (1910-2006) was a<br />
Zurich-based composer whose serviceable<br />
Mass and ‘Bap Nos’ (Our Father) could be of<br />
interest if you’re in the market for something<br />
sacred and new. Christian Henking’s ‘I Am a<br />
Floating Reed’ for harp and 16 voice parts is<br />
more aggressively dissonant, with undulating<br />
tone clusters and sharp intakes of breath<br />
depicting a soul’s journey through the netherworld<br />
between life and death. It’s interesting<br />
without leaving you transfixed to the point of<br />
craving repeated encounters. Four prayerful<br />
minutes of Gregorian chant also are included,<br />
along with full notes, bios, and translations.<br />
There are your options. Whichever program<br />
you pick, go find Janacek.<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
few outbursts of imitative choral writing for<br />
choruses of priests and the “Multitude”, as the<br />
Scriptural drama requires. They amount to<br />
short German motets, as Daniel Melamed<br />
writes in his notes. The rest of Schütz’s St<br />
Matthew Passion draws our attention intensely<br />
to the drama through the bare vocal line and,<br />
hence, the singer’s talent for declamatory<br />
recitative.<br />
Julian Podger, as the Evangelist, bears the<br />
weight of the task heroically, though Jacob<br />
Bloch Jespersen as Christ and Tomas Medici as<br />
Peter contribute substantially to the dramatic<br />
range of the piece.<br />
It is quite a remarkable experience—exciting,<br />
really—and so much more taxing for a listener,<br />
to concentrate intensely on the changing<br />
drama of a theatrical piece through small<br />
nuances in the unaccompanied singing voice.<br />
And how much more satisfying as a result are<br />
the choral passages that begin, intercede, and<br />
especially close the drama. It is an exhilarating<br />
performance, to say the least. Texts and notes<br />
are in English.<br />
LOEWEN<br />
SCRIABIN: Sonata-Fantasia 2; 2 Poems, op<br />
32; 5 Preludes, op 74; 3 Etudes, op 65;<br />
ROSLAVETS: Sonata 2; 2 Poems; 5 Preludes;<br />
3 Etudes<br />
Anya Alexeyev, p<br />
Marquis 81415—73 minutes<br />
Under the title Parallels, this compares the<br />
piano music of Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)<br />
and Nicolai Roslavets (1881-1944). What<br />
becomes quite apparent after listening is that<br />
Roslavets’s compositions build on the harmonic<br />
and textural innovations we generally<br />
attribute to Scriabin. The “mystic” chord of<br />
Scriabin was a chromatically altered dominant<br />
chord arranged in fourths while the “synthetic”<br />
chord of Roslavets was a hexachord of<br />
dominant-13th origins. Very complex rhythms<br />
and quick shifts of dynamics and texture can<br />
be found all through this music. Both composers<br />
use as many as three or four staves to<br />
notate their music. The difficulty of just sorting<br />
everything out and choreographing how two<br />
hands will divide all the material is significant.<br />
High marks go to Alexeyev for her creative<br />
selection of identical sets of pieces, presenting<br />
SCHUTZ: St Matthew Passion<br />
Scriabin followed immediately by the corre-<br />
Ars Nova Copenhagen/ Paul Hillier<br />
sponding Roslavets piece. The format makes<br />
Roslavets sound like the modern composer<br />
Da Capo 8226094—55 minutes<br />
and Scriabin the older master.<br />
Schütz’s decision to set the Passion according I suppose it is a sign of the times when we<br />
to St Matthew for solo voices alone, without are directed to a website for the complete liner<br />
instrumental accompaniment, runs contrary notes. There I found a very good essay by Anna<br />
to the prevailing baroque aesthetic (and his Ferrenc on the relationship between the music<br />
own tendency), which favored concertante of these composers. I’m sure it reduces the<br />
arrangements for a variety of instruments— production costs by eliminating the booklet<br />
basso continuo at the very least. There are a and printing what can reasonably fit on CD<br />
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packaging, which here is a paper folder that<br />
opens up. My eyesight is not what it once was,<br />
and I have a love-hate relationship with most<br />
CD booklets. As here, they can contain a well<br />
written essay or even be a treasure trove of<br />
information. In almost all cases, they are in<br />
print small enough to make me suffer for my<br />
information. Since I really don’t like reading<br />
anything beyond a paragraph or two online,<br />
printing out Ferrenc’s essay does eliminate the<br />
problem of small print.<br />
While all of the Scriabin is readily available<br />
on numerous recordings, the Roslavets pieces<br />
are not so plentiful. All of the Roslavets pieces<br />
on this program are also available on Marc-<br />
Andre Hamelin’s highly regarded disc (Hyperion<br />
66926, Jan/Feb 1998), along with many others.<br />
If this appeals to you, and you want more,<br />
I would most definitely recommend Hamelin.<br />
You should start here, though, since this music<br />
is not everyone’s cup of tea and this is a fine<br />
sample of both composers, performed with all<br />
the skill and insight you could imagine. For<br />
you, this also might be just the right quantity<br />
of music an old professor of mine once<br />
referred to as Russian Impressionism. I have<br />
plenty and will always want more, but none of<br />
it is as well ordered for comparative purposes.<br />
Alexeyev’s pianism is world-class, and the<br />
superb sound qualities make this disc an easy<br />
recommendation.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
SHAPIRA: Concierto Latino<br />
Ittai Shapira, v; London Serenata/ Krzysztof<br />
Chorzelski<br />
Champs Hill 20—26 minutes<br />
Mr Shapira is a fine concert violinist who, as<br />
the liner notes report, premiered Shulamit<br />
Ran’s violin concerto and also appeared before<br />
55 million people in Jerry Lewis’s annual<br />
telethon to support muscular dystrophy<br />
research and treatment. His concerto follows<br />
on the heels of a violent gang assault he suffered;<br />
in its aftermath, musical thoughts<br />
occurred to him and, in the process of writing<br />
them down, allowed him to retrieve actual<br />
memories of the event and aided in his overall<br />
recovery.<br />
For the most part, the work offers Shapira a<br />
vehicle for his exciting virtuosity with very little<br />
compelling musical content; the composition<br />
is rhapsodic—honestly, much too rhapsodic—<br />
and the orchestration, while competent, rarely<br />
goes beyond simple two- and three-part textures.<br />
Imagine Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole<br />
hazily recalled by a great soloist while a pianist<br />
plunks out an ad hoc accompaniment, and<br />
you have a good idea of what this piece sounds<br />
like.<br />
HASKINS<br />
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concertos; Piano<br />
Quintet<br />
Martin Helmchen, p; Pieter Schoeman, Vesselin<br />
Gellev, v; Alexander Zemtsov, va; Kristina Blaumane,<br />
vc; London Philharmonic/ Vladimir<br />
Jurowski<br />
LPO 53—76 minutes<br />
These are crisp, tight, snappy, razor-sharp<br />
accounts of these lovely works. The recorded<br />
sound is first rate—about the best you can get<br />
from a standard CD. Is anything about this<br />
production better than the same program with<br />
Yefim Bronfman on the piano and the Los<br />
Angeles Philharmonic under Esa Pekka Salonen<br />
(Mar/Apr 2000)? Not really. Should you<br />
pass up this release and hold out for Bronfman-Salonen?<br />
Probably not. These performances<br />
are highly satisfying.<br />
HANSEN<br />
SHOSTAKOVICH: Quartets 4, 11, 14<br />
Hagen Quartet<br />
Newton 8802056—71 minutes<br />
This is a rerelease of the Hagen Quartet playing<br />
these three very different quartets. They<br />
appeared originally on DG. The Hagen paints a<br />
very different picture of Shostakovich than the<br />
Emerson or Borodin. They paint a more introspective,<br />
dark, and plain narrative, particularly<br />
in the Fourth. I lean towards the more economical<br />
sound of Hagen in the Fourth,<br />
because it more accurately reflects the subject<br />
matter. The finale should be slow. This group<br />
is known for taking risks, and they defend<br />
them brilliantly. Their playing of 14 is worth<br />
noting. There is genius in these performances.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphonies (all)<br />
Galina Vishnevskaya, s; Mark Reshetin, Nicola<br />
Ghiuselev, b; Washington Choral Arts, London<br />
Voices; National Symphony, London Symphony,<br />
Academic Symphony of Moscow/ Mstislav Rostropovich<br />
Warner 64177 [12CD] 11:44<br />
Rostropovich needs little introduction here; he<br />
was a Titan of a musician, a close friend of<br />
Shostakovich, and a respected <strong>conductor</strong>, cellist,<br />
and sometimes pianist. He studied at the<br />
Moscow Conservatory under Shostakovich<br />
and Prokofieff, and both composers wrote<br />
major works for him. We reviewed most of<br />
these releases from 1989 to 1996 (Teldec<br />
released this same collection in a 1998 box<br />
set).<br />
1: NSO, Teldec 90849, N/D 1994 (Cook)<br />
2+3: LSO, London Voices, Teldec 90853, J/F<br />
1995 (Hansen)<br />
4: NSO, Teldec 76261, J/F 1993 (Vroon)<br />
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B NSO, Teldec 94557, M/J 1996 (Hansen)<br />
6: LSO, Teldec, no review<br />
7: NSO, Erato 45414, S/O 1990 (Ginsburg)<br />
8: NSO, Teldec 74719, J/F 1993 (Cook)<br />
9: NSO, Teldec 90849, N/D 1994 (Cook)<br />
10: LSO, Teldec 74529, N/D 1992 (Bauman)<br />
11: NSO, Teldec 76262, J/F 1994 (Cook)<br />
12: LSO, Teldec, no review<br />
13: NSO, Ghiuselev, Men of the CASW, Erato<br />
75529, N/D 1989 (Ginsburg)<br />
14: ASOM, Vishnevskaya, Reshetin, Melodiya<br />
241, M/J 1992 (Ginsburg)<br />
15: LSO, Teldec 74560, N/D 1992 (Bauman)<br />
Paul Cook was not too impressed with<br />
Symphony 1, noting an unsteady percussionist,<br />
a snare drum that sounds like a paper<br />
plate, and flat engineering. I hear a vivacious,<br />
youthful first movement, and good, spacious<br />
sound. II dashes ahead wondrously, and the<br />
clarinetist’s tone is nice and woody; there’s not<br />
much mystery in the slow theme (there is<br />
some in III, though), but neither does it dawdle.<br />
There’s a perfect sense of expectation in<br />
the slow part that begins IV, especially when it<br />
quiets down.<br />
2 and 3 are well represented. Lawrence<br />
Hansen’s perceptive review asked how Rostropovich,<br />
who greeted the fall of the Soviet<br />
Union with great joy, could stomach these<br />
works in praise of Lenin and the Revolution.<br />
But when you read the texts of 2, at least, you<br />
may see what Mr Hansen saw: “Shostakovich<br />
inadvertently stumbled on one of the greatest<br />
and cruellest ironies of human nature...: when<br />
the oppressed gain control, they become even<br />
more reactionary, brutal oppressors.” He then<br />
asks, “Did Rostropovich have this in mind as<br />
he conducted this music?” The first several<br />
lines could be about any form of political and<br />
economic oppression. Shostakovich starts 2<br />
almost without form and void, and what<br />
comes out of it is not light, but what sounds<br />
like a chamber-like, dissonant rewriting of the<br />
humor in 1; that grows more turbulent,<br />
becoming a mob’s thousand voices, a muddle<br />
that is halted and unified by Lenin’s timpani.<br />
As Mr Hansen says, 3 is an intense, driving<br />
account, much better than the Gergiev I also<br />
reviewed for this issue.<br />
On 4’s release, our Editor called it the best<br />
you could buy; at that point, the Ormandy was<br />
only available on vinyl, and the sound wasn’t<br />
comparable to this. I still go back to Neeme<br />
Jarvi’s Chandos recording as my favorite; here,<br />
I is stiffer, didactic in a brutal way, the Apollo<br />
to Jarvi’s Dionysius. Mr Vroon noted that the<br />
NSO was consistently better than the LSO, but<br />
even so was still amazed at this. There is a<br />
haughty sweep to this—it doesn’t get as downand-dirty<br />
as Jarvi, but I am very happy to have<br />
this interpretation. The fugue is very precise,<br />
and comes to a very disturbing, violent end.<br />
The sonics are clear, but not spacious enough<br />
for my taste.<br />
Mr Hansen on 5: “Rostropovich tends<br />
toward a lean, lithe, wiry, brisk, driving<br />
5th...[not engaging] in exaggeration or [milking]<br />
the work for profundity by letting the<br />
gloomy, slow passages outstay their welcome.”<br />
That said, I is slower than I’ve heard it in a<br />
while, but it’s still quite effective. Call me a<br />
heretic, but I’ve gotten burnt out on the Fifth;<br />
though I would just as soon get it over with<br />
quickly, I can’t help but be drawn in by Slava’s<br />
pacing. II is by far the heaviest I’ve ever heard;<br />
usually it’s a light, mocking break in the mood,<br />
but here it’s a “model parody of brainless,<br />
plodding, forced, phony Social-Realist festiveness”;<br />
the tempo pull-backs before the hunting<br />
horn measures are weighty indeed. I can<br />
also hear long brass notes in the background<br />
that I’ve never noticed in any other recording.<br />
Rostropovich takes the ironic, not the triumphant,<br />
approach in IV, and “lays bare the<br />
hollow, brain-dead, soulless core of Soviet festivity—just<br />
what the composer ordered”.<br />
6 (and 12) has been weighed and found<br />
wanting, whereas 2 and 3 are often left completely<br />
unweighed—mere symphoniganda. 6 is<br />
lopsided, but I do like it; I remember playing it<br />
for Todd Gorman, our flute reviewer, back in<br />
graduate school, and after listening intently to<br />
all of I, he didn’t even want to listen to II and<br />
III, he was so affected. Rostropovich nails 6:<br />
this is really good! He lets I speak for itself, giving<br />
it the proper pacing and balance; all the<br />
soloists are very involved. II and III are clean,<br />
brilliant, and hilarious—I think they’re some of<br />
the most genuinely happy music Shostakovich<br />
wrote; it’s as if he said, “You think the last<br />
movement of 5 was triumphant? No! I’m going<br />
to put joy and triumph at the end of this lumpy<br />
symphony where you’ll have to search for it.”<br />
James Ginsburg wrote of 7 that the NSO<br />
did not supply the virtuoso playing the score<br />
demands (this is the same orchestra that the<br />
Editor praised three years later) and that Rostropovich<br />
didn’t have the interpretive imagination<br />
or technical conducting skill of a Bernstein<br />
or Haitink. Just now, I got into my library,<br />
turned on my laptop, and started listening to<br />
this while I organized ARG back issues and<br />
other references. I forgot I was listening to<br />
Shostakovich—the symphony sounded like a<br />
tone poem of a summer’s day. I’ve never heard<br />
the opening of I played so pleasantly; even the<br />
march sounds lovely—and that is most<br />
emphatically not what should be happening<br />
here. And the snare drum, oh, the travestied<br />
snare drum—it is dreadfully out of sync for the<br />
first few repetitions of the march. II and III<br />
have all the personality of a big toe.<br />
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Paul Cook liked 8 except some missing<br />
venom in the Allegretto. About a third of the<br />
way in, I looks a little lost for a few minutes,<br />
but the mid-movement climax is excellent.<br />
Some of II sounds stilted—I’ve noticed over<br />
the course of listening to this set that Rostropovich’s<br />
conducting of the march-like sections<br />
has that result; it’s not mincing, but it<br />
sounds like it’s being very particular—the<br />
same soldiers, but on parade in Red Square<br />
instead of shoveling bodies into the Babi Yar<br />
ravine. In III there is more “non troppo” than<br />
“Allegro”. Mr Cook said, “Rostropovich gets all<br />
the drama, all the sorrow”, but things are a little<br />
too tidy to get my complete approval. The<br />
ending of V is dramatically fulfilling, but<br />
there’s still not enough tension in the rest of<br />
the movement. The sound on this one is<br />
resplendent, though!<br />
Cook thought Rostropovich sounded comfortable<br />
with the “jubilant pacing” of 9; I find it<br />
slow—I’ve never liked these down-tempo performances<br />
of I (it’s marked Allegro, not Allegretto).<br />
There is a glaring missed note in the<br />
violins about 40 seconds in, and the tempo is<br />
as unpredictable as a squirrel dodging an<br />
oncoming car. The end sounds like several of<br />
the string players nearly lost their grip on their<br />
bows. II has some sour notes in it; III is decent,<br />
but it’s as if the orchestra is standing on the<br />
sidelines, watching the excitement happen<br />
elsewhere. I would take the Petrenko (Naxos<br />
572167, M/A 2010) any day, or the Levi (Telarc<br />
80215, J/A 1990), which was my introduction<br />
to Shostakovich.<br />
My first thought as 10 began was, “It’s very<br />
creepy, but the volume is so quiet!” Then I<br />
opened Carl Bauman’s review and read,<br />
“...[this] is cut at a very low level that requires a<br />
major boost in volume to achieve good projection.”<br />
The Overview puts Ormandy and<br />
Kitaenko (SACD) at the top of the list; their first<br />
movements are longer than this, which is 25:37<br />
(Maxim Shostakovich is three minutes shorter)—Rostropovich<br />
has excellent control over<br />
the orchestra’s dynamics, but the playing just<br />
takes too long. Something odd happens with<br />
the engineering in II: the strings sound like a<br />
fan was put in front of the microphone, the<br />
snare drum almost drowns out the orchestra at<br />
its first entrance, and the brass are distant. At<br />
the first big tutti, the balance is entirely off. III<br />
again drags its feet—expansiveness is fine, but<br />
mere slowness is not. Bauman said that the<br />
winds have intonation problems, and I noticed<br />
them most in the beginning of IV. I do like the<br />
rest of the movement for its vitality, but the<br />
ensemble nearly falls apart in a few places. I<br />
love Paavo Jarvi’s Telarc recording (M/J 2009)<br />
more than anything I’ve heard before or since,<br />
and I can’t let a review of the Tenth go by with-<br />
out mentioning the composer’s own two-outof-tune-pianos<br />
recording with Moisei Vainberg<br />
on Russian Revelation; it’s deleted, but<br />
available used, and the audio is on<br />
YouTube.com (search for Shostakovich Weinberg<br />
10). It’s a blistering performance, and I<br />
find myself more thrilled by it than by most<br />
orchestral recordings.<br />
Mr Cook’s review of 11 was mixed; he<br />
thought that key moments of orchestral balance<br />
are weak, but said the dramatic material<br />
sounded very good, especially in the rousing<br />
conclusion. Slava’s tempo again is slow; he<br />
takes nearly three minutes longer than the<br />
excellent Petrenko (Naxos 572082, J/A 2009),<br />
but it works here. The transition into II has the<br />
wretched urgency it needs, and there’s some<br />
excellent dynamic detail, but the wind blowing<br />
over the massacred bodies at the end isn’t subtle<br />
enough. IV is so insistent that it’s almost<br />
impetuous; Rostropovich’s leading has that<br />
particularity I mentioned before, but it suits<br />
the proceedings here. The English horn solo in<br />
the quiet section, over the string pizzicatos, is<br />
very note-to-note for much of it, almost bringing<br />
the movement to a complete demise. The<br />
ending would make up for it but for one anticlimactic<br />
thing: the bells aren’t nearly loud<br />
enough. Rostropovich redid this with the LSO,<br />
and our Editor found it much better, with glorious<br />
playing and sound (Nov/Dec 2002).<br />
12 is more a string of four symphonic<br />
sketches than a symphony, I’ll admit, and use<br />
of the melodies barely crosses the line from<br />
repetition to development. It’s not unenjoyable,<br />
however, and is still more inspired than<br />
some of Shostakovich’s film music, which it<br />
often resembles. I love the grand feeling of the<br />
5/4 theme in I, but the other theme gets<br />
pounded into the ground—I think I’ve finally<br />
escaped it in II, but it keeps poking its head out<br />
from behind the scenery. By the time III bursts<br />
out singing it at the top of its lungs, I’m ready<br />
to impale my speakers. I have to say, the<br />
orchestra plays this (on the same disc as 6)<br />
quite well—the acoustics are perfectly suited<br />
to it, there’s a good sheen to the strings, the<br />
brass are balanced, and the players sound<br />
involved.<br />
It’s odd that Rostropovich’s 13 wasn’t<br />
mentioned in the Overview; Mr Ginsburg<br />
viewed it as a solid performance, but “somewhat<br />
underplayed and presented in a slightly<br />
distant acoustic”. He preferred Haitink’s sonically<br />
stunning recording, crushing waves of<br />
sound, and Marius Rintzler’s more intensely<br />
dark-toned bass. And Ghiuselev is brighter<br />
than several Russian basses I’ve heard, though<br />
I would word it as not singing from the back of<br />
the throat. Sure, the playing could be deeper<br />
and blacker, but it’s a very good recording,<br />
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and, as the Overview says about the Sinaisky,<br />
“some may prefer it for its slight detachment,<br />
since this can be hard music to take”. It’s been<br />
several years since I’ve listened to 13, and I will<br />
probably unearth my Masur next time.<br />
14 will be reason enough for many to buy<br />
this set: it’s been deleted (though not impossible<br />
to find) for a while; it’s a concert recording<br />
with the same singers who sang the premiere<br />
under Barshai only a few years before. The<br />
strings at the opening sound hoarse from<br />
mourning, and Reshetin has the perfect sound,<br />
just dark enough to give it the Russian feel<br />
without sounding too regional. He doesn’t<br />
strain at the high notes, and has enough vocal<br />
control to phrase them exquisitely. The double<br />
basses are gritty but not rough, full of menace.<br />
Vishnevskaya is clear and accurat, and almost<br />
unbearably frightening. The sound is close-up<br />
but not harsh.<br />
Mr Bauman’s opinion of 15 was that it is<br />
clean, rather dry, and under-rehearsed, though<br />
there are many pleasing individual touches.<br />
The ensemble has some mishaps, and there<br />
are imbalances that should have been fixed,<br />
but what drives me the craziest is the string<br />
playing—it’s not completely detached<br />
between notes, but neither is it smooth. I’ve<br />
heard a lot of that over these hours of listening,<br />
and it’s a very annoying mannerism. After the<br />
whip snaps, about a minute and a half before<br />
the end of I, the brass’s entrance sounds like<br />
they barely woke up in the nick of time. The<br />
Overview remarks that this performance can<br />
be distended sometimes, and I have the feeling<br />
II was in the author’s mind when he wrote<br />
that, but I still find it effective and devastating.<br />
III wobbles but doesn’t fall down, and the cartoonish<br />
brass sighs are hilarious; and, finally,<br />
there’s some smooth string playing! Oh, the<br />
opening of IV is gloomy, and there’s a tenderness<br />
in between the tragedy and the tonguein-cheek<br />
parts. Rostropovich lets the symphony<br />
speak for itself, which is a necessity. I was<br />
nearly in tears at the echoes of Symphony 4.<br />
This set is a bargain at $40, worth it for 14<br />
especially. The booklet has seven pages of<br />
notes on the symphonies, and only two paragraphs<br />
on Rostropovich. There are transliterated<br />
Russian and translated English texts.<br />
ESTEP<br />
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphonies 3+10<br />
Mariinsky/ Valery Gergiev<br />
Mariinsky 511 [SACD] 80 minutes<br />
I reviewed Vasily Petrenko’s recording of<br />
Shostakovich’s Symphonies 1 and 3 last issue<br />
(Naxos 572396) and was impressed with the<br />
Third, noting the lovely introduction and the<br />
abstract writing later on that foreshadows<br />
what he would do in the Fourth. This Gergiev<br />
recording is perfunctory—not bad, just that<br />
the orchestra rarely sounds committed to the<br />
piece. The flute at the end of I sounds exhausted!<br />
This piece does take some elbow grease to<br />
make it attractive, and the players simply don’t<br />
have it in I and II. The chorus is robust in III,<br />
but some of the orchestra’s rhythms sound<br />
shaky.<br />
This No. 10 doesn’t quite match what<br />
Paavo Jarvi and the Cincinnatians gave us<br />
(Telarc 80702, M/J 2009). Here the opening<br />
doesn’t have Jarvi’s portent, and the climax in<br />
the middle of I is anemic rather than febrile.<br />
Gergiev’s II is only 17 seconds longer than<br />
Jarvi’s, but it makes a vast difference; the rests<br />
between the opening chords in the Jarvi are as<br />
threatening as the chords themselves, the<br />
phrasing is much more subtle, the energy<br />
markedly higher, and the fire all-consuming.<br />
Even the Telarc engineering is better, resulting<br />
in a richer sound than in this SACD. III and the<br />
opening of IV are restful instead of mourning—not<br />
the right mood for this. The low end<br />
of the sound is lacking, and the important timpani<br />
part at the end is muffled. Jarvi’s performance<br />
beats this into a cocked hat. Notes in<br />
Russian, English, and German; texts in Russian<br />
and English.<br />
ESTEP<br />
SHOSTAKOVICH: Trios; Blok Songs<br />
Susan Gritton, s; Florestan Trio<br />
Hyperion 67834—62 minutes<br />
The one-movement Trio No 1 is a work of distinctly<br />
varying moods written in Shostakovich’s<br />
student years. It’s mostly of interest<br />
for a taste of his mature voice.<br />
From the alpha, we go zooming ahead to,<br />
nearly, the omega—the Blok Romances written<br />
in 1967. Fortunately, Hyperion includes<br />
transliterated texts with English translations,<br />
so we can follow what’s going on in this spare,<br />
gloomy, gray music. Shostakovich was often<br />
depressed in his final years, and it shows here.<br />
All three of the instruments are deployed only<br />
in the last song; the first three songs are for<br />
each instrument alone with the voice; the<br />
fourth has cello and piano, the fifth violin and<br />
piano, and the sixth violin and cello. Miss Gritton<br />
sings expressively, without stridency, and<br />
brings plenty of punch to the sometimes<br />
oblique texts. I like her approach a bit more<br />
than Gun-Brit Barkmin in the Zurich Trio<br />
recording (Mar/Apr 2007).<br />
The program ends with “The” Shostakovich<br />
Piano Trio, No. 2, written during WW II.<br />
The Florestan Trio gives a solid performance,<br />
but I wasn’t fully drawn into it. I kept thinking<br />
about the Borodin Trio’s dark, brooding,<br />
intense account (Chandos) and the old, gritty<br />
Serebryakov-Vaiman-Rostropovich account<br />
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(Sept/Oct 1993). Both of those performances<br />
squeeze more pungency and awkward humor<br />
out of the ethnic themes that also figure<br />
prominently in the later Quartet No. 8. The<br />
players here acquit themselves well, but they<br />
are a bit short on bite and sardonic vigor in the<br />
finale.<br />
HANSEN<br />
SIBELIUS: Lemminkainen Legends; Finlandia;<br />
Luonnotar; The Bard; En Saga;<br />
Pohjola’s Daughter; Dryad; Spring Song;<br />
Tapiola; Oceanides, Night Ride & Sunrise<br />
Mare Jogeva, s; Moscow Philharmonic/ Vassily<br />
Sinaisky<br />
Brilliant 9212 [3CD] 159 minutes<br />
The idea of a collection of these popular tone<br />
poems played by a Russian orchestra and <strong>conductor</strong><br />
is fascinating. Before 1917, Sibelius’s<br />
Finland was a duchy governed by Russia, and I<br />
recall reading that the Finn’s music was popular<br />
in the Soviet Union as well as today’s Russia.<br />
The Moscow Philharmonic has been<br />
sounding good recently, and I’ve liked what<br />
I’ve heard from <strong>conductor</strong> Sinaisky.<br />
Until now. Conductor and orchestra both<br />
sound unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and wrongheaded<br />
about this music. They turn a deaf ear<br />
to its subtleties and mysteries and lay on a<br />
hand that is heavy and often clumsy as if trying<br />
to “Russify” it. The effort doesn’t work. John<br />
Barbirolli could romanticize this music and get<br />
away with it (and did he ever). So could Lorin<br />
Maazel in those fine old LPs with the Vienna<br />
Philharmonic. Herbert von Karajan had some<br />
interesting things to say in his own romantic<br />
way, and there is much to enjoy in Leonard<br />
Bernstein’s emoting. All employed a vision and<br />
discipline not evident here.<br />
My notes are full of terms like “honky<br />
oboes”, “flutes not crystalline enough”, “kind<br />
of sour”, string tone “steely”, “not very subtle”,<br />
and “unatmospheric”. Another problem is the<br />
brass. Good Sibelius brass sound is neat, bracing,<br />
and slightly bright. There are suitable variants,<br />
but that old Russian tone with its heavy<br />
slow vibrato is not one of them. The Moscow<br />
brass has lost a lot of that character in recent<br />
years, but enough was present in 1991 when<br />
these recordings were made to prove annoying—and<br />
unSibelian.<br />
The best performance is Dryad, probably<br />
because of its quasi-Russian character. Soprano<br />
Mare Jogeva saves Luonnotar. She’s not<br />
idiomatic, but her bright sound works, and the<br />
orchestra responded. Unfortunately, too much<br />
is like Night Ride and Sunrise, a stunning work<br />
when done right, but here just kind of clumpy.<br />
In fact, I never made it to sunrise.<br />
HECHT<br />
SIBELIUS: Symphony 2; Karelia Suite<br />
New Zealand Symphony/ Pietari Inkinen<br />
Naxos 572704—62 minutes<br />
This is a thoroughly good performance of<br />
Sibelius 2 and Karelia. In tempos and interpretive<br />
gestures it is flawless. The orchestra is<br />
excellent. Not a note, a turn of phrase, or any<br />
detail of execution is out of place. It is cold but<br />
not excessively so, a thin current of warmth<br />
emerging occasionally. The Naxos sound is<br />
clear, cool, and full of detail. It is well balanced,<br />
not grossly distorted or too fiercely<br />
straight. If you go for it you’ll be pleased, not<br />
the least in view of the moderate price.<br />
But the best is the enemy of the merely<br />
good. Unfortunately for Naxos, Sir John Barbirolli,<br />
with not a drop of Finnish blood in his<br />
veins, tackled this work head on, loved it to<br />
death, and mesmerized the Royal Philharmonic<br />
on one occasion (for Testament)—and the<br />
Halle on another (for EMI, in a low cost 5CD<br />
integral edition)—into giving wild, colorful<br />
and passionate recorded performances so persuasive<br />
that it is unlikely that they will ever be<br />
equaled. He accomplishes this in a framework<br />
that is more flexible and varied than Inkinen’s,<br />
though not grossly distorted. Moreover, if you<br />
go for the EMI integral edition you’ll have<br />
recordings of the other six that are almost as<br />
great as No. 2.<br />
MCKELVEY<br />
SIBELIUS: Quartet; see SMETANA<br />
SIERRA, A: Chamber & Piano Pieces<br />
Vassily Primakov, p; Daedalus Quartet; International<br />
Contemporary Ensemble/ Jayce Ogren<br />
Bridge 9343—73 minutes<br />
The many entries in ARG’s cumulative index<br />
for “Sierra” refer to Roberto Sierra. Now comes<br />
Arlene Sierra, <strong>American</strong>-born (in 1970) but<br />
German raised and currently based in Wales,<br />
to join the (Sierra) club.<br />
Six recent compositions (2001-08) present<br />
a conspectus of her compositional personality.<br />
Cicada Shell, Colmena, and Ballistae are for<br />
largish chamber ensembles; Surrounded<br />
Ground is for clarinet, piano, and string quartet;<br />
Two Neruda Odes are settings for soprano,<br />
cello, and piano (texts not included); and Birds<br />
and Insects, Book I is for solo piano. Together<br />
they make an impression of brilliance, ambition,<br />
technical assurance, and dedication to an<br />
unyielding modernism. The language is fully<br />
chromatic, gestures are rapid-fire and sharply<br />
etched, rhythms spring-loaded and biting,<br />
instrumental combinations prickly and twittery,<br />
with precise articulations and prismatic<br />
colors that glint and refract like sunlight splin-<br />
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tering off a glacier. Moods range from fiercely<br />
martial and aggressive to ironic, minatory,<br />
darkly burlesque, or hieratic and remote. Slow<br />
sections are sometimes spare, with notes<br />
pared down to hieroglyphic significance or<br />
spun-out into intricate tendrils of sputtering,<br />
florid wandering. Faster music tends to pile up<br />
motives into ostinato-driven clockwork, as in<br />
the first half of Cicada Shell, a sort of atonal,<br />
complexified retro-fit of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire<br />
du Soldat—indeed, not far sometimes from the<br />
atonal complexifications of Stravinsky’s own<br />
late music.<br />
I admired and often took pleasure in this<br />
music, but though rewarding, it also demands<br />
a lot from the listener and too much of it at<br />
once can be wearisome. Better not to try taking<br />
in too much of it at a sitting. It has<br />
mechanical torque but little polite conversation,<br />
lots of striking incidental detail but<br />
oblique formal logic, daunting intelligence but<br />
much less sensibility, plenty of fire but very little<br />
warmth. It is distinctly (and, one gathers<br />
from the booklet’s explication of the titles of<br />
Sierra’s pieces, intentionally) untouched by<br />
humane compassion. Instead the composer is<br />
inspired by (indeed fixated on) military hardware<br />
and tactics, insect societies, and abstract<br />
processes.<br />
Performances are superb and sonics<br />
demonstration-quality: bright, vivid, detailed,<br />
immediate, and powerful, with exceptionally<br />
wide dynamics (pristine high piano and flute,<br />
tectonic low bass drum).<br />
LEHMAN<br />
SIERRA: Saxophone Concerto; Caribbean<br />
Rhapsody<br />
James Carter, sax; Regina Carter, Patricia Tomasini,<br />
Chala Yancy, v; Ron Lawrence, va; Akua Dixon,<br />
vc; Kenny Davis, db; Sinfonia Varsovia/ Giancarlo<br />
Guerrero<br />
Decca 15472—45 minutes<br />
Collaboration in music is centuries old, but<br />
billing can be a knotty question. In opera, the<br />
composer often superseded the librettist in<br />
status, but in musical theater, the team concept<br />
was more accepted. In the realm of the<br />
concerto, a master instrumentalist could<br />
inspire and influence its writing; but in the<br />
end, the composer’s name went on the title<br />
page. In this media-driven era, some solo<br />
artists offer more pictures, biographies, and<br />
promotional materials than information about<br />
the composers and their works.<br />
In this album, Detroit-born jazz saxophonist<br />
James Carter is front and center, and the<br />
also famous Roberto Sierra seems relegated to<br />
second place. Sierra does have room to talk<br />
about how he wrote both his Saxophone Concerto<br />
(2002) and his saxophone, solo violin,<br />
and string quintet work Caribbean Rhapsody<br />
(2010) for Carter, often leaving room for<br />
improvisation; but the layout is mostly about<br />
Carter and his collaborators. Credit is justly<br />
given: the renowned jazz violinist Regina<br />
Carter (cousin to James), the Akua Dixon<br />
String Quintet, the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra<br />
of Poland, and Nashville Symphony music<br />
director Giancarlo Guerrero all play integral<br />
roles. Curiously, though, Sierra and his creations<br />
appear to be on the same level.<br />
Nevertheless, as much as James Carter<br />
shapes the music with his breathtaking artistry<br />
and technique, the composer’s voice rises to<br />
the top. In the concerto Sierra creates a stunning<br />
Gershwinesque soundscape, full of<br />
motive-driven themes, sumptuous orchestral<br />
color, dreamy post-romantic harmonies, and<br />
infectious rhythmic episodes. Carter brings all<br />
his jazz experience to the table, yet he knows<br />
when to melt into a classically sculpted passage,<br />
and he knows where to push the envelope.<br />
Indeed, and perhaps appropriately, several<br />
passages go well beyond what the symphonic<br />
jazz composers of the 1920s and 1930s<br />
could have ever imagined, calling to mind<br />
bebop, cool jazz, Latin jazz, and fusion.<br />
The Caribbean Rhapsody is a double chamber<br />
concerto, a dialog between saxophone and<br />
violin, played by James and Regina, with the<br />
backdrop of the string quintet. The first half is<br />
a gorgeous post-romantic bolero, somewhat<br />
reminiscent of Satie, but the second half turns<br />
into a salsa contest. The most dramatic<br />
moment occurs when the quintet drops out for<br />
a jaw-dropping showdown between James and<br />
Regina, that, even if still notated on the page,<br />
sizzles and pops with the air of spontaneity.<br />
When the excitement dies down to an attention-grabbing<br />
pianissimo, the quintet enters<br />
with a catchy bossa nova that brings the conflict<br />
to a happy toe-tapping end.<br />
James follows the concerto and the rhapsody<br />
each with an unaccompanied solo improvised<br />
with themes from the preceding work.<br />
The concerto postlude is for tenor saxophone,<br />
and the rhapsody postlude is for soprano saxophone.<br />
As brilliant and enjoyable as they are,<br />
any one of Sierra’s thrilling codas would have<br />
been a more logical send-off for the audience.<br />
Moreover, the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Akua<br />
Dixon Quintet are amazing supporting casts,<br />
thoroughly professional in their work, and they<br />
deserve as much acclaim as the composer and<br />
the soloists.<br />
HANUDEL<br />
Roberto Sierra teams up with jazz saxophonist<br />
James Carter in this fusion extravaganza.<br />
Carter is referred to by Sierra as “the Paganini<br />
of the saxophone”, and aficionados of that<br />
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instrument will surely not want to miss this.<br />
Other listeners might not want to be in too<br />
much of a hurry.<br />
The concerto is for saxophones; the plural<br />
refers to soprano and tenor saxophones, one<br />
player (Carter). The promising first movement<br />
turns Milhaud up a notch, filled with elegant<br />
ideas and fearsome virtuosity. The pretty slow<br />
movement is a somewhat cheesy chaconne<br />
with the soloist contributing some bluesy<br />
wrong notes. The finale begins as an energetic<br />
rondo, but quickly degenerates into what the<br />
audience was really waiting for, a classical<br />
music-busting rock ‘n roll blues that sounds as<br />
if Lawrence Welk hijacked the podium with<br />
Jerry Lee Lewis in tow. It sounds ridiculous,<br />
and naturally had to be repeated at its premiere.<br />
As with most of these efforts, the total<br />
package will please mostly presenters and<br />
classical music-hating pops audiences. Therefore,<br />
it was a stupendous success.<br />
The solo parts seem mostly improvised in<br />
Caribbean Rhapsody (no date, but the notes<br />
say it’s “new”). It sounds like everyone’s having<br />
a ball.<br />
As with most nonclassical releases, the performer<br />
gets the headline, at least on the hyperbole-laden<br />
review copy.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
SMALL: Lullaby of War; Renoir’s Feast; 3<br />
Etudes in Sound<br />
Soheil Nasseri, p; Martin Rayner, narr<br />
Naxos 559649—64 minutes<br />
Haskell Small (b. 1948) is equally accomplished<br />
as both a pianist and composer (he<br />
counts among his teachers Leon Fleisher and<br />
Vincent Persichetti). The sound of his music is<br />
resolutely eclectic, though in the main he uses<br />
a slightly dissonant idiom (the building blocks<br />
are often extended triads), straightforward—<br />
even conservative—rhythms, and traditional<br />
ideas about form and musical development.<br />
The newest piece on this release, Lullaby of<br />
War (2007), was written for its performer here,<br />
the young <strong>American</strong> Soheil Nasseri. Six poems<br />
critical of war (beautifully read by Martin<br />
Rayner) alternate with musical utterances for<br />
the solo piano. Pianist and reader remain<br />
apart—probably the best way to approach<br />
these poems with their extreme subtleties of<br />
language. (Naxos doesn’t print the texts, but<br />
they are available online.)<br />
Renoir’s Feast (2005), commissioned by the<br />
Philips Collection, is a suite of miniatures<br />
designed as a kind of response to Renoir’s<br />
Luncheon of The Boating Party; it is somewhat<br />
lighter in tone, also virtuosic for the piano<br />
soloist, and does not overstay its welcome.<br />
The final work—Three Etudes in Sound<br />
(1993)—engages me more than the others: the<br />
musical materials are more coherent, more<br />
tightly controlled, and the three-movement<br />
work also makes more sense as a whole than<br />
the other two. Mr Nasseri, who has the skill<br />
and insight to do almost any music he wishes,<br />
is a passionate advocate for these works and is<br />
to be commended for devoting so much of his<br />
career to new music. (In all, he’s commissioned<br />
9 pieces and premiered 24.)<br />
HASKINS<br />
SMETANA: Quartets;<br />
SIBELIUS: Quartet<br />
Dante Quartet<br />
Hyperion 67845—78 minutes<br />
The Dante Quartet is a British Ensemble that<br />
was formed about 15 years ago and recently<br />
has won several top awards. From their names<br />
I gather that they are of Polish, French, and<br />
British backgrounds. The playing time on this<br />
recording is certainly attractive, and they play<br />
well enough that I can well understand why<br />
someone might buy this. The playing on half a<br />
dozen Czech recordings is better but not<br />
enough to compensate for the fact that most<br />
have just the two Smetana quartets on them.<br />
In the case of Sibelius’s (last, main) quartet,<br />
this reading is one of the best available.<br />
Good sound and notes.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
SOMERS: Stereophony; Piano Concerto 2;<br />
Those Silent, Awe-Filled Spaces<br />
Robert Silverman, p; Toronto Symphony/ Jukka-<br />
Pekka Saraste, Victor Feldbrill; Esprit Orchestra/<br />
Alex Pauk—Centrediscs 15911—71 minutes<br />
I have heard quite a bit of music by Canadian<br />
composer Harry Somers (1925-99) in recent<br />
years (Nov/Dec 2009, May/June 2010). This<br />
album offers orchestral works in concert readings.<br />
Jukka-Pekka Saraste leads the Toronto<br />
Symphony in a 1997 account of Stereophony<br />
(1963), where musicians were placed in specific<br />
spots around the hall. Given its antiphonal,<br />
clarion-call brass opening, one might wonder<br />
if Somers was recalling Gabrieli—or Britten’s<br />
‘Fanfare for St Edmundsbury’. Somers is not<br />
concerned with ensemble togetherness; he<br />
wants things to be unsynchronized. And so,<br />
when woodwinds, strings, and percussion join<br />
the fray—when they are each playing their<br />
own materials at their own tempos—the 14minute<br />
piece seems like controlled chaos.<br />
From time to time, tuttis give way to allow<br />
soloists and small groups to be heard. The<br />
ending shimmers and fades out.<br />
Along the same abstract, multilayered,<br />
modernist, often strident vein is the 12-minute<br />
Those Silent, Awe-Filled Spaces (1978), heard in<br />
a 2004 reading with Alex Pauk conducting the<br />
Esprit Orchestra.<br />
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The big piece is Piano Concerto 2 (1956),<br />
and it is really big—a three-movement, 48minute<br />
behemoth. In I, though the musical<br />
language is mostly atonal, there are a few tonal<br />
elements that help to ease the listening experience<br />
from time to time. There are big, chaotic<br />
passages and quiet, intimate ones (with<br />
coughs and rumbling trucks to remind us that<br />
this is a concert in Toronto’s Massey Hall). A<br />
spectacular II has big, sweeping melodies and<br />
impressive sonorities. I don’t know if there are<br />
three movements or four, because four are listed<br />
on the program and indexed on the disc,<br />
but only three are mentioned and discussed in<br />
the notes. No matter. The music wages tonalvs-atonal<br />
battles until its bombastic ending.<br />
Robert Silverman is the excellent pianist; Victor<br />
Feldbrill conducted the Toronto Symphony<br />
in this 1978 recording.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
SOR: Guitar Fantasias<br />
Stefano Palamidessi<br />
Brilliant 93960 [3CD] 212 minutes<br />
Sor composed 14 Fantasias for solo guitar.<br />
That term is not well defined; composers since<br />
the Renaissance have used it to indicate a work<br />
with a free form, almost as if it were improvised.<br />
Sor’s are more or less consistent. Each is<br />
a multi-movement composition, usually two<br />
or three, beginning with a slow and meditative<br />
opening movement (8 of the 14 open with an<br />
Andante largo), followed often by a set of variations.<br />
Even those are usually moderately<br />
slow—only one has a marking faster than allegretto.<br />
You won’t find fireworks here. These works<br />
are contemplative, not showy. You will find<br />
many passages of intense beauty, and more<br />
contrapuntal work and harmonic audacity<br />
than is usually the case with this composer. I<br />
am happy to have all the works in a set, in<br />
excellent performances, though hearing it as a<br />
set was a bit of a trial. One would never perform<br />
three hours plus of such restrained music<br />
without contrasting material.<br />
Sor, unlike his Golden Age contemporaries<br />
such as Giuliani and Aguado, did compose for<br />
more than the guitar—two operas, seven ballet<br />
scores, three symphonies, some piano music,<br />
some choral music. He studied widely, and<br />
some of that broader background is evident<br />
here.<br />
What is also evident is Sor’s cosmopolitan<br />
career. He fled his native Spain when his<br />
Napoleonic sympathies made his life there<br />
uncomfortable, and relocated in Paris. He<br />
married a ballet dancer and followed her<br />
career to, among other places, St Petersburg in<br />
Russia. He was friends with many of the great<br />
musicians of his day, and many of these works<br />
are dedicated to some of these luminaries—<br />
two to guitarist Aguado, one to Regondi, and<br />
others to pianists Kalkbrenner and Pleyel, and<br />
violinist Francesco Vaccari. Sor’s final work for<br />
guitar, the Fantasia Elegiaca, was written in<br />
memory of pianist Charlotte Beslay, a friend of<br />
Chopin and Rossini.<br />
The fantasias are augmented with a singlemovement<br />
work, La Calme, Caprice, along<br />
with a serenade and a concert piece, both<br />
multi-movement works in the style of the fantasias.<br />
Sor evidently found this formal arrangement<br />
attractive. His major works for two guitars<br />
also follow this pattern.<br />
Stefano Palamidessi has an active European<br />
career, though there is no mention in his<br />
biography of his performing outside Europe<br />
except for trips to Israel. He seems to be something<br />
of a Sor specialist, not only as a performer<br />
but as a teacher and scholar. One of his<br />
books is dedicated to a detailed analysis of<br />
Sor’s studies. His excellent notes (in an sometimes<br />
awkward translation) are informative<br />
and useful. His performances are excellent—<br />
tasteful, elegant, expressive. He has a lovely<br />
tone and a thorough technical command.<br />
Again, these works are no celebration of virtuosity,<br />
but of a different, perhaps higher, plane<br />
of expression, and he has the good taste not to<br />
attempt to insert fireworks where there is no<br />
need for it.<br />
KEATON<br />
SPOHR: Der Alchymist<br />
Bernd Weikl (Vasquez), Moran Abouloff (Inez),<br />
Jorg Durmuller (Alonzo), Jan Zinkler (Ramiro),<br />
Susanna Putters (Paola); Braunschweig Theater/<br />
Christian Frolich<br />
Oehms 923 [3CD] 132 minutes<br />
Ramiro, who is still loved by his former lover<br />
Paola, loves Inez, the daughter of the alchemist<br />
Vasquez. But Inez loves Alonzo. A vengeful<br />
Paola warns Alonzo of Ramiro’s interest in<br />
Inez, who rejects Ramiro’s wooing. And so<br />
begins a complex plot that results in Vasquez,<br />
through Ramiro’s plotting, being brought<br />
before the Inquisition. Eventually all ends well.<br />
Inez and Alonzo are together, Vasquez is freed<br />
from prison by Alonzo, who wounds the dastardly<br />
Ramiro in a duel, and Paola gets herself<br />
to a nunnery.<br />
It’s an absurd unashamedly melodramatic<br />
work based on a Washington Irving novel, but<br />
at least in Spohr’s 1830 opera credulity isn’t<br />
strained in the manner of Weber’s Euryanthe<br />
or Schumann’s Genoveva. In an interview in<br />
this set’s booklet, Maestro Frolich speaks of<br />
Der Alchymist as if it’s a great example of German<br />
operatic romanticism. If that’s the case, a<br />
stronger performance is needed to prove it.<br />
Spohr composed some attractive symphonies,<br />
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concertos, and chamber music; but this mixture<br />
of set pieces, spoken dialog, melodrama,<br />
and recitative (Wagner’s early Das Liebesverbot<br />
also has all of these elements) struck me as<br />
tedious listening. If only Weber had been its<br />
composer. Librettist Carl Pfeiffer’s lines are<br />
often dull as dishwater, and Spohr’s music is<br />
sometimes pleasant but never memorable.<br />
Veteran Bernd Weikl, in his upper 60s<br />
when this 2009 recording was made, lacks his<br />
former vocal luster, but he speaks and sings<br />
with great authority—the only singer in the<br />
cast who’s fully into his role. A pity Vasquez<br />
isn’t a huge singing part. The ladies are all<br />
right in their not very demanding roles, but Ms<br />
Abouloff could use more vocal weight, and Ms<br />
Putters as Paolina seems to be struggling to<br />
make her character (a kinder, gentler combination<br />
of Weber’s Eglantine and Wagner’s<br />
Ortrud) come alive. I think she too needs more<br />
vocal weight. Durmuller isn’t an especially villainous<br />
bad guy; he has a weak lower range.<br />
Frolich may believe Der Alchymist is an<br />
unjustly neglected great opera, but a stronger<br />
performance is needed to convince me. Libretto<br />
in German only.<br />
MARK<br />
STOCKHAUSEN: Piano Works<br />
Elisabeth Klein<br />
Scandinavian 220555—69 minutes<br />
Here is a well-filled disc of Stockhausen piano<br />
music, strongly performed and recorded. The<br />
latest work, Tierkreis from 1975-77, is a series<br />
of 12 melodies for the zodiac. By far the most<br />
listenable offering on the program, it has a delicate<br />
melancholy and attenuated lyricism; it’s<br />
a specimen of what the notes call the composer’s<br />
“new friendliness”. Another way of saying<br />
this is that the earlier avant-garde pieces<br />
are unfriendly. Klavierstuck IX consists of a<br />
chord repeated 139 times, then 83 more followed<br />
by a rapid series of grace notes. V, from<br />
1954, is a foreboding piece full of trills, with<br />
moments of hesitant tonality. Several works<br />
are specimens of the music of chance that was<br />
so fashionable half a century ago. XI consists of<br />
19 different groups, the order chosen at the<br />
performance, so each account is different. Elisabeth<br />
Klein, a master of contemporary European<br />
music, plays with icy authority in brilliant<br />
sound.<br />
SULLIVAN<br />
STORACE: Harpsichord Pieces<br />
Naoko Akutagawa<br />
Naxos 572209—64 minutes<br />
Akutagawa is a secure and poised player. I<br />
appreciate her stylish ornamentation in the<br />
Corrente and her finely-honed sense of Fres-<br />
cobaldian timing in the Toccata in F. She presents<br />
a strong case for Storace’s less widelyperformed<br />
works like the Toccata, the passamezzo<br />
pieces, and Partite Sopra Il Cinque<br />
Passi. She has chosen to alter certain accidentals<br />
that in the original score are much more<br />
dissonant. This is a matter of personal taste<br />
and discretion.<br />
KATZ<br />
STRAUSS,J: The Goddess of Reason<br />
Veronika Groiss, Isabella Ma-Zach, s; Manfred<br />
Equiluz, Kirlianit Cortes, Franz Fodinger, Wolfgang<br />
Veith, t; Andreas Mittermeier, Nicolas<br />
Legoux, b; Slovak Sinfonietta/ Christian Pollack<br />
Naxos 660280 [2CD] 125 minutes<br />
This is a very strange Johann Strauss II<br />
operetta, and the last one he wrote. Die Göttin<br />
der Vernunft was not composed altogether<br />
willingly. Strauss may have gone into a contract<br />
with his librettists, Willner and Buchbinder,<br />
but once confronted with the plot and<br />
the lyrics, he sought eagerly to be released<br />
from his contract.<br />
The final operetta from the Waltz King is<br />
chock-a-block with marches and a few waltzes.<br />
The story takes place in a French town near<br />
the German border, at the time of the French<br />
Revolution. Although there is some business<br />
with mistaken identity involving a countess,<br />
the plot has little involvement with the Reign<br />
of Terror then taking place in Paris. It more<br />
resembles a French operetta of the late 1890s,<br />
with a military garrison close to a girls’ school<br />
and the typical entanglements that follow.<br />
There’s a lot of military music, from the Act<br />
I ‘Kommt her!’ to the finale tribute to the hussars;<br />
and one gets the requisite march strains<br />
rather often. There are entrance songs for various<br />
captains, a trio for three Jacobins with a<br />
march coda, and finales that end with marches.<br />
Not that these finales are terribly memorable.<br />
The waltzes pop up, of course, and some of<br />
them are most attractive. In the second act—<br />
by far the strongest of the three—there’s a duet<br />
for Captain Robert and the countess that<br />
begins with a violin solo that sounds like humming<br />
bees around a rose bush and ends fairly<br />
passionately with a waltz strain. The next<br />
number was intended as the real take-home<br />
waltz: a tribute by an ageing landowner to his<br />
‘Wild Time of Youth’. It’s nice, but hardly in<br />
the same league as the triumphant waltzes<br />
from Die Fledermaus, Eine Nacht in Venedig,<br />
or Gypsy Baron. But just to make sure you<br />
don’t forget it, it turns up as an entr’acte<br />
before the final act.<br />
A female duet in the second act is appealing,<br />
as is another march, sung by the countess,<br />
swearing allegiance to the army. A further duet<br />
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for Jacquelin, a caricaturist, and Ernestine, a<br />
former grisette, has a wistful elegance. And it is<br />
very well sung by Isabella Ma-Zach and Wolfgang<br />
Veith.<br />
Die Göttin der Vernunft played the Theater<br />
an der Wien a mere 36 times and was promptly<br />
forgotten. But a decade later the music was<br />
extracted and put together with a new libretto,<br />
called Reiche Mädchen (Rich Girls), which<br />
played at the Raimundtheater. This was a<br />
much greater success, thanks probably to the<br />
great Alexander Girardi in a leading part.<br />
It is obvious that Strauss had little interest<br />
in the libretto, which, fortunately or unfortunately,<br />
depending on your mood, is not<br />
included here. I didn’t have a copy to follow<br />
the lyrics or the dialog. Naxos does supply a<br />
synopsis. What’s odd is that at least one of the<br />
librettists, Willner, became much more<br />
accomplished later on, supplying many librettos<br />
for Franz Lehar and many other composers.<br />
Among the hits he wrote were The<br />
Count of Luxembourg and Das Dreimäderlhaus.<br />
Strauss of course regained his stature<br />
with the next operetta, Wiener Blut, adapted<br />
from his music and still played everywhere.<br />
We can thank the Johann Strauss Edition<br />
of his works for this endeavor, which was<br />
reconstructed and then recorded in Slovakia<br />
with the participation of the Johann Strauss<br />
Society of Great Britain. Peter Kemp, from that<br />
society, wrote the fine notes. The orchestra,<br />
under Christian Pollack (who also arranged the<br />
reconstruction of the original score), gives a<br />
real shimmer to the music; and the soloists are<br />
excellent.<br />
As a filler, the dance arrangements from<br />
this operetta are included, as recorded previously<br />
on the Marco Polo label.<br />
TRAUBNER<br />
STRAUSS: Piano Quartet; Cello Sonata;<br />
Capriccio Sextet<br />
Michal Kanka, vc; Miguel Borges Coelho, p;<br />
Prazak Quartet<br />
Praga 250275 [SACD] 75 minutes<br />
I never got past my initial impression that the<br />
piano quartet is simply too aggressive here. It’s<br />
not especially fast, though there are slower<br />
performances; but the attacks are almost<br />
angry, and the blasts of violin tone sound<br />
almost frantic and certainly irritating (and I<br />
think not perfectly on pitch).<br />
This music is not particularly popular. It’s<br />
from Strauss’s Brahmsian period, and he tried<br />
to suppress it. <strong>Record</strong>ings come and go, and I<br />
like a few that I think are gone. But in the last<br />
five years or so we reviewed two that are better<br />
than this one. The Leipzig Quartet on MDG<br />
6431355 (May/June 2006) is probably still<br />
available, and we liked the beautiful old world<br />
sound and playing. I liked the Alvarez Quartet<br />
recording even better—it’s also old world but<br />
even gentler and sweeter. But that was coupled<br />
in a two-disc set with Wilhelm Petersen’s<br />
Piano Quintet (Hera 2121, March/April 2007).<br />
It also had five small pieces for piano quartet<br />
by Strauss that you probably can’t get anywhere<br />
else—and two of them are really nice.<br />
Michal Kanka is an excellent cellist, but<br />
often he seems too “busy” to let us enjoy the<br />
rich tone of the instrument. He is always rushing<br />
on to the next phrase (though the slow<br />
movement is quite lovely). Again, this is not a<br />
great work, but it can be more appealing than<br />
it is here. (The old Audiofon recording by<br />
William De Rosa even sounds better—Jan/Feb<br />
1997.)<br />
And the Capriccio sextet introduction<br />
(about ten minutes) turns up on lots of recordings,<br />
so you don’t need this for that.<br />
VROON<br />
STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier<br />
Teresa Zylis-Gara (Octavian), Montserrat Caballé<br />
(Marschallin), Edith Mathis (Sophie), Otto Edelmann<br />
(Ochs), John Modenos (Faninal); Glyndebourne<br />
1965/ John Pritchard<br />
Glyndebourne 10 [3CD] 188 minutes<br />
This performance of Strauss’s most popular<br />
opera was recorded from the stage of the Glyndebourne<br />
Theater on May 30, 1965 before an<br />
enthusiastic audience. Because that theater is<br />
relatively small, this performance uses the<br />
composer’s reduced orchestral score, which<br />
undoubtedly made things easier for the excellent<br />
cast. But the London Philharmonic,<br />
despite its reduced size, plays the music beautifully<br />
under John Pritchard’s knowing direction,<br />
making this one of the better recordings<br />
of staged performances of this opera. It has an<br />
intimate quality that’s often lacking when the<br />
original score is used.<br />
As for the cast, Montserrat Caballé, in<br />
superb vocal fettle, turns out to be a very good<br />
Marschallin. Her pure, gorgeous voice, with its<br />
many shadings, allows her to exploit the tonal<br />
beauty of the music without scanting the<br />
words in a way that few Marschallins can<br />
achieve. Her high pianissimos, almost a trademark<br />
of her singing, are remarkably effective in<br />
the final scene of Act 1, where she uses it to<br />
distance herself from Octavian, her erstwhile<br />
lover, without losing her dignity. Teresa Zylis-<br />
Gara, here Octavian (later in her career, she<br />
also sang the Marschallin), also has a smooth<br />
and attractive voice, and she acts the teen-age<br />
lover with passionate vigor.<br />
Edith Mathis, then still in her 20s, had a<br />
beautiful soprano of considerable range; in<br />
1965 she sang both Sophie and Cherubino at<br />
Glyndebourne. Her Sophie breaks no new<br />
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ground; indeed it’s a bit too bland, perhaps<br />
owing to her position on stage. Still, she performs<br />
it well. Otto Edelmann’s sings Ochs with<br />
a pronounced Viennese accent. Since the performance<br />
is in German, this may have confused<br />
his British audiences; apart from that,<br />
it’s a standard interpretation, well sung. The<br />
rest of the cast is quite competent, though I<br />
wonder at the provenance of John Andrew, the<br />
Italian Singer; he’s no Pavarotti.<br />
Glyndebourne’s presentation is, as always,<br />
lavish. The book package includes the complete<br />
libretto in German and English plus a<br />
synopsis of the plot in three languages (including<br />
French) as well as photographs of the staging.<br />
The sound is the best I’ve heard in any<br />
Glyndebourne release. This set is worth<br />
acquiring for several reasons but especially for<br />
Caballé’s Marschallin.<br />
MOSES<br />
STRAUSS: songs<br />
Ständchen; Leises Lied; Wiegenliedchen; Rote<br />
Rosen; De Erwachte Rose; Malven; Schlagende<br />
Herzen; Muttertanderlei; Das Bachlein; Amor;<br />
Madchenblumen, op 22; 5 Songs, op 48; Ophelia<br />
Songs<br />
Gillian Keith, s; Simon Lepper, p<br />
Champ Hill 18—60 minutes<br />
Soprano Gillian Keith, who took a degree in<br />
piano performance from McGill University,<br />
here proves herself to be a superb interpreter<br />
of Richard Strauss’s lieder. This is one of the<br />
best Strauss recital albums since Soile<br />
Isokoski’s memorable traversal of the orchestral<br />
songs for Ondine (Sept/Oct 2002). She has<br />
power a-plenty, but even more impressive are<br />
her perfectly gossamer pianissimos.<br />
It is a pity that the engineers have placed<br />
pianist Simon Lepper unnaturally far in the<br />
background, as it spoils what might have been<br />
an unqualified success. No matter—it is at<br />
least a qualified success of the best sort.<br />
BOYER<br />
STRAUSS: songs<br />
Diana Damrau, s; Munich Philharmonic/ Christian<br />
Thielemann<br />
Virgin 28664—71 minutes<br />
The German soprano Diana Damrau has in the<br />
last several years become one of the most versatile<br />
and busiest lyric sopranos at the Met.<br />
She has sung leading roles in operas by Rossini<br />
(The Barber of Seville and Le Comte D’Ory),<br />
Richard Strauss (Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne<br />
auf Naxos, and The Egyptian Helen), Mozart<br />
(The Magic Flute), and Verdi (Rigoletto). On the<br />
evidence of this all-Strauss program, she is<br />
also a good lieder singer. She has an attractive,<br />
secure, and agile voice and a thorough under-<br />
standing of her repertory. It’s not a large voice,<br />
but it’s pure and even and it has the required<br />
vocal range; and her diction, in opera and<br />
lieder, is very good, if not quite in the<br />
Schwarzkopf class. Her lieder interpretations,<br />
while not breaking new ground, are fresh and<br />
straightforward, and not encrusted with artificial<br />
mannerisms.<br />
This program of 22 lieder includes many of<br />
Strauss’s most popular songs, such as ‘Morgen’,<br />
‘Allerseelen’, ‘Das Rosenband’, ‘Traum<br />
durch die Dämmerung’, and ‘Zueignung’. Yet<br />
there are also several that are unfamiliar like<br />
‘Lied der Frauen’, a seven-minute song that<br />
tells of a woman’s worries about her absent<br />
husband (a miner or a soldier) and her exultation<br />
and joy when he comes back to her. The<br />
words, by Brentano, seem trite; and that may<br />
account for Strauss’s lack of inspiration in the<br />
musical setting. But many of these songs are<br />
among the composer’s best.<br />
The orchestral accompaniments are the<br />
composer’s own, in some cases done long after<br />
the piano version had been published. Thielemann<br />
is a very careful accompanist, and the<br />
excellent Munich Philharmonic sounds wonderfully<br />
transparent. It never covers the singer.<br />
Ten of these songs were recorded by<br />
Schwarzkopf with the Four Last Songs, with<br />
George Szell on EMI. That has long been one<br />
of my favorite recordings of this repertory.<br />
Damrau is not as accomplished a singer now<br />
as Schwarzkopf was then in terms of interpretive<br />
depth, richness of sound, and tonal beauty;<br />
but the better orchestral sound of this<br />
release almost evens things up. Texts and<br />
translations are included in the booklet.<br />
MOSES<br />
STRAVINSKY: Rite of Spring;<br />
BARTOK: Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion<br />
Duo d’Accord; Eardrum Percussion Duo<br />
Genuin 11195—59 minutes<br />
Pianists Lucia Huang and Sebastian Euler are<br />
Duo d’Accord, and this is their fourth superb<br />
disc to come my way for review. Impeccable<br />
musicianship, precise ensemble, and inquisitive<br />
exploration of unusual repertoire are all<br />
phrases that describe this young piano duo.<br />
Their Messiaen Visions de l’Amen (Oehms 704,<br />
May/June 2008) made my best of the year list,<br />
and I have a strong feeling about this disc<br />
repeating that honor this year. This is one of<br />
the most brilliant ensemble performances I<br />
have ever heard, and Genuin’s recorded sound<br />
is truly demonstration quality. I have Ohm<br />
Walsh 5 speakers with Rotel amplification and<br />
will keep this disc at hand to show off my system.<br />
If I have one minor caveat, it is that there<br />
is so much presence in the percussion instruments<br />
that they dominate sometimes when I<br />
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think the pianos should be more front and<br />
center. A different reviewer may very well be<br />
glad that this is the first recording of the Bartok<br />
where the percussion finally has its rightful<br />
place in the sonic spectrum. I have been fortunate<br />
to see three concert performances of this<br />
masterpiece of 20th Century chamber music,<br />
and have several recordings (including the<br />
excellent Martha Argerich & Stephen Kovacevich<br />
reviewed elsewhere in this issue). Duo<br />
d’Accord and the Eardrum Percussion Duo<br />
(Johannes Fischer and Domenico Melchiorre)<br />
are without question at the top of my list.<br />
While I expect excellent ensemble, I am grateful<br />
for the infectious excitement these four<br />
conjure up and the sophistication of their<br />
quiet interplay.<br />
While the Bartok is reason enough to get<br />
this, the Stravinsky is a world premiere recording<br />
of this ensemble’s version for two pianos<br />
and percussion. It has all of the spectacular<br />
performance and sonic qualities of the Bartok,<br />
plus we have to give credit to the ensemble for<br />
a new version of an established masterpiece<br />
that should make its way into the standard<br />
repertory. It is of course a perfect pairing with<br />
the Bartok. There are few if any works of comparable<br />
quality for the same ensemble.<br />
Stravinsky himself made an arrangement for<br />
two pianists at one or two pianos (a number of<br />
compromises must be made if only one piano<br />
is used). It is here that this group began. Then<br />
they added the percussion parts from the<br />
orchestral score and expanded the piano writing.<br />
As the booklet notes tell us, there was a<br />
long rehearsal process where various ideas<br />
were tried and evaluated. The percussion parts<br />
were expanded to not only support the pianos,<br />
but to take the lead and get the main musical<br />
line sometimes. The virtuosity of the mallet<br />
instruments will make your jaw drop. The end<br />
result works so well that I am astounded.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
STRAVINSKY: Violin Pieces<br />
Isabelle van Keulen, v; Olli Mustonen, p<br />
Newton 8802062 [2CD] 96 minutes<br />
When it comes to Stravinsky, we are not only<br />
used to an endless list of masterpieces, but of<br />
large works like The Rite of Spring and the<br />
Symphony of Psalms. This is an exceptional<br />
collection of the complete works for violin and<br />
piano. These pieces, some no more than 3<br />
minutes long, have the same sophistication,<br />
brilliance, merit, and inspiration as some of<br />
Stravinsky’s larger works. Most are arrangements<br />
that came from a long friendship with<br />
violinist Samuel Duskin.<br />
The high points of this collection are the<br />
Divertimento and the glorious and elegant<br />
Duo Concertant.<br />
Mustonen and Keulen give a spectacular<br />
performance, filled with nuance, color, and<br />
intensity. Their passion is intoxicating. Many<br />
of these were arranged for specific performances<br />
and are meant to have an improvisational<br />
flare. In the same spirit, Olli Mustonen<br />
made an arrangement of the ‘Tango’, originally<br />
written by Stravinsky for piano.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
STRAVINSKY: Duo Concertant; 2-Piano<br />
Sonata; Requiem Canticles; Abraham &<br />
Isaac; Elegie; Blue Bird<br />
Jennifer Frautschi, v; Jeremy Denk, p; Philharmonia<br />
Orchestra; 20th Century Ensemble/ Robert<br />
Craft<br />
Naxos 557532—68 minutes<br />
All of these performances are satisfying. The<br />
performance of the Sonata for Two Pianos is<br />
very good. The Requiem Canticles are also<br />
done well, but I am not thrilled with the choir.<br />
I expect a more rigid approach with little to no<br />
vibrato. The Duo Concertant is OK, but I prefer<br />
Keulen (above). Abraham and Isaac comes to<br />
life with baritone David Wilson-Johnson. He<br />
has a warm and expansive sound. The high<br />
point of this collection is without a doubt the<br />
Elegie for solo viola. Richard O’Neill gives a<br />
stunning performance of one of Stravinsky’s<br />
most memorable works.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
STURLA: Passio Di Venerdi Santo<br />
Laura Delfino, s; Marina Frandi, a; Emanuela<br />
Esposito, cantus firmus; Il Concento Ecclesiastico/<br />
Luca Franco Ferrari<br />
Brilliant 94184—52 minutes<br />
Little is known about Carlo Sturla, active in<br />
Genoa in the first part of the 18th Century.<br />
This piece is a St John Passion without the full<br />
Passion story, as the music manuscript ends at<br />
the point where the soldiers cast lots for Jesus’<br />
clothing. The piece is rather interesting, with<br />
secular styles (including dramatic opera writing)<br />
incorporated into a sacred piece to comply<br />
with the Church’s music restrictions for<br />
Lent. The interpretation is not satisfying: the<br />
choral passages (female voices) are often too<br />
fast and in a sports-cheering style; the cantus<br />
firmus is echoey and sung with a nasal timbre<br />
that does not match the choral sound. Rather<br />
than providing refreshing contrasts, these differences<br />
break the piece into unconnected<br />
sections.<br />
Director Luca Franco Ferrari founded Il<br />
Concento Ecclesiastico in 1995, and he prepared<br />
the performing edition of the Sturla Passion<br />
for this 2006 recording. The ensemble<br />
specializes in the re-discovery and perfor-<br />
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mance of unknown baroque repertoire. Notes,<br />
texts, translations. First recording.<br />
C MOORE<br />
SUK: Fantasy;<br />
RESPIGHI: Autumn Poem;<br />
CHAUSSON: Poeme;<br />
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: The Lark Ascending<br />
Julia Fischer, v; Monte Carlo Philharmonic/<br />
Yakov Kreizberg<br />
Decca 15535—70 minutes<br />
The Fantasy in D minor by Josef Suk is a grand<br />
and impressive piece written on a huge canvas,<br />
and has a powerful orchestration. It calls<br />
for a very good violinist; and Fischer has<br />
power, precision, and the ability to make every<br />
note on the violin sing out in full voice. The<br />
recording is made in such a way that the largeness<br />
of the orchestration does not detract from<br />
the largeness of the violin playing.<br />
The Respighi, another big piece for violin<br />
and orchestra, also has a great deal of orchestral<br />
color, and it includes a wonderful section<br />
of extended violin harmonics.<br />
Fischer’s take on the well-known Chausson<br />
Poeme is rather conventional, and after<br />
hearing Ulf Schneider’s reading (J/A 2010) on<br />
Ars Musici, which draws its inspiration from<br />
the Turgenev story ‘The Song of Triumphant<br />
Love’ (the story that inspired Chausson to<br />
write the piece), the conventional Ysayeinspired,<br />
somewhat hazy approach to the<br />
piece no longer works for me, no matter how<br />
beautifully every note is played.<br />
Fischer seems most at home in The Lark<br />
Ascending, which she plays delicately and<br />
effectively. I far prefer the way Fischer plays<br />
this music to the way she plays Schubert (J/F<br />
2010).<br />
FINE<br />
SUPPE: Dalmatia Mass<br />
Daniel Schreiber, Henning Jensen, t; Philip<br />
Niederberger, b; Jens Wollenschlager, org; Lords<br />
of the Chords/ Jens Wollenschlager<br />
Carus 83455—49 minutes<br />
Franz von Suppe (1819-1895) was born in Split,<br />
Dalmatia (now in Croatia). The original version<br />
of this Mass for three male soloists and<br />
men’s choir was a product of his youth. Later<br />
in life he revised it thoroughly before submitting<br />
it for publication in 1876. Though not festooned<br />
with dazzling counterpoint or ravishing<br />
melodies, it is an attractive, mellow, wellcrafted<br />
traversal of the liturgy that gives a firstrate<br />
men’s choir many opportunities to shine.<br />
And shine these fellows do, whether crooning<br />
their way elegantly through the Kyrie and<br />
other introspective interludes, or becoming<br />
cheerleaders for God when Suppe turns them<br />
loose in the Gloria.<br />
His ‘Gloria in excelsis’, by the way, establishes<br />
the key of B-flat major the same way the<br />
opening of Monteverdi’s Vespers puts you in D.<br />
(Hope you find the tonic healthful!) Like the<br />
choir, the three solo voices are light, bright,<br />
and agile, which is precisely what you want in<br />
such a work. The Carus engineering is flattering<br />
to one and all.<br />
I have to admit, though, that the music had<br />
me chuckling more than once. Why? Because<br />
the organ can sound a bit like a calliope; and<br />
with all the close harmonies being sold to the<br />
max by the men, I began picturing them down<br />
on one knee, pitching woo to the Lord wearing<br />
candy-striped jackets and straw hats! (Adoramus<br />
te, my Coney Island baby.) Please don’t<br />
get me wrong: this is a serious piece full of<br />
prayerful intentions. Suppe wasn’t fooling<br />
around. But I know what I heard, and I’m still<br />
giggling as I type this. Anyway, informative<br />
notes in a full-service booklet clinch the deal<br />
on a handsome release. And who says a proper<br />
liturgy can’t elicit a smile or two as it unfolds?<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
TAFFANEL: Wind Quintets; see DANZI<br />
TANAKA: Piano Pieces<br />
Signe Bakke—2L 74—51 minutes<br />
“Crystalline”, the title of this enticing program<br />
of Karen Tanaka’s piano music, is also the<br />
name of the works that open and close the<br />
program. The first, from 1988, is influenced by<br />
Messiaen; the second, a more personal statement<br />
from 1995, reflects Tanaka’s Japanese<br />
heritage. Both are seductive pieces in a nontonal<br />
impressionist idiom. The more recent<br />
works, with titles like Water Dance I-III, are<br />
more tonal, some might say mushily so. Others,<br />
like Techno Etudes I-III, are aggressive<br />
molto perpetuo bursts of energy. Still others<br />
are charming children’s pieces.<br />
Though Tanaka reflects the promiscuously<br />
eclectic era we live in, she does explore these<br />
varied idioms with imagination and an ear for<br />
beautiful piano sound. Signe Bakke, long a<br />
Tanaka champion, plays with a stunning color<br />
and vividness—qualities matched by the<br />
recorded sound.<br />
SULLIVAN<br />
TANEYEV: Quartets 2 + 3<br />
Carpe Diem Quartet—Naxos 572421—74 minutes<br />
This is important music to know. Taneyev is<br />
certainly known as one of the great composition<br />
teachers, teaching Rachmaninoff and<br />
Scriabin among others. But his music is not<br />
often performed. He is a master of Russian<br />
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chamber music, and this music is improbably<br />
brilliant. The A minor Quartet (3) in particular,<br />
is one of the best pieces in Russian music. I<br />
must get my hands on Carpe Diem’s performance<br />
of the other quartets.<br />
Carpe Diem is currently the quartet in residence<br />
at Ohio Wesleyan University. They are<br />
exceptional and deserve praise for an<br />
admirable and electrifying go at Taneyev. They<br />
have flawless technique and appropriate feeling.<br />
I know getting too “political” in this country<br />
is frowned on, especially when talking<br />
about education, the last hope we have in this<br />
increasingly uncultured and ugly country. But,<br />
all I can think of as I listen to Carpe Diem is,<br />
how can we support these valuable ensembles<br />
that are housed at our universities? Our education<br />
system has never supported the arts to the<br />
degree that it should. There is culture, brilliance,<br />
humanity and inspiring music-making<br />
in this country—so let us support and defend<br />
it!<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
TANSMAN: Clarinet Concerto; Concertino;<br />
6 Movements<br />
Laurent Decker, ob; Jean-Marc Fessard, cl; Silesian<br />
Chamber Orchestra/ Miroslaw Blaszczyk<br />
Naxos 572402—62 minutes<br />
Conscious eclecticism did not fully emerge<br />
until the mid-20th Century, but musicians who<br />
crossed geographical borders rarely resisted<br />
the confluence of where they came from and<br />
where they were going. One of history’s most<br />
striking examples is Alexandre Tansman<br />
(1897-1986), a Polish-born Jewish virtuoso<br />
pianist and composer whose polytonal thinking<br />
proved too radical for a country that had<br />
not yet heard Debussy. In 1919, after completing<br />
law studies at the University of Warsaw, he<br />
moved to Paris, where he was encouraged by<br />
Ravel and Stravinsky and admired by Les Six.<br />
In a modernist answer to Chopin, whom he<br />
adored, the young Pole fused the mazurka and<br />
the polonaise with French neo-classicism—<br />
and in his spare time he wrote jazz under a<br />
pseudonym. He also performed often, including<br />
with Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston<br />
Symphony. During World War II, as the Nazis<br />
set up a government in France, he fled with his<br />
family to Los Angeles, where he became<br />
friends with Schoenberg and wrote six film<br />
scores, one of which was nominated for an<br />
Academy Award.<br />
After the war, Tansman returned to Paris,<br />
only to find that the city had moved on without<br />
him. While many European capitals sizzled<br />
with the sounds of the avant-garde, the aging<br />
composer remained true to his philosophy,<br />
quietly creating works that, if no longer shock-<br />
ing, were still profoundly individual in their<br />
materials and expression.<br />
Here, French soloist and Brussels Royal<br />
Conservatory clarinet professor Jean-Marc<br />
Fessard and Orchestre National de France<br />
oboist Laurent Decker team up with the Silesian<br />
Chamber Orchestra of Poland and their<br />
<strong>conductor</strong> for a concert of Tansman’s orchestral<br />
music from the postwar period.<br />
The Clarinet Concerto (1957) is recorded<br />
here for the first time. Tansman wrote it for the<br />
famous French clarinetist Louis Cahuzac, who<br />
premiered it two years afterward at the age of<br />
79, one year before he died in a motorcycle<br />
accident. Inside the standard form and length<br />
(three movements, 18 minutes) are elements<br />
of Bach, Stravinsky, and folk music, all balanced<br />
in a colorful orchestral soup.<br />
The next two pieces look backward and<br />
forward even further. The Concertino for oboe,<br />
clarinet, and strings (1952) and the Six Movements<br />
for Strings (1963) have transparent writing<br />
and a wealth of contrapuntal devices that<br />
invite comparison to the baroque orchestral<br />
suite. Even so, each work is shot through with<br />
pungent Gallic dissonance, brooding Slavic<br />
passages, jazz references, and romantic cyclicism.<br />
The performances are enthusiastic and<br />
sincere, but not always on the same level. Fessard<br />
has an excellent soloist personality, competing<br />
well against Tansman’s large orchestra,<br />
and he has the requisite amount of fingers and<br />
expressive awareness. But despite his French<br />
training, he has poor control over his sound<br />
and legato, especially in the high register; and<br />
he never achieves the tight articulation, keen<br />
intonation, or special resonance that the best<br />
players have. Decker, by contrast, boasts a<br />
beautifully clear timbre and the first-rate<br />
phrasing and technique to go with it. He holds<br />
his own with Fessard and his big tone, even if<br />
he cannot pull him into his own sculpted<br />
soundscape. The Silesian Chamber Orchestra<br />
plays with professionalism, authority, and<br />
superb musicianship, proving once again that<br />
Eastern European ensembles are just as skilled<br />
as their more famous Western counterparts.<br />
HANUDEL<br />
TCHAIKOVSKY: Francesca da Rimini; Serenade<br />
for Strings; Marche Slave<br />
USSR Orchestra/ Gennady Rozhdestvensky<br />
Warner 67547—68 minutes<br />
Lawrence Hansen found Rozhdestvensky’s<br />
Francesca da Rimini the selling point of the<br />
original Erato release (Nov/Dec 1992), writing<br />
“it takes a while for the coals to heat up, but<br />
once they do, things are plenty exciting”. I<br />
must concur; and while I have no problem<br />
with his overall timing of 25:41—my favorite,<br />
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Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic, is<br />
24:36—I must part company with Mr Hansen<br />
over his painfully slow treatment of the yearning<br />
central episode where Francesca and Paolo<br />
recount to Dante their ill-starred love affair. At<br />
that Rozhdestvensky manages to convey a perceptibly<br />
smoother overall arc than Mikhail<br />
Pletnev (with Symphony 5; see review below);<br />
but for real smoldering passion neither can top<br />
Lenny and the richly blended New York<br />
strings. The reprise of Tchaikovsky’s eternal<br />
hell-fire here strikes me as downright desultory,<br />
while Rozhdestvensky trivializes the massive<br />
final cataclysmic chords by barreling<br />
through them way too fast.<br />
Mr Hansen thought the Marche Slave<br />
“slow”; yet I’d say it actually sets out at quite a<br />
jaunty clip. He builds up a sizable head of<br />
steam, and you may find it somewhat lightweight<br />
next to Reiner, for example. But once<br />
the commanding drum beats set up the quickstep<br />
conclusion, Rozhdestvensky really goes<br />
into overdrive, with the big brass standing tall<br />
in the Tsarist anthem amid great swaths on the<br />
gong. So I liked it better than Francesca.<br />
And I steeled myself (pun intended) on<br />
reading Mr Hansen’s account of “thin, rather<br />
pallid string tone” in the Serenade; yet I found<br />
little reason to complain save for the opening<br />
movement. It is far too weighty and heavy of<br />
heart for my taste, lumpish and drenched with<br />
despair, with the Russian strings laboriously<br />
sawing away. Matters improve with the lilting<br />
Waltz—one would expect no less from<br />
Rozhdestvensky, the consummate master of<br />
the ballet—and in the wistful Elegy sentimentality<br />
is clearly called for, and he draws some<br />
wonderfully expressive phrasing from his players,<br />
most notably the solo turn by the concertmaster<br />
around five minutes in. The finale is<br />
based on a perky Russian dance, and you can<br />
really hear the balalaikas, while the widespread<br />
discourse of high and low strings only<br />
adds to the general gaiety. But with the reprise<br />
of the opening movement he once again<br />
adopts a leaden tread, fortunately soon set<br />
aside as the sprightly dance rhythms return.<br />
While Warner has served the curious<br />
record buyer poorly by offering no notes whatsoever,<br />
this is an interesting and affordable<br />
cross-section of Tchaikovsky’s music, though<br />
you may find more satisfying accounts.<br />
HALLER<br />
TCHAIKOVSKY: Manfred; Overture in C<br />
minor<br />
Russian Orchestra/ Gennady Rozhdestvensky;<br />
Moscow Symphony/ Sergei Skripka<br />
Alto 1139—69 minutes<br />
First, an update. The Melodiya Svetlanov performance<br />
of Tchaikovsky’s overture to Ostro-<br />
vsky’s drama The Storm taped in concert in<br />
1990 that I heralded as “just out” in Part II of<br />
my Overview (Mar/Apr 2011)—labeled “Forgotten<br />
Pages”—turns out to be not The Storm<br />
but rather the same Overture in C minor heard<br />
here. His earlier studio recording was issued<br />
by the Svetlanov Foundation coupled with the<br />
Winter Dreams Symphony, and you may be<br />
fortunate enough to own the Melodiya LPs by<br />
Evgeny Akulov and Alexander Lazarev, the latter<br />
also released via ABC (67033). The confusion<br />
is understandable, as Tchaikovsky re-used<br />
both the opening pages and the ensuing lyrical<br />
melody (a Russian folk song, ‘The Young Maiden’)<br />
from The Storm written a few years earlier.<br />
But the assertive passage that follows is entirely<br />
different from its jittery counterpart in The<br />
Storm; and more important, the latter piece is<br />
easily recognizable for its inclusion of a<br />
melody we now know well from the introduction<br />
to the Adagio cantabile of Winter Dreams.<br />
As to the performance by Sergei Skripka<br />
and the Moscow Symphony offered here, I’d<br />
have to put it on a par with Svetlanov, and if<br />
you’re looking to add a real rarity to your<br />
Tchaikovsky shelf this will do very nicely.<br />
But I certainly don’t mean to downplay the<br />
main course. Gennady Rozhdestvensky<br />
recorded Tchaikovsky’s Manfred in the Large<br />
Studio of Moscow Radio in 1989, yet the box<br />
says “First issue in West”, and I don’t ever<br />
recall encountering it. As you might expect,<br />
both Rozhdestvensky’s conception of the score<br />
and the recorded sound are not unlike the<br />
Svetlanov—unfortunately that also goes for the<br />
raw Russian brass (not to mention the often<br />
wobbly horns). But Rozhdestvensky clearly has<br />
great affection for this grand sprawling narrative<br />
and draws the listener in right from the<br />
start, aided by the warm and deeply resonant<br />
soundstage that still offers a welcome wealth<br />
of woodwind detail. He has the Moscow players<br />
pouring their very heart and soul into<br />
Tchaikovsky’s inspired melodies, most notably<br />
the haunting strain that tells of Manfred’s tormented<br />
yearning for the fair Astarte. That<br />
builds to an impassioned climax. He imparts<br />
an unforced and limpid flow to the centerpiece<br />
of the symphony, the pastoral Andante, where<br />
even the bucolic Alpine atmosphere cannot<br />
relieve Manfred’s despair. If the water sprites<br />
of the Scherzo seem a bit earthbound for all<br />
the nattering of the wind players, the<br />
Mendelssohnian imagery is nicely conveyed<br />
just the same. But with the stentorian trombones<br />
that launch Manfred’s bacchanalian<br />
revels in the cave of Arimanes, all subtlety is<br />
cast aside: Rozhdestvensky slams into it with a<br />
manic ferocity, an almost hysterical onslaught<br />
with great thwacks on the tambourine and<br />
gong, and really all I could do was crank up the<br />
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volume loud enough to wake the dead and just<br />
go with it—a thrilling, over-the-top spectacle<br />
filled out in the closing pages by an absolutely<br />
room-shaking organ!<br />
If you prefer your orgies on the genteel<br />
side, this is not for you; but even if you buy it<br />
for the rare Tchaikovsky overture—as I did—I<br />
have a feeling you’ll be playing Manfred a lot.<br />
HALLER<br />
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Sleeping Beauty<br />
Royal Philharmonic/ Barry Wordsworth<br />
RPO 30 [2CD] 1:53<br />
Three strikes and out for the RPO’s Tchaikovsky<br />
ballet cycle, I’m afraid. David Maninov’s Nutcracker<br />
was bland and colorless and added<br />
nothing to the catalog (Nov/Dec 2010); and<br />
Nicolae Moldoveanu’s Swan Lake reflected a<br />
considerable improvement in the playing of the<br />
RPO while benefitting from considerably more<br />
involvement from the podium; yet at the same<br />
time he omitted a couple of dances that Previn<br />
(EMI) easily found room for (Jan/Feb 2011). But<br />
Moldoveanu’s Swan Lake is a model of completeness<br />
next to this ill-begotten sham that<br />
guts the hell out of the Act III divertissement.<br />
You may already wonder what’s going on<br />
here when you compare the timings of 61:51<br />
and 51:36 to Previn, who breaks Act II across<br />
two discs (horrors!) but crams on nearly every<br />
note at 77:50 and 78:35. (Even missing a few<br />
dances you get more of the ballet from Ansermet<br />
than you do here.)<br />
The Prologue manages to come out of it<br />
unscathed; but the Maids of Honor and Pages<br />
unfortunately don’t make it into the Act I ‘Pas<br />
d’action’ (tracks 17-19). Really? You couldn’t<br />
find room for two more minutes of music on a<br />
61:51 CD? And as if that weren’t bad enough,<br />
Act II is shorn of the ‘Dances of the Courtiers’<br />
(four in all) along with the bumptious ‘Farandole’.<br />
But that’s nothing next to the skeletal<br />
remains of Act III, where the only characters<br />
that remain out of Perrault’s vast storybook are<br />
Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat, both apparently<br />
well into their ninth life—forget Cinderella<br />
and Prince Charming, forget Red Riding<br />
Hood and the Wolf, forget Hop o’ My<br />
Thumb and the Blue Bird. I guess their invitations<br />
got lost in the mail. And—get this! get<br />
this!—the entire ‘Finale and Apotheosis’ is<br />
gone—deleted—every note—and in its place<br />
we have the ‘Polacca’ that should have ushered<br />
the procession of fairy-tale characters onstage.<br />
You heard me: the glorious strains of ‘Vive<br />
Henri Quatre’ that I’m sure everyone who<br />
loves this ballet looks forward to hearing from<br />
full brass and cymbals at the close is simply<br />
thrown under the coach. Whose lame-brained<br />
idea was this?<br />
Whatever the case, this unforgivably bowdlerized<br />
Sleeping Beauty is worse than merely a<br />
needless waste of time and money; this is an<br />
absolute travesty.<br />
HALLER<br />
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony 5; Francesca da<br />
Rimini<br />
Russian National Orchestra/ Mikhail Pletnev<br />
PentaTone 5186 385 [SACD] 72 minutes<br />
This is not the same Tchaikovsky Fifth Mikhail<br />
Pletnev set down with the Russian National<br />
Orchestra for DG several years ago, first<br />
released as part of a boxed set (Jan/Feb 1997)<br />
and later reissued coupled with Hamlet (453<br />
449). I haven’t heard that one; but taking Mr<br />
Ashby’s words at face value, I have to believe<br />
this new recording is the polar opposite of that<br />
one. He characterized Pletnev’s whole cycle as<br />
“non-committed”, the brass “positively genteel”,<br />
in fact “nothing whatsoever of tradition,<br />
audible Russianness, interpretive conviction,<br />
or affection for the music”, though he did single<br />
out 5 as the best of a none too emotional<br />
lot.<br />
Say what you will about some of Pletnev’s<br />
tempo choices here, “non-committed” he definitely<br />
is not—nor is there anything the least bit<br />
“genteel” about the low brass in the great climax<br />
nine minutes into the opening movement<br />
and once again at the close—to say nothing of<br />
the breathtaking culmination of stark power in<br />
the finale where the entire orchestra slams on<br />
the brakes, right before what annotator Franz<br />
Steiger unbelievably calls a “blaring...noisy<br />
and downright garish conclusion”. (On the<br />
contrary, I rather suspect most readers would<br />
join me in finding Tchaikovsky’s ringing final<br />
statement of the pervasive “Fate” motto a masterpiece<br />
of man’s triumph over an unfeeling<br />
Destiny.)<br />
Tempos in the opening pages seem reasonable—if<br />
with some perceptible nips and<br />
tucks—and Pletnev is afforded soulful playing<br />
from the low woodwinds, who respond with<br />
great conviction even though he really draws<br />
out the musical line. On reaching the main<br />
body of the movement he saunters along in<br />
endearingly jaunty fashion, building to a<br />
thrilling climax unfortunately largely set in<br />
aspic by the resonant Moscow studio—I certainly<br />
hope it isn’t nearly so congested played<br />
as an SACD. But any lingering doubts of Pletnev’s<br />
“Russianness” were dispelled by his<br />
swooning, heart-on-sleeve treatment of the<br />
secondary strain, while the development<br />
heaves about mightily—whether genuine<br />
affection or pure showmanship, who can say?<br />
The Andante cantabile seems all but stagnant<br />
at Pletnev’s measured tread; that may<br />
explain the horn player’s sorely prosaic ren-<br />
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dering, merely putting one foot before the<br />
other as best he can and still maintain some<br />
grasp of the musical line. When the strings<br />
take up the theme, you can clearly hear the<br />
yearning Tchaikovsky wrote into this music—<br />
not apparent from the horn solo. I get what<br />
Pletnev is after, but surely you still need some<br />
semblance of forward motion? The slo-mo<br />
clarinet at 6:12 is painful to endure, while the<br />
positively fierce onslaught that follows is simply<br />
over the top. What a pleasure to lean back<br />
and relax once again for the Waltz, in turn contrasting<br />
with the fleet trio that the Russian<br />
players pull off beautifully.<br />
There’s a noble dignity to the motto theme<br />
as it sets up the Russian dance central to the<br />
finale. It begins in suitably spirited fashion, so<br />
you can imagine my amazement when at 4:00<br />
Pletnev all of a sudden sped up so fast I<br />
thought my CD player had malfunctioned,<br />
thereafter barreling through it lickety-split as if<br />
some one in the control booth had called<br />
down to him that another orchestra needed to<br />
use the studio. Had he adopted this same<br />
tempo right at the outset, I might have merely<br />
mentioned it in passing—he’s not that far off<br />
from Mravinsky after all—but to suddenly<br />
switch gears like this is very odd. (Did he do<br />
this on his earlier recording?) So that’s where<br />
he lost me, and even his jubilant stride at the<br />
close could not make amends—nor for that<br />
matter his willful caricature of Francesca da<br />
Rimini with wildly overwrought scenes of hellfire<br />
and damnation set on either side of a laborious<br />
and finally maudlin eulogy to the unfortunate<br />
lovers. Avoid this.<br />
HALLER<br />
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony 6<br />
Gürzenich Orchestra/ Dmitri Kitaenko<br />
Oehms 666 [SACD] 51 minutes<br />
with SCHOENBERG: Variations for Orchestra<br />
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra/ Daniel Barenboim—Decca<br />
15607—69 minutes<br />
Barenboim and his ensemble of young players<br />
absolutely nail the Pathetique—this is one of<br />
the finest recordings I’ve heard in a while, and<br />
certainly the single BEST Tchaikovsky performance<br />
I’ve ever heard from this <strong>conductor</strong>.<br />
His earlier account with the Chicago Symphony<br />
(July/Aug 1999), while actually a cut above<br />
most of his other CSO recordings, was pretty<br />
effective but had moments where the dramatic<br />
line went slack. Not so here—perhaps inspired<br />
by the West-Eastern Divan’s mission, Barenboim<br />
is all fiery vigor and dramatic tension.<br />
Oh, you haven’t heard about the West-<br />
Eastern Divan ensemble? It’s a youth orchestra<br />
formed by Barenboim and Palestinian-<strong>American</strong><br />
scholar Edward Said in 1999. Its players<br />
are drawn from the ranks of young Israeli,<br />
Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Syrian, even<br />
Iranian and Palestinian musicians. The group<br />
actually has its summer academy in Seville,<br />
Spain, where it prepares the programs before<br />
going on tour. With money coming from the<br />
government of Andalucia, some of the personnel<br />
are now young Spanish classical musicians.<br />
In interviews, Barenboim has insisted<br />
that he doesn’t expect his project to bring<br />
peace to the Middle East, but perhaps it can<br />
help musicians see each other in a different<br />
light.<br />
I’m normally not a fan of projects to<br />
improve “awareness” or make a gesture, and I<br />
doubt the W-ED will have much effect on<br />
world politics. What I will say is that the<br />
orchestra plays spectacularly well under<br />
Barenboim—their DVD performance of the<br />
Beethoven 9th is one of my three favorite<br />
recordings of the work nowadays.<br />
Why does this ensemble play so spectacularly<br />
well? I think two reasons: first, the musicians<br />
are young—the music is still new to<br />
them. It’s “wow, we’re playing Tchaikovsky<br />
under Daniel Barenboim!!!” rather than “oh<br />
no, not the Pathetique AGAIN!!!” Second, they<br />
get plenty of rehearsal time, far more than the<br />
average <strong>American</strong> or European professional<br />
orchestra.<br />
Barenboim paces the long, long introduction<br />
to the first movement beautifully, blasting<br />
off into a furious allegro that builds to a crushing<br />
climax before dying away in exhaustion.<br />
This is how the movement is supposed to go,<br />
even if he sometimes hammers home the bigger<br />
rhetorical gesture in the allegro a little too<br />
laboriously (hey, he’s still Barenboim). He<br />
gives II the right nostalgic lilt and pounds out<br />
III with plenty of brassy elan and braggadocio<br />
before collapsing into the Mahlerian depths of<br />
IV. Kitaenko does dig deeper into the finale—<br />
he also takes about 2 minutes longer—but<br />
Barenboim gives it decent weight.<br />
I have a couple dozen Pathetiques on my<br />
CD shelves. Even so, I’ll reach for this one<br />
again.<br />
The Schoenberg Variations are not a<br />
favorite piece of mine, but Barenboim and the<br />
orchestra play them with alternating verve,<br />
delicacy, and nuance. They may seem at first<br />
glance an odd choice to accompany the<br />
Tchaikovsky, but as the album notes point out,<br />
Wilhelm Furtwangler, Barenboim’s conducting<br />
idol, led the piece’s first performance in<br />
1928. Besides, we really don’t need another<br />
1812 Overture or Romeo and Juliet tacked on<br />
as filler.<br />
I can’t really give Decca all the credit for<br />
the spacious, open, richly detailed sound,<br />
since from my reading of the back page of the<br />
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booklet, it looks like Unitel and the Barenboim-Said<br />
Foundation deserve the credit for<br />
preserving this performance (it may come out<br />
on DVD). The sound, recorded at the Salzburg<br />
Festival in August 2007, is spectacular.<br />
Oehms gives Kitaenko nice, sumptuous,<br />
full, glowing SACD sound, and the Gürzenich<br />
Orchestra of Cologne plays with polish and<br />
energy if not quite with the end-of-the-world<br />
intensity of Barenboim’s young ensemble. As I<br />
noted above, the Russian <strong>conductor</strong> takes the<br />
finale to deeper depths and draws out the final<br />
pages as a long, slow, fade out from life.<br />
There’s certainly nothing wrong in the first<br />
three movements, nor anything exceptionally<br />
original or compelling about the interpretation—the<br />
approach of an experienced Russian<br />
maestro. II is a bit less lyrical and light-footed<br />
than Barenboim’s, and the march hasn’t the<br />
vigor and swagger Barenboim and his young<br />
players draw from it. But if you want a solid,<br />
sturdy, expressive Pathetique that doesn’t<br />
chew up the scenery and has excellent sonics,<br />
this’ll do, even if 51 minutes of music is a bit<br />
short measure. I won’t trade in Karajan (EMI),<br />
Munch (RCA), Bernstein (DG), Furtwangler<br />
(EMI), Ormandy (Sony)—or Barenboim for<br />
this.<br />
HANSEN<br />
TCHAIKOVSKY: Trio;<br />
KISSINE: Zerkalo<br />
Khatia Buniatishvilli, p; Gidon Kremer, v; Gierdre<br />
Dirbanauskatie, vc—ECM 15572—72 minutes<br />
According to the essay, this program marks the<br />
beginning and the end (for now) of Russian<br />
chamber music. The engineering and recording<br />
quality are superb.<br />
The Tchaikovsky and the Kissine share<br />
philosophical and rhetorical connections.<br />
What I find most inspiring is that the pieces<br />
come together through a profound sense of<br />
Russian community. Kissine draws inspiration<br />
from the words of Shostakovich about the<br />
Tchaikovsky and the poetry of Anna Akhmatova<br />
to conceptualize a truly reflective piece of<br />
music. And despite the obvious difference in<br />
harmonic language, both pieces share an<br />
urgency that can be both disturbing and poetic.<br />
Zerkalo is a very complex work. The title<br />
means “the mirror”, and the piece is composed<br />
in mirror form, shadowing a very formal<br />
sonata form. Included with the disc are extraordinary<br />
program notes. The amount of time<br />
and dedication that EMI puts into these productions<br />
is simply remarkable. With Zerkalo’s<br />
complexity comes tremendous difficulty.<br />
These players are stunning performers that do<br />
not seem to be remotely affected by the<br />
demanding challenges.<br />
Despite Tchaikovsky’s reluctance to write a<br />
trio, and his view that the three instruments<br />
just did not work together, he produced one of<br />
my favorite piano trios. These players also play<br />
it the best I have heard. It is blazing with vigor<br />
and tortured with nostalgia. This is a worldclass<br />
production that I am sure will be<br />
acclaimed.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
TELLEFSEN: Violin Sonatas 1+2;<br />
MIKULI: Duo in A;<br />
FILTSCH: Variations<br />
Voytek Proniewicz, v; Alexander Jakobidze-Gitman,<br />
p—Naxos 572560—65 minutes<br />
This is called Music for Violin and Piano by<br />
Pupils of Chopin, but the Norwegian composer<br />
Thomas Dyke Ackland Tellefsen (1823-74)<br />
deserves recognition far beyond his association<br />
with Chopin, who was his piano teacher<br />
and longtime friend. Tellefsen’s two violin<br />
sonatas from 1856 and 1867 are wonderful and<br />
inventive pieces. The liner notes describe<br />
these sonatas as something between<br />
Beethoven and Grieg—an observation I can<br />
second. Though Tellefsen was a great champion<br />
of Chopin, I hear no resemblance to<br />
Chopin in either sonata.<br />
Karol Mikuli (1819-97) studied piano with<br />
Chopin in Paris in the 1840s, and he toured<br />
Europe performing Chopin’s music. He was<br />
another of Chopin’s close friends and also<br />
worked as a copyist, which lends an air of<br />
authenticity to the editions he published of<br />
Chopin’s music. His ‘Grand Duo’ doesn’t<br />
sound much like Chopin, but it does take<br />
inspiration from just about everything else<br />
from the 19th Century. The writing is careful<br />
and extremely clever.<br />
Carl Filtsch’s set of variations, written<br />
before he was 14, does sound a lot like Chopin.<br />
Filtsch (1830-45) came to Paris as a child star<br />
at the age of 11, and Chopin, who normally<br />
didn’t teach children, gave him three lessons a<br />
week and treated him like a son.<br />
Proniewicz is a Polish violinist, and Jakobidze-Gitman<br />
is from Russia. They play all of<br />
this music beautifully, particularly the two<br />
Tellefsen sonatas, which are real gems.<br />
FINE<br />
THALBERG: Trio; see SCHUMANN<br />
TOCH: The Chinese Flute; Egon & Emilie; 5<br />
Pieces; Quartet<br />
Multar Ensemble—CPO 777092—65 minutes<br />
Ernst Toch, who came from a non-musical<br />
family, began composing by secretly buying<br />
and copying Mozart string quartets in grade<br />
school. A brilliant autodidact who represented<br />
no “school”, he always said his teachers were<br />
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Mozart and Bach. He eventually became one<br />
of Europe’s laeding composers, for a while in a<br />
league with Hindemith and Stravinsky. That<br />
was before the Nazis. Like Kurt Weill and Billy<br />
Wilder, he picked up ominous political signs<br />
very early and managed to get out of Germany,<br />
arriving in Los Angeles via Paris and New York.<br />
He wrote for Hollywood while continuing his<br />
career as a chamber composer, later branching<br />
out into large-scale symphonies (the latter<br />
recorded by CPO in this excellent series).<br />
This rewarding album reveals Toch’s great<br />
range of style and sensibility from various periods<br />
in his colorful career. The earliest piece,<br />
The Chinese Flute, is a setting of Chinese lyrics<br />
for soprano and chamber orchestra that<br />
exploits “oriental” effects popular in the 20s.<br />
Somehow avoiding cliche, it is intoxicating in<br />
its rarefied atmosphere and varied colors and<br />
effects. The harmonies range from basic diatonicism<br />
to elaborate polytonality. Maria Karb<br />
sings the challenging vocal part with haunting<br />
expressiveness. A student of Elisabeth<br />
Schwarzkopf, she has a floating, pure sound.<br />
No Family Drama from 1928, is one of a<br />
kind, a depiction of a wife haranguing her<br />
weary husband as well as a scathing satire of<br />
self-regarding opera divas. Britta Stroher sings<br />
the demanding soprano coloratura part with<br />
virtuosity and self-lacerating wit. The wind<br />
ensemble growls, mocks, and whines in a<br />
manner both sinister and pungent.<br />
In sharp contrast, the Five Pieces for Wind<br />
Instruments, from 1959, are direct and virtuosic,<br />
sometimes lyrical, sometimes acerbic.<br />
There are moments of startling simplicity and<br />
songfulness. (It is not surprising Toch wrote<br />
for Hollywood.) Variety is the only constant.<br />
The final work, a quartet, is also for winds.<br />
Written the last year of Toch’s life, it is pastoral<br />
and reflective.<br />
This is attractive, unpredictable music,<br />
splendidly performed and recorded, and I’ll<br />
wager you’ve never heard any of it before.<br />
SULLIVAN<br />
TORROBA: 3 Nocturnos; Castillos de<br />
Espana<br />
Mikko Ikaheimo, Rody van Gemert, g; Aholansaari<br />
Sinfonietta/ Jyri Nissila<br />
Pilfink 68—57 minutes<br />
Moreno Torroba has written several works for<br />
guitar and orchestra, though none is part of<br />
the standard repertory. That’s a shame, because<br />
the ones I’ve been able to hear are all<br />
worthy, expressive pieces. Back in the LP days,<br />
the Romeros performed Concierto Iberico for<br />
four guitars and orchestra.<br />
The opening pieces here, Tres Nocturnos,<br />
for two guitars and orchestra, are also worthy.<br />
Moreno Torroba is best known in Spain as a<br />
composer of zarzuelas, the Spanish musical<br />
comedy, and his lush, romantic orchestration<br />
and beautiful melodic gifts are clearly evident<br />
here. The work is in three movements, each<br />
with a descriptive title: ‘Hoguerras’ (Bonfires),<br />
‘Sombras’ (Shadows), and ‘Brujas’ (Witches).<br />
Despite the titles, the music is mostly quite<br />
sunny.<br />
Ikaheimo and Van Gemert perform together<br />
as the Helsinki Guitar Duo (see Collections<br />
in this issue). Their playing is idiomatic,<br />
though ensemble is sometimes not perfect.<br />
The concerto was composed in 1969, but not<br />
performed until after 2000. I don’t see any<br />
more recordings coming soon, and this is certainly<br />
serviceable. And the Aholansaari Sinfonietta<br />
under Nissila sounds lush beyond its<br />
chamber proportions.<br />
Ikaheimo performs the Castillos de Espana,<br />
all 14 movements. These are some of the composer’s<br />
most popular works, and it’s interesting<br />
to compare a recent recording of the same<br />
music by Ana Vidovic on Naxos (N/D 2007). I<br />
much prefer Vidovic’s performance, which is<br />
more energetic, vivacious, and inventive. Still,<br />
Ikaheimo’s approach has its merits. He tends<br />
to be quieter, emphasizing the lyric and contemplative<br />
where he finds it. His rubato is a<br />
touch overdone for my tastes, but he doesn’t<br />
pull the music apart as badly as many do. If<br />
you really love the music and don’t have a<br />
fixed notion exactly how it should be played,<br />
you may enjoy both.<br />
But get the disc for the concerto.<br />
KEATON<br />
URSPRUCH: 5 Pieces; Cavatina &<br />
Arabesque, 5 Fantasy Pieces<br />
Ana-Marija Markovina, p<br />
Genuin 11205 [2CD] 92 minutes<br />
Anton Urspruch (1850-1907) was a protege of<br />
Joachim Raff. He taught at the Koch Conservatory<br />
in Frankfurt, then at the newer Raff Conservatory.<br />
His compositions include a symphony,<br />
some choral works, and at least two<br />
operas, The Tempest and The Most Impossible<br />
of All. The liner notes are not enlightening, but<br />
going by opus numbers, the earlier Five Fantasy<br />
Pieces show the influence of Schumann,<br />
quoting his Symphonies 3 and 4 and referring<br />
to his Fantasy in C. Sometimes the reminiscences<br />
are so uncomfortably close to their<br />
models as to recall Pauline Kael’s crack about<br />
an homage being plagiarism that wasn’t<br />
actionable.<br />
The later Cavatina and Morceaux derive<br />
from Liszt, after he’d outgrown his glass chandelier<br />
period. In general, Urspruch’s piano<br />
writing is clean and direct, even in some thick<br />
chordal agglomerations.<br />
Markovina’s playing is crisp and accurately<br />
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voiced, with expressive power and sympathetic<br />
interpretations. Some of the Fantasy Pieces<br />
are episodic, but her grasp of their overall<br />
design helps weld them into a whole. The<br />
recording has good sound and resonance. This<br />
is Volume 1 of Urpruch’s piano output.<br />
O’CONNOR<br />
VAAGE: Gardens of Hokkaido; Cyclops;<br />
Chaconne<br />
Einar Rottingen, p; Gro Sandvik, fl; Turid Kniejski,<br />
hp; Bergen Philharmonic/ Ingar Bergby, Eivind<br />
Aadland, Ole Kristian Ruud<br />
Aurora 5072—65 minutes<br />
Norwegian composer Knut Vaage (b 1961)<br />
attended the Grieg Academy in Bergen and has<br />
lived and worked in that city ever since. Here<br />
the Bergen Philharmonic plays three of his<br />
works, each with a different <strong>conductor</strong>, the<br />
recording sessions spanning ten years.<br />
Hokkaidos Hagar (Gardens of Hokkaido),<br />
recorded in 2005 under Ingar Bergby, is a 27minute<br />
sound study full of dissonance and<br />
unusual effects. Pianist Einar Rottingen is<br />
sometimes soloist, sometimes merely part of<br />
the action. Much of the work has an ethereal,<br />
spooky atmosphere.<br />
In a 2000 reading of Chaconne, Ole Kristian<br />
Ruud conducts soloists Gro Sandvik (flute) and<br />
Turid Kniejski (harp). We are told that “if we<br />
open our ears, we will undoubtedly hear a<br />
series of variations”, but Vaage has done a<br />
marvelous job of disguising them. What is the<br />
basic material that will be varied? The opening<br />
passages are so murky, with flutist Sandvik<br />
playing bass flute and harpist Kniejski playing<br />
very low notes—that we have no idea where<br />
that material ends and variations begin.<br />
Eivind Aadland conducts a 2009 reading of<br />
Kyklop (Cyclops), a 17-minute work where<br />
musicians make distorted sounds, where textures<br />
thicken and thin and intensity comes<br />
and goes in big waves, and where the persistent<br />
sound is dissonant yet not ugly. I felt as if I<br />
were looking at a beautiful scene through a<br />
damaged lens.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
just treads water, a step or two down from<br />
Shostakovich’s more limp efforts. (The label<br />
uses the “Weinberg” spelling.)<br />
ESTEP<br />
VAN EYCK: Engels Liedt<br />
Gerald Stempfel, rec<br />
Carpe Diem 16284—64 minutes<br />
I think this release will be of interest primarily<br />
to recorder specialists, and perhaps especially<br />
ones who enjoy the instruments themselves as<br />
opposed to music for the recorder. Mr<br />
Stempfel makes recorders, and this release was<br />
born when Jonas Niederstadt, a producer he<br />
was working with on another program, suggested<br />
that he make a solo recording using the<br />
instruments he had made to “bring forth all<br />
facets of the sound of the flute as you imagine<br />
it!”<br />
A different recorder is used for almost<br />
every piece on this program, and it is indeed a<br />
study in sound. But it’s not the sort of thing<br />
you put on in the background for not-veryattentive<br />
listening; try that, and you’ll probably<br />
find it annoying. The playing and sound are<br />
both excellent, but this is a special treat for<br />
people who love and are interested in<br />
recorders rather than for the average listener.<br />
CRAWFORD<br />
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Lark Ascending;<br />
see SUK<br />
VICTORIA: Requiem; Lamentations;<br />
Responsories<br />
Tallis Scholars/ Peter Phillips<br />
Gimell 304 [3CD] 177 minutes<br />
In a continuing tradition of repackaging, this<br />
collection contains the three early Victoria<br />
recordings by The Tallis Scholars (Requiem,<br />
Sept/Oct 1988; Lamentations, July/Aug 2010;<br />
and Tenebrae, May/June 1991). While Phillips<br />
seems to have not been interested in recording<br />
Victoria’s masses and motets, his interpretation<br />
of the Requiem has become something of<br />
a classic; and the recordings of the excerpts<br />
from the Holy Week services (the Lamenta-<br />
VAINBERG: Symphony 3; Golden Key Suite 4 tions of Jeremiah and the Tenebrae respon-<br />
Gothenburg Symphony/ Thord Svedlund<br />
sories) were important additions to Victoria’s<br />
discography. As Mr Gatens noted in his review<br />
Chandos 5089 [SACD] 50 minutes<br />
of the Lamentations, there is a consistency and<br />
I liked Vainberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 2 a quality to any performance by The Tallis<br />
lot (Alto 1037, N/D 2009) and the Symphony Scholars, though there are passages where the<br />
No. 1 and Cello Concerto (Northern Flowers interpretations can “seem understated and<br />
9973, J/A 2010), but these pieces aren’t nearly even placid”. He expressed a preference for the<br />
as good. Much of the symphony could have recording of these works by The Sixteen<br />
been written by anyone of middling talent; it (July/Aug 2005). My favorite for both the<br />
has little to say, but it makes sure you hear it. Lamentations and Tenebrae responsories is La<br />
It’s marred by some shoddy brass playing Colombina (Nov/Dec 2005), which places Vic-<br />
about four minutes in—and this music is not toria’s works for Holy Week in their proper<br />
terribly difficult. The uninspired ballet music liturgical context, including parts that would<br />
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have been sung in chant (though without the<br />
various recited lessons). And I prefer the performance<br />
of the Requiem by the Westminster<br />
Cathedral Choir (Sept/Oct 1988) to this more<br />
sedate interpretation by Phillips.<br />
BREWER<br />
VISEE: Theorbo & Lute Pieces<br />
Manuel Stropoli, rec; Masssimo Marchese, theorbo;<br />
Cristiano Contadin, gamba<br />
Brilliant 94154—55:22<br />
Robert de Visée was among the foremost<br />
lutenists of France at the turn of the 18th Century,<br />
and his compositions for both lute or theorbo<br />
and guitar have appeared on a number of<br />
recordings; I reviewed a very good selection of<br />
his theorbo pieces (Mar/Apr 2006). This<br />
recording goes beyond Visée the performer to<br />
Visée the marketer, since it includes selections<br />
from a 1716 publication of his lute and theorbo<br />
compositions arranged as chamber suites for a<br />
solo instrument and continuo. While a few<br />
movements are played by Contadin as viola da<br />
gamba solos with continuo, most of this is<br />
played by Manuel Stropoli on recorders and<br />
baroque flute. He is a very good recorder player,<br />
though I find the soprano recorder he uses<br />
for one suite rather strident; not as good are<br />
the two suites he plays on baroque flute.<br />
The single most important performance<br />
decision on this recording was to have Marchese<br />
play the continuo on theorbo; as Visée<br />
noted in his introduction “I believe that the<br />
[theorbo’s] gut strings’s sound is more suitable<br />
to transverse flute than the [harpsichord’s]<br />
brass strings.” Not only does the theorbo supply<br />
a suitable accompaniment, but Marchese<br />
is a deeply sensitive and proficient performer,<br />
and his realizations of the continuo are models<br />
that should be emulated by other performers<br />
of this repertoire.<br />
While I would like to hear these works<br />
played by a flutist with the abilities of Barthold<br />
Kuijken, this is still a good recording of very<br />
interesting works that demonstrate how<br />
deeply the theorbo and its repertoire came to<br />
influence the musical styles of the French<br />
baroque.<br />
BREWER<br />
VIVALDI: Concertos for Violin, <strong>Record</strong>er,<br />
Psaltery;<br />
FACCO: Violin Concertos<br />
Manuel Zogby, v; Daniel Armas, psaltery; Miguel<br />
Lawrence; rec; Mexican Baroque Orchestra/<br />
Miguel Lawrence<br />
Divine Art 25091—61 minutes<br />
Both Giacomo Facco (1676-1753) and Antonio<br />
Vivaldi (1678-1741) were violinists and composers<br />
based in Venice. Facco’s music had<br />
been lost in a fire in the Madrid Royal Palace,<br />
but a copy of the 12 concertos in his Opus 1<br />
Pensieri Adriarmonici, published in Amsterdam<br />
in 1716 and 1718 and likely taken to Mexico<br />
in 1723, was discovered in a library in Mexico<br />
City in 1961. The Mexican Baroque Orchestra<br />
was formed in 2009 by director and<br />
recorder player Miguel Lawrence in order to<br />
play this music.<br />
Although playing on modern instruments,<br />
the ensemble uses the same forces that were<br />
likely used in Mexico in the 17th and 18th Centuries<br />
as well as baroque style and articulation.<br />
Starting in the 17th Century, basso continuo in<br />
Mexico was played on instruments that today<br />
we are most likely to know from mariachi<br />
bands, specifically the guitar-shaped vihuela<br />
and guittaron. The two instruments are always<br />
played together, and the large guittaron<br />
(played in the same position as a guitar but<br />
with a body wider than a cello) offers the bass<br />
notes. The resulting basso continuo group—<br />
including cello—works very well with these<br />
compositions and doesn’t sound “out of<br />
place” at all. The guitar timbre is most evident<br />
in the slower movements, and the ensemble<br />
blends and balances very well, playing with a<br />
nice style and spirit.<br />
The violins sound rather thin sometimes,<br />
both in the solo and ensemble concertos. As<br />
for the other solo instruments in the Vivaldi<br />
concertos, it is interesting to hear psaltery<br />
used for the mandolin concerto (R 425).<br />
Although it does match the thin string sound<br />
here, I don’t like its metallic timbre (I tend to<br />
feel the same way about the mandolin), but it<br />
is a valid approach that certainly pays homage<br />
to the composer’s fondness for writing concertos<br />
for unusual instruments. Like their use of<br />
vihuela and guittaron, the Mexican Baroque<br />
Orchestra’s inclusion of psaltery is not<br />
anachronistic, since that instrument has been<br />
in Mexico for centuries.<br />
The finest playing here is in the two concertos<br />
for sopranino recorder (R 443 and R<br />
445). Miguel Lawrence plays with a most natural<br />
birdlike quality that is very attractive and<br />
musical. Often these pieces, with their<br />
extremely high tessitura, are piercing and onedimensional<br />
as the player concentrates on hitting<br />
the notes and staying in tune. Here the<br />
color is varied and rich, and the virtuoso playing<br />
delightful to hear.<br />
C MOORE<br />
VIVALDI: Sacred Music<br />
Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble of Lausanne,<br />
English Bach Festival, Gulbenkian Choir &<br />
Orchestra/ Michel Corboz<br />
Warner 67621 [4CD] 284 minutes<br />
What a great bargain! This set of recordings<br />
from Erato in the mid-70s, first released on LP<br />
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and later CD, has not been available for quite<br />
some time. For people who like older Vivaldi<br />
recordings and who are not particularly interested<br />
in having every scrap of sacred choral<br />
music that Vivaldi ever wrote, this is just right,<br />
and it’s available for around $23. You can’t<br />
beat that.<br />
Both Glorias (R 588 and 589) are in this set,<br />
as well as a Kyrie (R 587) and Credo (R 591).<br />
Two popular Marian works are included: the<br />
Magnificat (R 610) and the Stabat Mater (R<br />
621). The remainder are psalms and motets,<br />
some of the latter for solo voice: two different<br />
Dixit Dominus (R 594 and 595), Nisi Dominus<br />
(R 608), O qui Caeli (R 631), Beatus Vir (R 597),<br />
Lauda Jerusalem (R 609) Nulla in Mundo Pax<br />
Sincera (R 630), Canta in Prato (R 623), and In<br />
Furore (R 626).<br />
These renditions are old-fashioned in<br />
terms of current thought on Vivaldi performance<br />
practices. They’re quite full and lush,<br />
tending to be slower than some but not ponderous<br />
(though the familiar Gloria, which is<br />
first on the program, sounds quite up to date<br />
with its fast clip). I quite like them, but then<br />
I’m tolerant of a fairly wide range of practices:<br />
I think the music will bear it.<br />
Don’t expect SACD sound. Though the<br />
sound isn’t bad, neither is it state-of-the-art,<br />
and the singing sounds ever so slightly muffled.<br />
There are no notes, either. A small booklet<br />
lists the works and their sections by track and<br />
indicates which soloists perform in what<br />
works. This is probably not a drawback to the<br />
serious collector who simply wants to round<br />
out his collection with these (by now) historic<br />
recordings, but it makes the set less than desirable<br />
for introducing someone to Vivaldi’s<br />
sacred music. I imagine that, although it is less<br />
than an ideal solution, a Web search will fairly<br />
readily turn up texts and translations for any of<br />
these pieces.<br />
CRAWFORD<br />
WAGNER: Die Meistersinger<br />
Theo Adam (Sachs), Pilar Lorengar (Eva), James<br />
King (Walther), Benno Kusche (Beckmesser),<br />
Loren Driscoll (David), Ezio Flagello (Pogner);<br />
Metropolitan Opera/ Thomas Schippers<br />
Sony 85304 [3CD] 232 minutes<br />
The second installment in Sony’s Met Opera<br />
series takes us into Mozart and the German<br />
repertory and also begins to sound faint alarm<br />
bells. Given the extraordinary wealth of material<br />
available in the Met’s broadcast archive,<br />
why should the early releases in this series flirt<br />
with the mediocre? This is not a bad Meistersinger—a<br />
routine night at the Met can still<br />
reach a pretty high standard—but surely there<br />
were better performances of the opera available.<br />
Theo Adam was not really an important<br />
member of the company. He sang only 17 performances<br />
in four seasons, raised to prominence<br />
by the chronic shortage of heroic baritones.<br />
This 1972 Sachs finds him in typical<br />
form: slightly dry and gravelly and fairly<br />
monotonous in timbre, but always dignified<br />
and eloquent. He had the bearing for Sachs (as<br />
he did for Wotan), he was persuasive on stage,<br />
he knew his way around the great monologs,<br />
but you still wish the timbre had more intrinsic<br />
beauty. Kusche, whose only Met role was<br />
Beckmesser (he sang it all of seven times),<br />
once had a rich, handsome voice—listen to<br />
him on Kempe’s estimable 1956 EMI recording—but<br />
by 1972 the top was gone (along with<br />
a few of Beckmesser’s high notes) and the rest<br />
had really dried up. His verbal skills remained<br />
intact, however, and he’s lively and alert at<br />
every moment, his words always uttered with<br />
great relish. The third singer who needs indulgence<br />
is tenor Loren Driscoll, singing his last<br />
role at the Met. The voice is substantial but<br />
peculiar in timbre—husky and clotted much of<br />
the time, without the graceful lightness one<br />
wants to hear in David.<br />
The rest of the performers are very appealing,<br />
down to the fluent Kothner of Donald Graham.<br />
Flagello is a sonorous Pogner, and Clifford<br />
Harvuot a mellow, resonant Watchman.<br />
Among the masters, almost unnoticeable in<br />
the tiny role of Schwarz, is James Morris, no<br />
less. I remember this run of performances fairly<br />
well, and I thought that Lorengar was not<br />
entirely suited to Eva. She was always a lovely,<br />
vibrant performer, but the role keeps her<br />
below the best part of her voice. The broadcast<br />
microphones help her out quite a bit. She has<br />
presence most of the time, and when she can<br />
ascend to her upper range, as in ‘O Sachs,<br />
mein Freund’ and the top line of the Quintet,<br />
she’s absolutely gorgeous. She’s also touching<br />
and believable, especially in her scenes with<br />
Sachs and Walther in Act 2—you really care<br />
about this Elsa. King is a heroic, ringing<br />
Walther. He’s not subtle, but his stamina is<br />
impressive, and he sings with undiminished<br />
vigor and gleaming tone from start to finish.<br />
Schippers seems really happy in the<br />
busiest parts of the score, particularly the conclusions<br />
to Acts 1 and 2. He always keeps the<br />
performance moving along, and the many cuts<br />
the Met was taking in the 70s make it seem to<br />
go even swifter. Among the missing material<br />
are a big chunk of David’s Act 1 recitation,<br />
about half the “Jerum” scene and Beckmesser’s<br />
serenade from Act 2, the second half<br />
of the workshop scene for Sachs and Walther,<br />
and part of Sachs’s ‘Verachtet mir’.<br />
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The sound is of acceptable broadcast quality,<br />
a little congested and strident but listenable,<br />
even if below 1972 standards. Sometimes<br />
Adam and Lorengar seem to wander off mike,<br />
the last thing either of them needs. The booklet<br />
has a synopsis and track list but no notes or<br />
libretto. Adam was Karajan’s Sachs in his 1970<br />
EMI Meistersinger, but Lorengar and King did<br />
not record their roles in the studio, so their<br />
admirers will be especially happy to have this.<br />
LUCANO<br />
WAGNER: Die Walküre<br />
Jon Vickers (Siegmund), Leonie Rysanek<br />
(Sieglinde), Karl Ridderbusch (Hunding), Thomas<br />
Stewart (Wotan), Birgit Nilsson (Brünnhilde),<br />
Christa Ludwig (Fricka); Metropolitan Opera/<br />
Berislav Klobucar<br />
Sony 83508 [3CD] 217 minutes<br />
In the mid-1960s, after extended negotiations,<br />
Herbert von Karajan was persuaded to supervise<br />
and conduct a production of Wagner’s<br />
four Ring operas at the Metropolitan in New<br />
York. Beginning in 1966 with several performances<br />
of Das Rheingold, the series was to<br />
continue in 1967 with Die Walkure, while<br />
Siegfried and Götterdämmerung would follow<br />
in the next two seasons. Das Rheingold and Die<br />
Walkure were completed as envisioned, but<br />
then serious problems between Karajan and<br />
the Met arose, which resulted in the termination<br />
of the series in 1968. The two remaining<br />
operas were thus never performed.<br />
This was one of the final offerings in the<br />
Met series, and it was not conducted by Karajan<br />
but by a substitute. It has been suggested<br />
that Karajan was present at the performance,<br />
but that is not known with certainty. The Met’s<br />
skimpy notes in this set are a listing of casts,<br />
tracks, and timings.<br />
Berislav Klobucar was a Croatian musician,<br />
born in Zagreb in 1924. He was active in eastern<br />
Europe as a <strong>conductor</strong>, mostly of opera, for<br />
much of his life, but how he ended up at the<br />
Met is not easily ascertained. He leads a basically<br />
slow performance, at 327 minutes nearly<br />
half an hour slower than Karl Böhm, who at<br />
300 minutes defines the faster end of the<br />
acceptable spectrum. Does Klobucar merely<br />
follow Karajan’s course? He’s at least 10 minutes<br />
too slow, but there’s a lot to like with<br />
Klobucar. His contribution is generally positive.<br />
The singing cast is a mixed group of generally<br />
well-regarded vocalists. The star of the<br />
show is of course Nilsson, whose robust and<br />
brilliant soprano voice can handle everything<br />
Wagner throws at her. Moreover she has a<br />
comprehension of the contours and structural<br />
constructs that eludes less accomplished<br />
singers. Christa Ludwig, as Fricka, is also very<br />
impressive dramatically and musically. Leonie<br />
Rysanek is the Sieglinde by which others are<br />
judged, and she is in top form here. She was<br />
also Böhm’s Sieglinde.<br />
Jon Vickers is satisfactory as Siegmund,<br />
though not quite in top form, while Thomas<br />
Stewart is a very fine Wotan overall. Karl Ridderbusch<br />
is also a top-notch Hunding. The<br />
Valkyries are all right, though not much more<br />
than that. They are clearly less impressive than<br />
the ones Böhm had at Bayreuth. Despite the<br />
fact that Böhm finishes the whole show nearly<br />
half an hour quicker than Klobucar, he is<br />
noticeably slower in the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’,<br />
a good example of his modus operandi, where<br />
he quickly gets through the narratives while<br />
markedly slowing for the great dramatic<br />
scenes.<br />
The 1969 sound is, though monaural, clear,<br />
open, and undistorted. It’s a good recording of<br />
a good Met performance.<br />
The best performance I’ve ever heard of<br />
the final scene of Walküre is sung by Nilsson<br />
and Hans Hotter in a 2CD EMI set (9703),<br />
accompanied by the Philharmonia splendidly<br />
conducted by Leopold Ludwig, and it leaves<br />
Furtwängler, Böhm, Karajan, Solti, Haitink and<br />
everyone else in its dust. It was part of a scheduled<br />
complete EMI Ring that for some reason<br />
never saw the light of day.<br />
MCKELVEY<br />
WAGNER: Wesendonck Songs; see MAHLER<br />
WARSHAUER: Symphony 1; Tekeeyah<br />
Haim Avitsur, shofar, trb; Moravian Philharmonic/<br />
Petr Vronsky<br />
Navona 5842—51 minutes<br />
I admit to expecting something soothing, New-<br />
Agey, and maybe sad before listening to South<br />
Carolina-based composer Meira Warshauer’s<br />
four-movement, 27-minute Living, Breathing<br />
Earth (Symphony 1, 2006). So I was surprised<br />
by the agitation and seeming anger in I (‘Call<br />
of the Cicadas’). Warshauer was inspired by<br />
the cicadas’ mating calls—”20-30 second<br />
waves of overlapping sound energizing the<br />
Carolina and Georgia summer”. The soothing<br />
music I was expecting comes in II (‘Tahuayo<br />
River at Night’), inspired by the peacefulness<br />
of the Peruvian rain forest. III (‘Wings in<br />
Flight’) is about butterflies, birds, and the play<br />
of light on water. The finale portrays the ‘Living,<br />
Breathing Earth’ with a five-beat rhythm<br />
of slow, steady sonorities underlying gentle<br />
surface action. All in all, it is a lovely pieces of<br />
music. Ms Warshauer has mastered the art of<br />
depicting nature in sound.<br />
Tekeeyah (2008) is scored for shofar, trombone,<br />
and orchestra. “In the Jewish tradition”,<br />
she writes, “the shofar, the horn of a ram or<br />
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other kosher animal, is sounded to wake up<br />
the soul. The raw animal sound reaches inside,<br />
rousing us from our slumber of complacency<br />
and breaking walls of separation. In this concerto,<br />
the shofar calls to all of humanity.” Various<br />
kinds of shofar calls, all with specific function<br />
and symbolism in Jewish holidays, are<br />
heard in this three-section, 25-minute work.<br />
Part I (‘A Call’) is ethereal, with sustained shofar<br />
and string sounds, and with wind sounds<br />
apparently made by orchestra members. II<br />
(‘Breaking Walls’) has guttural blasts by trombone<br />
and shofar, along with discordant<br />
orchestral sounds, leading to an early climax<br />
followed by a long period of peace. III (‘Dance<br />
of Truth’) ends the work with energetic, rhythmic<br />
passages interspersed with shofar calls.<br />
The disc includes computer-accessible<br />
supplemental materials. There are sound clips<br />
(including a 10-minute interview with composer<br />
Warshauer and shofar-trombone soloist<br />
Avitsur), videos of Warshauer discussing her<br />
pieces and Avitsur playing shofar, and biographies<br />
of both. And you can gaze at and turn<br />
the pages of tiny reproductions of the scores.<br />
WEBERN: Quartet; see BRAHMS<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
WHITELEY:Intrada; In Memoriam Duruflé:<br />
Scherzo; Toccata di Dissonanze; Aubade;<br />
Trilogy on Stanzas of Shakespeare’s Sonnets;<br />
Scherzetto & Fugue on Francis Jackson; 5 Sisters<br />
Windows; Passacaglia<br />
John Scott Whiteley, org<br />
Regent 353—76 minutes<br />
Whiteley, organist at York Cathedral from 1975<br />
to 2010, is remembered here, aside from his<br />
other numerous recordings, for his fine performance<br />
of Jongen’s complete organ works (Priory<br />
731, M/A 2005).<br />
The instrument is a 4-105 Walker (1904),<br />
Harrison & Harrison (1917), Walker (1960),<br />
Coffin rebuild (1993). The selections were written<br />
from 1998 to 2010. <strong>Record</strong>ed in 2010, this<br />
seems to be a farewell collection of pieces<br />
Whiteley wrote in his last decade as Organist at<br />
York Cathedral. The liner notes by Whiteley<br />
are far too extensive and detailed to interest<br />
the casual listener. They look like pages in a<br />
biography he may be planning, as they supply<br />
what inspired each piece, the registration he<br />
used, and an analysis of the principal works.<br />
For example, we are told that Variation III in<br />
the Passacaglia is linked to the 6th variation of<br />
the Passacaglia of Rheinberger’s 8th Sonata, or<br />
that in the Variation XIV, the light that dances<br />
in XXVI is foreshadowed by an allegresse of<br />
exquisite delicacy.<br />
Intrada lacks the elegance of Elgarian<br />
pomp, substituting instead an in-your-face<br />
blast from the high pressure reeds. The tribute<br />
to Duruflé’s Scherzo lacks any resemblance to<br />
that piece but still has a charming lightness.<br />
Whiteley’s Toccata uses melodies from Frescobaldi,<br />
and has far less dissonance than the<br />
title suggests. Aubade is another lighter composition,<br />
but not one of great substance. One<br />
might well improvise something more atmospheric<br />
than this.<br />
Five Sisters Windows will be familiar to<br />
anyone who has visited York Cathedral. Positioned<br />
in the north transept, the five huge windows<br />
were originally completed in 1260. They<br />
were done in grisaille with foliage motifs, a<br />
technique popular in medieval times, especially<br />
with the Cistercians. The outside light is filtered<br />
through the grey-green color. Much<br />
more recently (1925) the windows came to<br />
represent the women killed in WW I. Now it is<br />
both world wars. They are each 57 feet tall.<br />
They seem appropriately described musically<br />
with creative registrations. ‘Glints’, the first<br />
movement, is scored for the 15th, Tierce, Mixtures,<br />
and Cymbal to describe the small flashes<br />
of light that appear and fade. The opening<br />
pitches will test the limits of your hearing: they<br />
are stratospheric. The other four pieces are<br />
‘Tracery’, ‘Dichronic Variations’, ‘Grisaille’,<br />
and ‘Lancets’, likewise pictured.<br />
The program closes with Passacaglia (2009)<br />
with its 28 variations. Each variation is<br />
changed in registration, style, and volume. It’s<br />
a bit drawn out but an interesting showpiece<br />
for the instrument.<br />
METZ<br />
WILLEY: Quartets 3, 7, 8<br />
Esterhazy Quartet<br />
Albany 1245—60 minutes<br />
Born in 1939 in Massachusetts, James Willey<br />
studied at Eastman with Bernard Rogers and<br />
Howard Hanson and later with Gunther<br />
Schuller. The sharply conflicting idioms of his<br />
teachers are reflected in his string quartets,<br />
which merge contemporary-sounding astringency<br />
and string effects with distorted references<br />
to hymns, folk tunes, country fiddling,<br />
and other bits of musical “<strong>American</strong>a”. I found<br />
the resulting mishmash in Quartets 1, 2, and 6<br />
on CRI 816 (Nov/Dec 1999) filled with too<br />
many crude stylistic inconsistencies to engender<br />
the coherence and integrity required for<br />
enjoyable music.<br />
These three quartets also exhibit the deleterious<br />
effects of Willey’s attention-deficit-disorder<br />
approach. Every once in a while an interesting<br />
idea emerges—for example the apparent<br />
fugue subject at 4:20 in his 16-minute, single-movement<br />
Third Quartet from 1981. But<br />
the actual fugue is aborted, as the distracted<br />
musical narrative is quickly diverted onto<br />
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another path. Quartets 7 and 8 are more<br />
recent—from the past decade or so—and show<br />
at least in some movements considerable<br />
improvement in clear, deliberate formal logic<br />
and stylistic constancy. An example is the<br />
finale of Quartet 7, a dandy fleet-footed dancefantasy<br />
on irregular rhythmic patterns; it’s<br />
catchy and exciting—as well as unified—for all<br />
of its five minutes. Other movements tend to<br />
get derailed onto eccentric byways that puzzle<br />
the listener, as when Willey’s more-or-less<br />
modern idiom veers off into John Adamsy renditions<br />
of colonial-era hymns in his Eighth<br />
Quartet.<br />
If post-modern jumbles with a strong<br />
<strong>American</strong> flavor are your cup of tea, you may<br />
like Willey’s perambulations. As far as I’m concerned,<br />
Ives did more than enough of this sort<br />
of thing nearly a century ago. The Esterhazy<br />
Quartet plays with evident passion and devotion,<br />
though it sometimes sounds a bit ragged.<br />
Albany’s sonics are very good.<br />
LEHMAN<br />
WOLF: Mörike Lieder<br />
Susan Dunn, s; Thomas Potter, bar; John Wustman,<br />
p<br />
MSR 1337 [2CD] 148 minutes<br />
This set contains the 53 lieder composed in<br />
1888 by Wolf to the poems of Eduard Mörike.<br />
The singers are Susan Dunn, once a Met<br />
soprano with what seemed to be a glorious<br />
future in opera, and Thomas Potter, an <strong>American</strong><br />
baritone with more than 25 years of experience<br />
in opera as a Verdi baritone. Dunn’s<br />
once pure and powerful spinto soprano sang<br />
Leonore (Il Trovatore) and Lina (Stiffelio) to<br />
critical acclaim at the Met for several seasons,<br />
but then she vanished from the New York<br />
opera scene. She is now the head of vocal and<br />
opera programs at Duke University. Neither<br />
Dunn nor Potter seems to have much experience<br />
in the lieder repertory.<br />
In fact, Potter’s career, as related in the<br />
notes, began at the San Francisco Opera Center<br />
and includes many years of singing at the<br />
Stadttheater (Municipal Opera House) in St<br />
Gallen, Switzerland. He also sang in opera<br />
houses in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and<br />
Brazil. He is currently the Voice and Choral<br />
Arts Coordinator at the University of Central<br />
Florida in Orlando, where he teaches and<br />
directs the opera program. John Wustman is<br />
the excellent accompanist, well known to collectors<br />
of lieder recordings.<br />
From the evidence here, neither Dunn nor<br />
Potter are particularly good lieder singers.<br />
Dunn can’t seem to control her big voice; she<br />
overwhelms the music—not to mention the<br />
texts—by repeatedly attacking them as if they<br />
were Verdi arias. Her diction is poor much of<br />
the time, and the quality of her voice has deteriorated.<br />
It is often wobbly and edgy when she<br />
puts pressure on it, as she does too often in<br />
this recital. For example, in ‘Er ist’s’, notes that<br />
must be sustained become wobbly and the<br />
song ends in a dramatic, operatic climax. Generally,<br />
light sopranos like Schwarzkopf or<br />
Seefried do much better in this repertory. It<br />
needs refinement and smoothness more than<br />
dramatic power. ‘Schlafendes Jesuskind’, as<br />
Dunn sings and interprets it, becomes another<br />
example of her inability to sustain notes. It’s a<br />
sweet religious song that ends softly; but by<br />
that time it has lost its charm, at least for this<br />
listener. Charm and humor are also missing<br />
from her rendition of ‘Nixe Binsefuss’, which,<br />
in addition, suffers from poor diction.<br />
Potter’s voice sounds rough or raspy much<br />
of the time; it lacks tonal purity and isn’t in any<br />
way alluring. His diction is somewhat better<br />
than Dunn’s and he generates a bit of excitement<br />
in ‘Der Feuerreiter’, one of Wolf’s best<br />
and most exciting songs. But that’s not enough<br />
for me to recommend this rather unfortunate<br />
release, which also comes without text or<br />
translation. For a recital of Wolf’s songs, that’s<br />
an almost unforgivable omission.<br />
MOSES<br />
WOLPE: Piano Pieces<br />
David Holzman<br />
Bridge 9344—73 minutes<br />
Volume 6 in Bridge’s Stefan Wolpe series has<br />
10 piano works dating from 1926 to 1959<br />
(Wolpe’s dates are 1902-72). The program<br />
opens with what should probably be considered<br />
the main event, Four Studies on Basic<br />
Rows (1935-36), a rather clinical-sounding title<br />
for these striking, ambitious etudes. As with<br />
Debussy’s, these concentrate on fundamental<br />
musical elements. There are a couple built<br />
around single intervals (one in tritones, one in<br />
melodically filled-in thirds), one for expanding<br />
and contracting intervals (the ‘Presto furioso’),<br />
and the last of them a stupendous Passacaglia,<br />
which runs through all intervals one at a time<br />
as its theme. It’s a tour de force, compositionally<br />
and pianistically. We are reminded of<br />
Elliott Carter’s crucial contact with Wolpe<br />
early on in his career, and it’s not hard to hear<br />
the effect this music had on the younger composer.<br />
Pianist Holzman confronts the studies<br />
boldly, though not very cleanly.<br />
Most of the remaining entries are more<br />
modest in nature. Three Pieces for Youngsters<br />
(1950) are reminiscent of Schoenberg’s briefer<br />
efforts. Song, Speech, Hymn, Strophe, Tenderest<br />
Motion (1939) is a moody little birthday present<br />
for his wife Irma (Schoenberg). The first of<br />
the Two Pieces (1941) could almost be<br />
Debussy, while the second is a wild hora. A<br />
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muddy Toccata in Three Parts (1941) is loosely<br />
modeled on Bach, with a cluttered serial fugue<br />
as finale following a despairing central Adagio.<br />
Two sets of Studies for Piano (1946-48) are<br />
very brief exercises on the techniques Wolpe<br />
was developing linking him with the Abstract<br />
Expressionist painters of the day. The early<br />
Two Dances (1926) are an Expressionist blues<br />
and tango from the Jazz Age decidedly not<br />
reminiscent of Stravinsky. Palestinian Notebook<br />
(1939) contains four modal studies ending<br />
with another hora, and Two Vocalises<br />
(1959) close with a cakewalk belonging to<br />
another time and place.<br />
This is a fascinating collection of little<br />
known music by a worthy if challenging composer<br />
stubbornly remaining on the fringes of<br />
the repertoire. Mr Holzman gets credit for<br />
bravery. This is very difficult music, but he is<br />
not the most accomplished of pianists technically,<br />
and listeners must mentally edit out<br />
more than is generally acceptable these days.<br />
He supplies detailed and engaging notes.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
attitude. This work, though a fine one, is a bit<br />
farther out than I think Piston ever went. It has<br />
Wyner’s curious blend of frenetic activity,<br />
humor, and dark lyricism and is played with a<br />
sense of drama by Milovanovic, who plays keyboard<br />
from now on.<br />
In Dances of Atonement for violin and<br />
piano, the first part is based on a Kol Nidrei<br />
chant (not the one we cellists know so well)<br />
followed by a kind of answering movement. It<br />
is a work from 1976 played with style by<br />
Pogorelov and Milovanovic. Finally, we meet<br />
the clarinetist from Ibis in Cadenza! a fourmovement<br />
suite of 1969 of varied and strongly<br />
portrayed moods, played with sensitivity by<br />
Norsworthy with Milovanovic on the harpsichord.<br />
This is an attractive program of music<br />
by one of our finest composers.<br />
D MOORE<br />
ZAIMONT: Quartet; Zones; Astral; Serenade<br />
Harlem Qt; Awadagin Pratt, p<br />
Navona 5846—65 minutes<br />
WYNER: Commedia; De Nova; Partita;<br />
Dances of Atonement; Cadenza!<br />
Richard Stoltzman, Michael Norsworthy, cl;<br />
Dmitri Pogorelov, v; Rafael Popper-Keiser, vc;<br />
These four chamber pieces by Judith Lang Zaimont<br />
all involve the Harlem Quartet and its<br />
members, with guest pianist Awadagin Pratt<br />
on board for the two piano trios. The release is<br />
titled “Eternal Evolution”.<br />
Yehudi Wyner, p; Biljana Milovanovic, p, hpsi; The two-movement String Quartet (2007)<br />
Ibis Camerata<br />
has the subtitle The Figure, which refers to a<br />
Albany 1254—69 minutes<br />
rather sullen falling half step motive and to a<br />
couple of slightly more elaborate ancillary fig-<br />
Yehudi Wyner (b 1929) is one of our most<br />
imaginative composers. If you are not sure<br />
how to take his music, read his liner notes.<br />
They introduce you to a world of humor and<br />
seriousness intermingled in an unusual but<br />
very human way. This is a man of much wisdom,<br />
and his music does as much searching<br />
and discovering as any I have heard. The combination<br />
of his writing and his music here is<br />
worth exploring.<br />
ures all transformed and put in various contexts<br />
in the course of these very freely composed<br />
movements. Ms Zaimont’s language is<br />
firmly neo-tonal, its modest ambiguity culminating<br />
in clear triads at the work’s close. After<br />
the first movement’s expository introduction,<br />
the music takes on the character of a scherzo,<br />
then drifts into a sort of fantasy recitative. The<br />
final movement begins with intense drive,<br />
then goes through episodes of mystery, inter-<br />
Commedia is a 16-minute adventure for ruption, and bits of lyricism until the some-<br />
clarinet and piano written in 2002 for clarwhat cosmic culmination. It is serious but<br />
inetist Richard Stoltzman, who performs it comes across as a bit scattered. It is very well<br />
here with the composer at the piano. It is an played by this fine group.<br />
eventful work, not all funny by any means, but Zones (1994) is Ms Zaimont’s Second Piano<br />
with numerous virtuoso passages played with Trio. In three large movements, all about the<br />
masterly style by both artists. De Nova, for weather (‘Cold’, ‘Warm’, and ‘Temperate’), the<br />
cello and chamber group, is an 8-minute piece work begins with a passionate opening move-<br />
from 1970 combining a number of different ment. II begins as an extremely expressive,<br />
moods with a virtuoso cello part played with broadly romantic slow movement and turns<br />
polish by Popper-Keiser and members of the into a seemingly separate, amiably dancing<br />
Ibis Camerata conducted by the composer. movement in itself. The finale begins actively<br />
Now we return in time to 1952 and a piano but is interrupted by a pensive passage that<br />
solo Partita written while Wyner was studying seems to get lost. The piece ends festively. A<br />
with Walter Piston. The composer tells us an large, ambitious (perhaps overambitious)<br />
amusing and meaningful tale, as is his wont, of work, the music is built in blocks, and makes<br />
how Piston never had a word of criticism for up in enthusiasm what it may lack in concision<br />
this piece, though when Wyner went back to or cohesion. I don’t dismiss the possibility of a<br />
studying with Hindemith, there was a different more feminist understanding of Ms Zaimont’s<br />
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compositional strategies. Mr Pratt does a creditable<br />
job with the big piano part.<br />
Astral (2004, 2009) is an expressive but<br />
again thoroughly sectional (in fact, 11-part)<br />
solo piece for either solo clarinet or solo viola<br />
(here. The clarinet version may be heard on<br />
Albany 785 played by John Anderson, M/A<br />
2006). It is extremely well played here by Juan-<br />
Miguel Hernandez. I could have done without<br />
the humming at the end (and I could do without<br />
the extracurricular stompings in the other<br />
pieces as well).<br />
Serenade (2006) is a short but lovely piece<br />
for piano trio, a lyrical little song without<br />
words that lasts five minutes. Because of its<br />
modest length, I find it the most effective work<br />
here, but it has a rather abrupt ending. It<br />
seems to me that from a traditional perspective<br />
Ms Zaimont does not handle large forms<br />
particularly well, though her take on tonality is<br />
musical and welcome. Notes may be found by<br />
placing the disc in your computer.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
ZEBELJAN: Horses of St Mark; Rukoveti;<br />
Minstrel’s Dance; Seliste; Escenas Picaras<br />
Aile Asszonyi, s; Zebeljan Ensemble; Janacek Philharmonic/<br />
David Porcelijn<br />
CPO 777670—67 minutes<br />
Isidora Zebeljan, born in Belgrade in 1967,<br />
grew up in the countryside between Serbia,<br />
Romania, and Hungary—the same area where<br />
Bartok and Ligeti were born. She attended the<br />
Belgrade Music Academy and has been a composition<br />
professor there since 2002. Her opera<br />
Zora D won international attention in 2003<br />
and earned her more commissions. This<br />
album presents works spanning her 20s and<br />
30s, from 1987 (Seliste) to 2005 (Minstrel’s<br />
Dance).<br />
Seliste (Deserted Village) is a seven-minute<br />
elegy for chamber orchestra that evokes the<br />
melancholy image of a place where people no<br />
longer live. For a while, quiet, folk-like<br />
melodies are heard over gentle, muted string<br />
textures. The pace becomes agitated, as if dark<br />
secrets are resurfacing, but the work returns to<br />
an atmosphere of hushed mystery by the end.<br />
While the harmonic language is quite tonal<br />
in Seliste, it is strongly dissonant in the 21minute,<br />
three-movement symphony Escenas<br />
Picaras (Picaresque Scenes, 1992). Here Zebeljan<br />
attempts to portray the life of a picaro, the<br />
fictional rogue (think Till Eulenspiegel) that<br />
inspired 16th-Century Spanish writers. In I<br />
(‘The Circus...and Other Tales’), the action is<br />
frenetic, while a languid torpor permeates II<br />
(‘The Blues, Etc’). III (‘Funeral March and Final<br />
Development’) rehashes earlier material and<br />
ends with a dissonant bang.<br />
Rukoveti (2000) is a 15-minute setting of<br />
five songs, the texts selected and adapted by<br />
the composer from a collection of old Serbian<br />
poetry. One cannot help thinking of the horrors<br />
of the 1990s wars in Yugoslavia while<br />
reading and listening as a young woman turns<br />
from loving to bitter. Soprano Aile Asszonyi is<br />
the very expressive singer with a voice that<br />
ranges from gentle to powerful. The harmonic<br />
language is tonal sometimes but more often<br />
strongly dissonant.<br />
The most recent works are for chamber<br />
orchestra but seem to have little else in common.<br />
The 9-minute Horses of St Mark (2004) is<br />
chaotic, atonal, and often reminds me of parts<br />
of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The three-movement,<br />
15-minute Minstrel’s Dance (2005) is<br />
more Bartokian, with tonal though dissonant<br />
harmonies, folk-like melodies, and complex<br />
meters. But it is not really Bartokian—it is<br />
more complex, spontaneous, multifaceted,<br />
polystylistic. Endlessly fascinating.<br />
Remarkable program, excellent readings.<br />
Minstrel’s Dance is played by the 20-person<br />
Zebeljan Ensemble, apparently formed for this<br />
recording.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
ZORN: The Satyr’s Play; Visions of Dionysius<br />
Cyro Baptista, Kenny Wollesen, perc; Peter Evans,<br />
tpt; David Taylor, trb; Marcus Rojas, tu<br />
Tzadik 7390—37 minutes<br />
The Satyr’s Play, 26 minutes of eight short<br />
“odes” for percussion, is either random noises,<br />
free solos, or a steady beat for a little bit. The<br />
booklet includes “magickal texts” and incantations<br />
meant to be read along with the play; I<br />
suppose Wiccans or pagans would get into<br />
this, if I may presume to speak for them. ‘Cerberus’,<br />
for the three brass instruments, sounds<br />
like a transcription of a 1970s-era piece for<br />
tape; it’s impressive what the instruments can<br />
do, and I wonder if there’s some electronic<br />
manipulation. The sound is excellent, especially<br />
in The Satyr’s Play.<br />
I don’t have much use for this kind of<br />
thing, but it is very tautly written avant-garde<br />
music. And someone had the brilliant idea to<br />
include a cellophane inner sleeve for the disc<br />
so you don’t scratch it when you take it out;<br />
industry, please start doing this. Notes are in<br />
English.<br />
ESTEP<br />
The cultural role of football in preparing<br />
<strong>American</strong> youth for a lifetime of violence<br />
and morally degrading competitiveness<br />
should not be overlooked.<br />
—Dennis Rohatyn<br />
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ZUMSTEEG: The Island of the Spirits<br />
Falko Hönisch (Prospero), Christiane Karg<br />
(Miranda), Benjamin Hulett (Fernando), Andrea<br />
Lauren Brown (Ariel); Hofkapelle Stuttgart &<br />
Choir/ Frieder Bernius<br />
Carus 83.229 [3CD] 139 minutes<br />
Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg (1760-1802) was a<br />
German composer, <strong>conductor</strong>, and cellist who<br />
spent most of his professional life at the Ducal<br />
Court in Stuttgart. He composed mainly<br />
operas, incidental music, and cantatas for festive<br />
occasions in the family of the Duke of<br />
Württemberg. As the Ducal Kapellmeister, he<br />
produced many of Mozart’s neglected operas,<br />
as well as Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte, and<br />
The Magic Flute. His greatest success as an<br />
opera composer was Die Geisterinsel, an adaptation<br />
of Shakespeare’s Tempest.<br />
This opera was first performed in Stuttgart<br />
in 1798; it became so popular that it was kept<br />
in the repertory there for more than 20 years. It<br />
uses a completely different libretto from Frank<br />
Martin’s opera that’s also based on the Shakespeare<br />
play, also reviewed in this issue of ARG.<br />
This is its first recording.<br />
Unlike Martin’s music, Zumsteeg’s is quite<br />
conventional for its time; Haydn or Mozart<br />
could have composed it—and it would have<br />
been better if they had. It’s diatonic and mostly<br />
in major keys. It’s a sequence of arias and<br />
recitatives, interrupted by spoken dialog<br />
[Collections are in the usual order: orchestral,<br />
chamber ensembles, brass ensembles,<br />
bassoon, cello & double bass, clarinet,<br />
flute, guitar, harp, harpsichord, miscellaneous,<br />
oboe, organ, piano, saxophone,<br />
trumpet & brass solos, viola, violin, wind<br />
ensembles, early, choral, vocal.]<br />
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra<br />
70th Anniversary<br />
BARTOK: Concerto for Orchestra; BEE-<br />
THOVEN: Fidelio Overture; Piano Concerto<br />
5; Symphony 4; Violin Concerto; BEN-HAIM:<br />
Israeli Capriccio; BERLIOZ: Harold in Italy;<br />
BERNSTEIN: Chichester Psalms; BLOCH:<br />
Schelomo; BRAHMS: Piano Concerto 1;<br />
DVORAK: Symphony 7; GRIEG: Piano Concerto;<br />
HINDEMITH: Symphonic Metamorphosis;<br />
MAHLER: Symphony 4; MASSENET:<br />
4 Pieces from Le Cid; MENDELSSOHN: Calm<br />
Sea & Prosperous Voyage; Hebrides Overture;<br />
Symphony 4; MOZART: Marriage of Figaro<br />
Overture; Piano Concerto 27; Sinfonia Concertante;<br />
Symphony 41; RIMSKY-KOR-<br />
SAKOFF: Capriccio Espagnol; SAINT-<br />
Collections<br />
(which has been omitted in this recording, as<br />
have several arias and some recitatives). The<br />
result is a more or less conventional love story<br />
of Miranda and Fernando; Prospero’s exile is<br />
hardly mentioned, and his magic is incidental<br />
to the story. The libretto is by one Friedrich<br />
William Cotter; much of it is in rhythmic verse.<br />
Unfortunately, only the German text is included<br />
in the booklet; but a detailed synopsis of the<br />
plot, translated into English and French, has<br />
also been supplied.<br />
This cast is not as powerful as the Swiss<br />
cast in Martin’s opera. As Prospero, Falko<br />
Hönisch’s baritone lacks power and his voice<br />
is not smooth enough or alluring; perhaps this<br />
is at least partly owing to the recording venue,<br />
a High School of Music in Stuttgart. As the<br />
lovers, Christiane King and Benjamin Hulett<br />
sing their arias quite well, their voices fresh<br />
and attractive. So does Andrea Lauren Brown,<br />
as Ariel, though her performance is not the<br />
least bit ghostly. Fabio, Fernando’s squire,<br />
makes a brief appearance here, his role well<br />
sung by mezzo soprano Sophie Harmsen. But<br />
several of the leading characters in Shakespeare’s<br />
play have been omitted in this opera,<br />
including Alonzo, Antonio (Prospero’s wicked<br />
brother), and Gonzalo (his friend). So what<br />
remains ? A fairly conventional love story set<br />
on an island, with music that’s generic and not<br />
in any way original. Alas, poor Shakespeare!<br />
MOSES<br />
SAENS: Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso;<br />
SCHUBERT: Symphonies 5+9; SCHUMANN:<br />
Symphonies 3+4; SMETANA: Bartered Bride<br />
Overture; Moldau; STRAVINSKY: Firebird<br />
Suite; TCHAIKOVSKY: Nutcracker Suite;<br />
Violin Concerto; VERDI: Traviata Prelude;<br />
VIVALDI: 4 Seasons; WEBER: Oberon Overture<br />
Shlomo Mintz, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman,<br />
Itzhak Perlman, v; Daniel Benyamini, va; Janos<br />
Starker, vc; Julius Katchen, Arthur Rubinstein,<br />
Radu Lupu, Pnina Salzman, Daniel Barenboim, p;<br />
choruses/ Paul Kletzki, Josef Krips, Georg Solti,<br />
Jean Martinon, Istvan Kertesz, Zubin Mehta,<br />
Rafael Kubelik, Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Barenboim,<br />
Carlo Maria Giulini, Lorin Maazel, Kurt<br />
Masur<br />
Helicon 9614 [12CD] 15:15<br />
Bronislaw Huberman, a Polish-born Jew and<br />
violinist, persuaded about 75 musicians to<br />
immigrate to Palestine, forming the Palestine<br />
Orchestra in 1936; Toscanini conducted the<br />
first concert in Tel-Aviv on December 26th, a<br />
program that included music by Wagner (this<br />
was two years before Kristallnacht). The<br />
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orchestra also toured Egypt in 1940-43, played<br />
for Allied forces in World War II, had its name<br />
changed to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra<br />
in 1948 and played ‘Hatikvah’ at the Declaration<br />
of Independence ceremony that year,<br />
toured the United States in 1950, moved into<br />
the new Mann Auditorium in 1957, played<br />
Mahler 1 and ‘Hatikvah’ in Berlin in 1971 (a<br />
mere 500 meters from the Reichstag), performed<br />
in Poland in 1987, named Bernstein<br />
their Conductor Laureate in 1988, and played<br />
to a gas mask-wearing audience during the<br />
First Gulf War. Its first recordings were made<br />
under Paul Kletzki in 1954; this set contains<br />
music from only the labels represented in<br />
Israel by Helicon: Decca, Deutsche Grammophon,<br />
and EMI—so no Sony, Teldec, or<br />
RCA. I’m not sure why this is made available<br />
this long after the anniversary (2006).<br />
Several of the Decca recordings had never<br />
been issued on CD: the Massenet, Dvorak, Bartok,<br />
Schubert 9, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Berlioz, and<br />
Bloch (the Schubert has recently been issued—<br />
more on that later). Archival concert recordings<br />
of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27, the<br />
Ben-Haim, the Beethoven Violin Concerto,<br />
and Schumann symphonies are appearing for<br />
the first time. The booklet has a three-page<br />
introduction, a page about each decade, and<br />
several color pages of newpaper articles and<br />
memorabilia in English and Hebrew. Brian<br />
Buerkle will review another Israel Philharmonic<br />
box set, entirely conducted by Zubin Mehta.<br />
Kletzki conducted Mendelssohn’s Calm<br />
Sea and Prosperous Voyage in 1954. It’s mono,<br />
of course, and balances aren’t perfect, but it’s<br />
not bad to listen to. The opening is elegant!<br />
There’s a rare serenity to the playing, and the<br />
strings phrase their lines ever so delicately.<br />
The fast part is full of excitement and sunshine.<br />
Krips conducts a passable Mozart Symphony<br />
41—some of it lively, but some of it<br />
pedestrian, especially the Minuet. IV sparkles<br />
in spite of a few shaky rhythms. Solti’s Schubert<br />
5 is stately—there’s no out-of-this-world<br />
creativity, just good music-making. Its Minuet<br />
has a fetching, carefree lilt to the melody, while<br />
the accompaniment gives it a danceable firmness.<br />
IV is on the fast side, but under control<br />
the whole time; I find the quicker tempo<br />
charming. The pieces from Le Cid come from a<br />
Martinon Decca recording that also had Les<br />
Patineurs by Meyerbeer, arranged by Lambert.<br />
The sound is gorgeous; maybe it’s nostalgia,<br />
but recordings of “light” music from the late<br />
1950s and early 1960s always sound so genuine—there’s<br />
no irony. Let’s hope the rest of<br />
that album will be released sometime. Istvan<br />
Kertesz gives us a Bartered Bride Overture<br />
that’s a shade fast for the acoustics, but the<br />
orchestra sounds ecstatic.<br />
Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7, with Mehta, is<br />
lugubrious in I, and any Bohemian sparkle has<br />
been replaced with a Teutonic grayness in III:<br />
the hemiolas sound like Brahms, not Dvorak.<br />
IV has some real yearning to it, and crackling<br />
percussion work—before long, I found myself<br />
waving my paws along with the timpani part.<br />
At important structural moments, Mehta pulls<br />
the tempo back almost imperceptibly; it’s<br />
enough to heighten the drama viscerally, perking<br />
your interest while not showing all the<br />
cards. There’s an unfortunate moment at the<br />
beginning of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra,<br />
when the high strings come in just before the<br />
accelerando, where it sounds like one of the<br />
engineers did a panicked dive onto the volume<br />
knob. Why isn’t there a little crescendo in the<br />
accelerando? That should be like the initial<br />
drop of a roller coaster. The Dvorak and Bartok<br />
were recorded in 1972 and 1976 by Decca, but<br />
the sound is stuffy, and the brass and low<br />
winds are distant, especially in II of the Bartok—the<br />
laughing muted trumpet part sounds<br />
like the engineers put them in the back of the<br />
hall. The playing is decent.<br />
Kubelik gives the introduction of Beethoven’s<br />
Symphony No. 4 the perfect amount<br />
of space between the chords; the development<br />
is thrilling, and the orchestra is at the top of<br />
their game. The DG engineers did a superb job<br />
on the sound, too (this was recorded in Munich):<br />
everything is balanced nicely and perfectly<br />
reverberant. II pedals around on the<br />
back roads, lost for a bit, but that’s more<br />
Beethoven’s fault. The slower section of III is<br />
restful instead of anticipatory; I would prefer<br />
anticipatory since there’s just been a slow<br />
movement, but it doesn’t drag. IV is cheerful<br />
and crisp.<br />
Mendelssohn’s Fourth, with Bernstein, is a<br />
concert performance from the Mann Auditorium<br />
in 1978, and it is rich, lush, but not saccharine.<br />
This group does well with melodies that<br />
are bouncy or carefree, giving them lots of<br />
vitality.<br />
Mehta’s Nutcracker starts out bland and<br />
gets worse: the horns in the ‘March’ muscle<br />
their way in front of the trumpets, and when<br />
the trumpets finally get free of them, you’d<br />
think they numbed their tongues with popsicles<br />
before playing. The ‘Arab Dance’ has a<br />
sobriety and sadness to it that I’ve never heard<br />
before, but the ‘Chinese Dance’ (where, oh<br />
where, did Tchaikovsky get the idea to end it<br />
with that limp chord?) is jittery and poorly balanced.<br />
‘Dance of the Reed Flutes’ sounds like<br />
it’s from a different orchestra entirely—everything<br />
they did wrong before is suddenly right;<br />
the clarinetist uses some intelligent rubato in<br />
‘Waltz of the Flowers’, and the strings shimmer.<br />
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Mehta’s Schubert 9 is another story: I is<br />
thick with rhetoric and emotional intelligence,<br />
and the surging crescendos are perfectly executed.<br />
The Scherzo is played at a slightly<br />
relaxed tempo and has some Beethovenian fire<br />
to it, which I don’t think of when I think of<br />
Schubert, but it’s convincing. Roger Hecht<br />
gave a detailed review of this recording in the<br />
last issue, noting that the trombones seemed<br />
to have wandered off, perhaps having a beer<br />
across the street.<br />
Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is a 1979 recording<br />
with Mehta and Barbara Hendricks. This<br />
has never been Mahler’s most interesting symphony<br />
to me: its themes don’t have the same<br />
mystery and philosophical depth as some of<br />
the other symphonies, and it doesn’t have the<br />
same dramatic arc; even the orchestration isn’t<br />
as creative. Mehta gets a portentous sound at<br />
the opening of II, but Freund Hein’s Totentanz<br />
sounds more like a seaside holiday. III is quite<br />
restful. Hendricks sounds pleasant and childlike,<br />
but has trouble staying in tune, and the<br />
orchestra is suddenly shrill in the loud interludes.<br />
Bernstein delivers a clean, energetic reading<br />
of his Chichester Psalms with soloists from<br />
the Vienna Boys’ Choir. I flashes and thrills;<br />
the soloist in II is stiff, but the outburst of<br />
Psalm 2 is frightening, but still under control.<br />
(I accompanied rehearsals of this earlier this<br />
year, and was amazed at the simple accompaniment<br />
to the boy soprano’s part—few composers<br />
have had the courage to be that understated.)<br />
The sound is a little muffled and fuzzy<br />
for Deutsche Grammophon.<br />
After a well-played Oberon Overture,<br />
Mehta and Mintz bring us Saint-Saens’s Introduction<br />
and Rondo Capriccioso, with a searching<br />
Introduction and a rather toothless Rondo.<br />
The horns in Capriccio Espagnol are just<br />
enough out of tune to make you flinch, but the<br />
rest of it is mostly good except for a few shaggy<br />
rhythms.<br />
In the Schubert review I referred to earlier,<br />
Mr Hecht noted the Old World sound of the<br />
strings, and that’s what the Firebird makes me<br />
think of—they have a charming cushiony quality.<br />
Bernstein conducts, and if the interpretation<br />
is any indication, he’s having the time of<br />
his life, wallowing in the elongated phrases,<br />
the classy horn solos (except the Finale), and<br />
the steamy oboe part in ‘The Princess’s<br />
Round’, before startling the living daylights out<br />
of every one with the ‘Infernal Dance’ (this is a<br />
concert performance from 1984). Lenny also<br />
conducts the Hindemith, another concert<br />
recording, this time from 1989; it is rollicking<br />
and detailed: he has balanced all the different<br />
instruments popping in and out of the texture<br />
with their various lines, and gets an amazing,<br />
resplendent sound out of the band, even the<br />
horns.<br />
Katchen is the soloist and Kertesz the maestro<br />
in a 1962 Decca release of the Grieg Concerto.<br />
It’s aggressive in tempo but tempered in<br />
dynamics in I. Katchen’s touch is a little heavy<br />
in II; still, everyone plays it like a masterpiece<br />
instead of a warhorse, which is refreshing.<br />
Rubinstein’s performance of the Brahms Concerto<br />
No. 2 was his last recording with any<br />
orchestra, and the only one he made with the<br />
Israel Philharmonic; he was 89. The lackluster<br />
playing, wrong notes, and diminished expression<br />
are apparent; but I suppose I’ll be lucky if<br />
I can even sneeze when I’m 89. The orchestra<br />
plays exceptionally well here, with intensity<br />
and tenderness.<br />
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was conducted by<br />
Mehta in 1982 at the Huberman Festival in the<br />
Mann Auditorium; Isaac Stern is the soloist for<br />
Spring, Pinchas Zukerman for Summer, Shlomo<br />
Mintz for Autumn, and Itzhak Perlman for<br />
Winter. Stern plays carefully; the tempos are<br />
slower than normal. II is stunning, and it<br />
sounds like the strings have their mutes on—<br />
the quiet is eerie. There’s a hilarious grunt<br />
from someone, probably Zukerman, during a<br />
rest in III of Summer; he’s a little shrieky in the<br />
fast passages. II of Autumn is gorgeous, and<br />
the lute stop on the harpsichord is unusually<br />
mellow. Perlman shines in his part.<br />
Lawrence Hansen reviewed Mozart’s Sinfonia<br />
Concertante (with Perlman, Zukerman,<br />
and Mehta, S/O 2006), noting that none of the<br />
performers except Zukerman had a real affinity<br />
for Mozart. “But”, he said, “the open-mindedness<br />
that comes with advancing age has<br />
made me somewhat less critical than I was<br />
when this first came out. The solo work from<br />
both players is brilliant, even if the overall feel<br />
of the performance is somewhat heavy-handed.”<br />
I’m inclined to agree, and I’ll add that the<br />
horns seem to have been recorded from inside<br />
the bathroom.<br />
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, with Perlman,<br />
is from the EMI “Live in Russia” release<br />
with Zubin Mehta. It was taped in front of an<br />
audience that felt the need to assert its presence<br />
regularly. I’ve always found Perlman’s<br />
tone to be just a little on the wiry side—not<br />
enough to annoy me at any given moment, but<br />
enough for the cumulative effect to keep me<br />
from listening to him. Taking his vibrato into<br />
consideration as well, there are many other<br />
violinists I’d rather listen to first. This performance<br />
is dogged with shoddy ensemble and<br />
some unsteadiness from Perlman in I. II is<br />
pleasant. In III’s opening cadenza, he makes<br />
me think that if he had tried some of these<br />
parts this way in the practice room, he would<br />
have realized they don’t sound that good.<br />
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Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is with Zukerman<br />
and Mehta in 1989. The introduction is moderately<br />
paced, creating a somber effect, but Zukerman’s<br />
intonation and control are all over the<br />
place in the work.<br />
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 has Daniel<br />
Barenboim playing and conducting—it’s a<br />
broadcast from 1972, and sounds like it is<br />
monaural. The piano has a few soured notes,<br />
but Barenboim’s playing is clean, and his<br />
touch firm. Radu Lupu and Mehta recorded<br />
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 at Kingsway<br />
Hall in London for Decca in 1979. Lupu’s interpretation<br />
is not particularly revelatory—a solid<br />
performance, just rather vanilla. Much of III<br />
especially sounds placid. The march in I,<br />
though, which is the orchestra’s responsibility,<br />
has a punchiness to it that I’ve not heard<br />
before. The sound has a little fuzz around the<br />
edges, too.<br />
Daniel Benyamini, the IPO’s principal for<br />
30 years, is the violist for Harold in Italy, a<br />
piece I’ve only known heretofore as the punch<br />
line to “What’s the world’s longest viola joke?”<br />
The acoustic is claustrophobic and bassy for<br />
Decca from 1975. Benyamini’s legato playing<br />
is quite impressive: the connections between<br />
the notes are smoother than usual. It sounds<br />
like a grittier tone would work better for this<br />
piece, though—Benyamini’s sweet tone doesn’t<br />
match the orchestra’s thunder and lightning<br />
(this is one of their best-sounding pieces<br />
from this entire set). And I know this isn’t really<br />
a concerto, but sometimes he does get<br />
buried.<br />
This is the first time Bloch’s Schelomo,<br />
from 1968 with Janos Starker and Mehta, has<br />
been released on CD. The orchestra, as in the<br />
Berlioz, is stunning; Starker is good, but often<br />
not audible enough to be completely captivating.<br />
Paul Ben-Haim’s (Israeli) Capriccio for<br />
Piano and Orchestra is the real reason I chose<br />
this set to review; his works are rarely seen in<br />
the wild, and I love his Mediterranean harmonies<br />
and scoring that, though dreamy, are<br />
not without their turbulence. This 12-minute<br />
piece didn’t disappoint me. The sound is<br />
archival quality, but the playing (Pnina Salzman<br />
and Giulini) is serious and elegant, with a<br />
certain restlessness. Oh, for some good label to<br />
take up Ben-Haim’s cause.<br />
Kurt Masur was the <strong>conductor</strong> for Schumann’s<br />
Symphonies 3 and 4; they’re from<br />
2003, but the sound is more like 1953, and<br />
something kept bumping the microphone<br />
stand. They are decent performances: 3:IV is<br />
particularly charming. The Moldau was<br />
recorded under Kertesz in 1962 for Decca. It is<br />
lush and moving, though the Achilles’ horns<br />
are in their usual weak state. And, wow, the<br />
marchlike theme is faster than I’ve ever<br />
heard—almost raucous. This was remastered<br />
as part of Decca’s “Originals” line of reissues in<br />
2007, with the original album cover at a tilt on<br />
the front. That sounds clearer than this, which<br />
was probably taken from the older Decca reissue<br />
without the 24-bit remastering. The newer<br />
Decca release, called Bohemian Rhapsody, has<br />
music from The Bartered Bride, a few of Dvorak’s<br />
Slavonic Dances, and his Symphonic<br />
Variations.<br />
ESTEP<br />
Barenboim in Chicago<br />
GERSHWIN: Cuban Overture; BERNSTEIN:<br />
Symphonic Dances; RAVEL: Daphnis &<br />
Chloe Suite 2; WAGNER: Tristan & Isolde<br />
Chicago Symphony/ Daniel Barenboim<br />
Warner 69816—67 minutes<br />
This release is a mixture of old and new<br />
recordings from Warner, Teldec, and Erato<br />
from the later years of Daniel Barenboim’s<br />
tenure with the Chicago Symphony. I wish I<br />
could be more excited about it, but it gets off<br />
to a very slow start. Barenboim’s reading of<br />
Gershwin’s rambunctious Cuban Overture is<br />
immediately plagued by a lackadaisical tempo<br />
that never catches fire. The orchestra also lacks<br />
the energy level I remember from their 1993<br />
recording with James Levine (DG 431625:<br />
Nov/Dec 1993) and doesn’t even come close to<br />
the 1974 recording of Lorin Maazel and the<br />
Cleveland Orchestra (London 460612). The<br />
sound of this recording is very close, but also<br />
seems slightly engineered. Every once in a<br />
while, a phrase you’d expect to hear loudly<br />
from one instrument is suddenly missing from<br />
the texture while another one pierces through.<br />
It’s either being adjusted in the booth or there<br />
are too many microphones.<br />
The approach to Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic<br />
Dances is supercharged and fares<br />
slightly better than the Gershwin. Barenboim<br />
is sentimental in the tender moments of<br />
‘Somewhere’ and ‘Finale’ and he ratchets up<br />
the energy for the dance music of the ‘Mambo’<br />
and ‘Cool’. One strange cut occurs at the end<br />
of track 9 between the ‘Fugue’ and ‘Rumble’<br />
that steals away about 30 seconds of Bernstein’s<br />
timeless score. If I hadn’t already<br />
played and heard this music a hundred times,<br />
it wouldn’t sound wrong—but it is. And no<br />
matter the fine playing of the Chicago Symphony,<br />
it’s still no match for Bernstein’s own<br />
recordings (LAPO—DG 4777101: Mar/Apr<br />
2008, NYPO—Sony 63085: Mar/Apr 1998) or<br />
Michael Tilson Thomas’s incredible 1996<br />
recording with the London Symphony (DG<br />
439926: Mar/Apr 1997).<br />
After all this jazz-influenced <strong>American</strong><br />
music, it seems odd to include readings of Ravel’s<br />
Daphnis et Chloe and Wagner’s Tristan<br />
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und Isolde—and there doesn’t seem to be any<br />
remastering of the old recordings to match<br />
sound to the current ones. <strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong><br />
<strong>Guide</strong> found Barenboim to be a master with<br />
Ravel’s music—just not in this case with the<br />
Chicago Symphony. But this reading is somewhat<br />
cold and distant, with not a lot of French<br />
atmosphere (Erato 45766: Jan/Feb 1993). The<br />
Wagner gets a better treatment with its burnished<br />
brass, plaintive winds, and beautiful—<br />
but rather thin-sounding—strings. Barenboim<br />
is an experienced Wagnerian, and the Chicago<br />
Symphony has a rich recorded history in this<br />
music. This recording sounds as good now as it<br />
did when we first reviewed it (Teldec 99595:<br />
May/June 1996).<br />
BUERKLE<br />
Concerto Cologne<br />
DALL’ABACO: 4 Concertos a quattro; 5 Concertos<br />
a piu instrumenti; LOCATELLI: 5<br />
Concerti Grossi; CANNABICH: Symphony in<br />
E-flat; STAMITZ, C: Cello Concerto 4; FILS:<br />
Symphony in G minor; STAMITZ, J: Symphony<br />
in G; FRANZL: Symphony 5; VAN-<br />
HAL: Symphonies in D minor, G minor, C, A<br />
minor, E minor; KOZELUCH: Symphonies in<br />
C, A, D, B-flat; EBERL: Symphonies in C, E-<br />
Flat, D minor<br />
Werner Matzke, vc; Concerto Cologne<br />
Warner 69889 [6CD] 7:23<br />
Hofmusik Compositor, which carried with<br />
them considerable status and responsibility.<br />
He left 11 symphonies, and two of these four<br />
seem new to records. All are good examples of<br />
Mozartean style writing.<br />
Anton Eberl (1765-1807) studied with<br />
Mozart, and several of his works were misattributed<br />
to Mozart. The second and third<br />
symphonies here are mature works. Conservative<br />
music lovers at the time of its premiere<br />
preferred the second to Beethoven’s Eroica.<br />
These are powerful pieces that are also superbly<br />
played.<br />
The set is well played and recorded. Performances<br />
that duplicate earlier ones are generally<br />
the best available. Good notes.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
Remembering JFK<br />
BERNSTEIN: Fanfare for the Inauguration<br />
of JFK; West Side Story Symphonic Dances;<br />
LIEBERSON: Remembering JFK; GERSH-<br />
WIN: Concerto in F; Rhapsody in Blue; LA<br />
MONTAINE: From Sea to Shining Sea;<br />
THOMPSON: Testament of Freedom<br />
Richard Dreyfuss, narr; Tzimon Barto, Earl Wild,<br />
p; Georgetown University Glee Club; National<br />
Symphony/ Christoph Eschenbach, Howard<br />
Mitchell<br />
Ondine 1190 [2CD] 126 minutes<br />
These six discs were originally recorded<br />
The Eschenbach-Barto disc is 78 minutes and<br />
is from January of this year—a concert com-<br />
between 1994 and 2001. The Dall’Abaco and memorating the 50th anniversary of John F<br />
Locatelli are simply boring pieces in the Kennedy’s inauguration. The other disc is 49<br />
baroque style, which I don’t like. The other minutes of excerpts from Mutual Broadcast-<br />
four discs are very well played and recorded ing’s radio coverage of the inaugural eve gala<br />
and are interesting. I hope this is at a reduced Frank Sinatra organized the night before; it<br />
price so that it will appeal to collectors.<br />
began with the National Symphony’s concert<br />
The third disc is titled Mannheim: The in Constitution Hall.<br />
Golden Age and includes a cross-section of the Bernstein’s Fanfare for brass and percus-<br />
Mannheim School. In addition to familiar sion is only 40 seconds long and sounds fine.<br />
works by the Stamitzes, Cannabich, and Fils, Peter Lieberson’s 16-minute piece, subtitled<br />
we have the first recording I am aware of of An <strong>American</strong> Elegy, is a poor man’s Lincoln<br />
Ignatz Franzl (1736-1811). The Anton Fils Portrait. Without Richard Dreyfuss’s image on<br />
(1733-60) Symphony is also new to records, as the big screen, this is the first time I realized<br />
is Carl Stamitz’s Cello Concerto 4. All of these what a truly ugly, nasal voice he has, as he nar-<br />
works are outstanding examples of Mannheim rates selections from three of Kennedy’s<br />
craftsmanship. Even Mozart admired Franzl’s speeches (including his inaugural). He makes<br />
compositions and learned from him.<br />
the texts all sound the same, though I suspect<br />
Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813) was not even Richard Burton or Anthony Hopkins<br />
another Czech composer who was roughly could make them sound like anything other<br />
Haydn’s contemporary and whose sym- than moralistic platitudes. I had to struggle to<br />
phonies from the 1760s and 1770s are remark- pay attention to the unchallenging and tradiably<br />
like Haydn’s. All are familiar from other tional-sounding <strong>American</strong>a underneath, espe-<br />
recordings but none are as fine as these.<br />
cially with Eschenbach’s bland, generic con-<br />
Leopold Kozeluch (1747-1818) was one of ducting. Also, the work has a curiously sudden<br />
16 children of a Czech shoemaker. Fortunately non-ending, as if the tape suddenly stopped.<br />
a cousin who was a Prague chapel master saw Christoph Eschenbach apparently hasn’t<br />
to it that he got a good musical training that an ounce of swing in his body. In Bernstein’s<br />
enabled him to move to Vienna and establish Symphonic Dances rhythms are sluggish and<br />
himself as a leading musician. He eventually heavy. Even the fugue is cool; he never<br />
became Imperial Kammer Capellmeister and unleashes the orchestra, even in climaxes. The<br />
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engineers make the muffled violins distant and<br />
the orchestra small with a slightly canned<br />
ambience. Is it the engineers or the <strong>conductor</strong><br />
(or both) who make the orchestra sound like<br />
four individual choirs rather than an ensemble?<br />
Here the NSO seems like a second-rate<br />
regional orchestra recorded in a poor hall.<br />
It is more of the same in Gershwin’s concerto,<br />
where I asked myself, “Is Eschenbach a<br />
control freak?” It seems that the rhythmic sluggishness<br />
is the result of a <strong>conductor</strong> who follows<br />
the score with mathematical exactitude<br />
but misses the style. As for faux-profound<br />
Barto, he plays like someone who’s been confined<br />
to the Balkans all his life (he’s an <strong>American</strong>,<br />
born in Florida!). His conception of this<br />
work is from another planet; phrases are<br />
drawn out with so much incredibly slow rubato<br />
that it reminds me of Henry Charles Smith’s<br />
story of Otto Klemperer telling the Philadelphia<br />
Orchestra to play Beethoven’s Eroica<br />
Symphony g i o-coooooooooooooooo—<br />
sooooooo. The 38:06 timing says it all.<br />
The monaural orchestra sound on the 1961<br />
broadcast is as bad as it comes, but at least<br />
Mitchell brings life to John La Montaine’s<br />
overture, commissioned for the inauguration.<br />
Based on the music to the line “from sea to<br />
shining sea” from ‘America the Beautiful’, the<br />
music is from the Creston-Piston school harmonically,<br />
more motific than melodic, with<br />
lots of short phrases for woodwinds, plus a<br />
touch of Coplandesque <strong>American</strong>a. The<br />
Thompson is only the first movement of The<br />
Testament of Freedom, three minutes of one<br />
line of text repeated ad nauseum, set to boring,<br />
simple-minded homophonic music. The<br />
Georgetown University Glee Club (all men)<br />
articulate every syllable clearly. The Howard<br />
University Men’s Chorus was supposed to join<br />
them, but the ferocious snow storm that paralyzed<br />
the city prevented them from getting to<br />
the hall. Indeed, the NSO’s assistant concertmaster<br />
and principal trumpet got there only by<br />
walking five miles in the storm from Virginia.<br />
Earl Wild (who also walked in the snow)<br />
takes almost as many “squeeze box”-type liberties<br />
with Rhapsody in Blue here as Barto does<br />
in the concerto, but at least he has plenty of<br />
forward motion and rhythmic wit. Mitchell is<br />
having a grand time as well, giving a big audible<br />
grunt as he winds up the orchestra leading<br />
into the coda. The opening clarinet lick is so<br />
wild and entertaining it must have made Sinatra<br />
laugh out loud with pleasure.<br />
Ah, and then there’s 21 minutes of portentous<br />
radio commentary from your host, Tony<br />
Marvin (whose name is missing from the liner<br />
notes). “We [is he the pope?] must say there<br />
has been a slight delay [like two hours] in the<br />
start of the concert owing to the very<br />
inclement weather that Washington has been<br />
the recipient of during the day.” Or, “The<br />
National Symphony under the distinguished<br />
baton of Howard Mitchell is accepting the<br />
plaudits of the audience here in Constitution<br />
Hall at the termination of La Montaine’s From<br />
Sea to Shining Sea.” Wouldn’t our editor, Don<br />
Vroon, like to take his editing ax to that guy!<br />
In brief, this is a sad tribute to JFK and a<br />
sad initial recording for Eschenbach in his first<br />
year as music director of the NSO.<br />
FRENCH<br />
To the Point<br />
HIGDON: To the Point; RUDIN: Canto di<br />
Ritorno; SCHULLER: Chamber Concerto;<br />
CASCARINO: Blades of Grass; REISE: The<br />
River Within<br />
Diane Monroe, Maria Bachmann, v; Dorothy<br />
Freeman, Eng hn; Orchestra 2001/ James Freeman,<br />
Gunther Schuller<br />
Innova 745—74 minutes<br />
Five <strong>American</strong> orchestral pieces, all but one<br />
quite recent, are beautifully played and very<br />
well recorded on this program meant to show<br />
off the talents of James Freeman and his<br />
Orchestra 2001. It begins with a modest ditty<br />
for string orchestra by Jennifer Higdon (born<br />
1962), one of our most popular present-day<br />
composers (see our cumulative index for<br />
reviews). This is a pleasant, folk-tuney 4minute<br />
scherzo on a rudimentary and muchrepeated<br />
hopping figure; it first appeared as a<br />
movement of her string quartet, Impressions,<br />
recorded on Naxos 559298 (May/June 2007).<br />
The string orchestra arrangement adds some<br />
welcome heft to this light-weight item.<br />
Andrew Rudin (born 1939) first became<br />
known for his electronic music but has long<br />
since turned, or returned, to writing more-orless<br />
traditional music. His Canto di Ritorno is a<br />
22-minute violin concerto in one movement.<br />
The predominant mood is lyrical, established<br />
in the work’s opening by a wistful melody that<br />
engages the listener right away. But that is cut<br />
off by vehement, herky-jerky eruptions that<br />
break out after a few minutes—an unpleasing<br />
and unpersuasive episode, added seemingly<br />
only for contrast. Lyricism re-emerges, with<br />
intensified emotion, in the long central section,<br />
a passacaglia of compelling majesty, followed<br />
eventually by a lengthy, songful valediction<br />
that returns gradually to the music and<br />
the mood of the work’s opening. I like and<br />
admire Canto di Ritorno for its poignant<br />
melos, sensuous delicacy, humane thoughtfulness,<br />
and deep feeling—all the more powerful<br />
for being understated. It would be improved if<br />
the composer excised the distracting (if fairly<br />
short) sections of spastic racket. Rudin’s intention<br />
here is clearly to write a music of noble,<br />
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consoling sadness; why tarnish that, even<br />
briefly, with unnecessary disruption?<br />
Gunther Schuller (born 1925) is, as everyone<br />
knows, one of the grand old men of modern<br />
<strong>American</strong> music—composer, French horn<br />
virtuoso, <strong>conductor</strong>, musicologist, educator,<br />
impressario, jazz musician, popularizer of ragtime,<br />
even publisher of music scores and<br />
recordings. Does anybody know more than a<br />
portion of his huge and widely varied productions?<br />
The downside of so much enterprise<br />
and stylistic range is that Schuller’s own compositional<br />
voice is rather diffuse: any particular<br />
work of his sounds like whatever “self” he happened<br />
to be inhabiting when he wrote it. One<br />
is likely to hear unusual and inventive timbral<br />
combinations and a confident hand shaping<br />
the musical discourse, but the individual personality<br />
behind all that may be somewhat<br />
obscure. Such is the case in his 14-minute<br />
Concerto Da Camera from 2001, a first slowand-moody<br />
then energetic-and-volatile concatenation<br />
of twinklings, twitterings, cooings,<br />
shimmerings, slithers, sighings, bloops,<br />
bumps, skirlings, twirls, twisters, and flibberflusters.<br />
It has far too much verve, impatience,<br />
and good humor to sound anything like typical<br />
post-Webernian “contemporary” pointillism,<br />
and I found it easy to listen to. But don’t ask<br />
me what I heard after it’s over.<br />
Blades of Grass by Romeo Cascarino (1922-<br />
2002) was written in 1945. It’s a 9-minute essay<br />
in <strong>American</strong> pastoral for English horn, harp,<br />
and strings—calm, elegiac, outdoorsy, Coplandesque—sure<br />
to appeal to anyone with a drop<br />
of romantic in his soul. Readers interested in<br />
learning more about this little-known Philadelphia<br />
composer might want to read my<br />
review of his collected orchestral works<br />
(including Blades of Grass; Naxos 559266,<br />
Jan/Feb 2007).<br />
Orchestra 2001’s program is impressively<br />
completed by The River Within, another violin<br />
concerto (with the superb Maria Bachmann as<br />
soloist)—a full-scale (26-minute) assault on<br />
the genre by Jay Reise (born 1950). Cast in the<br />
traditional fast-slow-fast, three-movement<br />
pattern, this is a more-or-less traditional,<br />
tonally-anchored work that presents no difficulty<br />
for anyone happy with, say, the concertos<br />
of Walton, Prokofieff, Bartok, or Martin. It<br />
doesn’t match their indelible melodies—but<br />
then, what does? Still it’s lively, well-made, and<br />
packed with interesting ideas and bravura display.<br />
Outer allegros are full of incident and<br />
activity, with some brilliant figurations that<br />
call to mind, though don’t actually mimic, folk<br />
dances. The gorgeously-scored central Adagietto<br />
Inquieto is animated by a complex spirit—<br />
compassionate unease, perhaps, or calm restlessness—that<br />
held me rapt with its mysterious,<br />
dreamlike beauty.<br />
I intend to look for more by Reise. There<br />
are discs of his chamber music on Albany and<br />
on Centaur, a program that includes piano<br />
pieces played by Marc-Andre Hamelin on<br />
Albany 665 (Mar/Apr 2005), and several<br />
orchestral works including a cello concerto on<br />
CRI.<br />
LEHMAN<br />
Ostravska Band on Tour<br />
Francesconi, Bakla, Zalbuska, Satoh, Cage,<br />
Kotik, B Lang<br />
led by Petr Kotik; Joseph Kubera, p; Hana Kotkova,<br />
v; Gregory Purnhagen & Thomas Buckner, bar<br />
Mutable 17544 [2CD] 122 minutes<br />
The Czech composer, <strong>conductor</strong>, and flutist<br />
Petr Kotik formed the Ostravska Band in 2005<br />
as the resident chamber orchestra for the festival<br />
Ostrava Days. The 24 musicians are all<br />
young, committed to new music, and vibrant<br />
performers. This release gives a taste of a variety<br />
of new music, mostly by established and<br />
emerging European composers.<br />
The two outstanding works on the release<br />
are Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra<br />
(1958) and Somei Satoh’s Passion (2009) in a<br />
reduced scoring. Comparing the Cage performance<br />
with the one by David Tudor and<br />
Ensemble Modern on Mode (May/June 1998),<br />
I’m more engaged by the leaner, more intimate<br />
reading by Kubera and the Ostravska<br />
players. Cage’s notation for the orchestral<br />
parts, while fairly specific, still admits several<br />
possibilities for interpretation; and the musicians<br />
(or Kotik) often select some novel and<br />
interesting ones. The piano solo, a legendary<br />
anthology of outlandish graphic notation,<br />
offers considerably more freedom; Kubera<br />
seems to select excerpts that allow his part to<br />
appear more as an equal to the other instrumental<br />
parts. (By contrast, when Tudor played<br />
the Concert, his presence tended to eclipse<br />
everything going on around him.)<br />
Satoh’s Passion is an extremely restrained<br />
setting for two voices, male chorus, and a very<br />
transparent instrumental accompaniment. He<br />
sets the text (in English) in such a way that<br />
each word (and often each syllable) is sustained<br />
for long periods, but the words are<br />
always perfectly understandable. The setting<br />
enhances the ritualism of the passion in general<br />
and also underscores its profound sadness.<br />
Satoh’s setting is very selective: for instance,<br />
the first ten minutes of the work (30 minutes<br />
total) is devoted to the scene in the Garden of<br />
Gethsemane. This pacing, too, tends to<br />
emphasize the timelessness of the story.<br />
The other works offer an engaging crosssection<br />
of trends in 20th Century composition,<br />
some familiar, some not. Kotik’s own In Four<br />
Parts (3, 6 & 11 for John Cage) (2009), scored<br />
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for percussion alone, begins with one of the<br />
great cliches of 20th Century music: a slowly<br />
repeated single note that accelerates to a roll<br />
and then slowly decelerates. The gesture<br />
appears in overlapping statements for many<br />
different instruments and from there explores<br />
a wider variety of textures and ideas whose<br />
succession is unpredictable. (Like Cage, Kotik<br />
makes use of chance techniques.) Luca<br />
Francesconi’s Riti Neurali (1991), scored for a<br />
solo violin and seven other instruments (the<br />
instrumentation matches the one Schubert<br />
used in his Octet), is a tour de force of nervous<br />
bundles of energy that gradually increase in<br />
tension and finally dissipate.<br />
Petr Bakla’s Serenade explores what the<br />
liner notes describe as “situations where ‘notquite-yet-music’<br />
becomes ‘music’”—he deliberately<br />
employs ideas that approach banality<br />
and gradually transforms them into expressive<br />
ones. The idea is provocative and the musical<br />
results not nearly as conceptual as one might<br />
imagine.<br />
Paulina Zalubska’s Dispersion (2007) is a<br />
lovely essay in timbre informed by her extensive<br />
work in electronic composition. Bernhard<br />
Lang’s Monadologie IV (2008), also scored for<br />
percussion, comes from a series of works<br />
where the material is “built on ‘grains’ of musical<br />
footage...[often] ‘sampled’ from historic<br />
scores”. The source materials in this work<br />
seem to be popular music, and they are then<br />
transformed practically out of all recognition.<br />
The concert performances sound first-rate<br />
to me, and the sound sparkles.<br />
HASKINS<br />
Simply Strings<br />
BARTOK: Divertimento; JANACEK: Suite;<br />
SIBELIUS: Impromptu; BRITTEN: Simple<br />
Symphony<br />
Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra/ Ruben Gazarian<br />
Bayer 100 371 [SACD] 67 minutes<br />
Ruben Gazarian was born and educated first in<br />
Soviet Armenia and later in Leipzig. He has<br />
built an outstanding reputation for himself on<br />
the European continent. He has been principal<br />
<strong>conductor</strong> of the Westphalian Chamber<br />
Orchestra Heilbronn since 2002.<br />
These works are all light-textured ones for<br />
strings. All are well known, with the possible<br />
exception of the early (1894) one by Sibelius—<br />
a minor work lasting just under seven minutes.<br />
All are very well played. The recording is outstanding.<br />
Decent notes.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
<strong>American</strong> String Project<br />
MENDELSSOHN: Quartet 4; BEETHOVEN:<br />
Quartet 8; VERDI: Quartet; HAYDN: Quartet,<br />
op 64:4; BRAHMS: String Quintet 2;<br />
PROKOFIEFF: Quartet 2; SCHUMANN:<br />
Quartet 3; FALLA: 7 Spanish Folk Songs<br />
MSR 1386 [2CD] 141 minutes<br />
These are all wonderful pieces by some of the<br />
world’s greatest composers, but the sound is<br />
too bloated to do them justice. The works are<br />
all arranged by Barry Lieberman. The performers<br />
include nine violins, three violas, two cellos,<br />
and one double bass. Perhaps you will like<br />
the effect more than I do. In fairness I must say<br />
that the performances are well played and<br />
recorded, but I won’t listen to them again.<br />
The instrumentalists are drawn from the<br />
Seattle, Vancouver, Milwaukee, Minnesota,<br />
and San Francisco Orchestras as well as from<br />
the Indiana University and De Paul University<br />
faculties. The group was organized ten years<br />
ago.<br />
The brief notes deal mainly with the idea of<br />
transcribing music for a different ensemble<br />
than what the composer wanted.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
Lightly Classical<br />
Guild 5172—79:34<br />
As you might imagine, I have no taste for this<br />
kind of thing. BUT...I had a mother. Yes, my<br />
mother delighted in Mantovani, Melachrino,<br />
and even Kostelanetz and David Rose, when<br />
they didn’t get shockingly jazzy. All but Mantovani<br />
are here.<br />
All the music here is the real thing, by classical<br />
composers, but (mostly) in “popularized”<br />
arrangements. I consider that a tribute to the<br />
unbeatable melodies of the great composers.<br />
The “mostly” is because we have here William<br />
Walton conducting the Philharmonia in one of<br />
his own pieces—unadulterated.<br />
George Melachrino gives us ‘The Last<br />
Spring’ by Grieg—one of my mother’s<br />
favorites. I can’t hear that he has done anything<br />
to it. It’s even in stereo (9 of the 23 tracks<br />
here are). Music of Kabalevsky, Khachaturian,<br />
and Luigini also seems untouched as played<br />
here. David Rose has arranged 12 minutes of<br />
Stravinsky’s Firebird; it can be a bit sleazy<br />
(Firebird as stripper?). I wonder how much he<br />
paid Stravinsky for the chance to do it. That<br />
may be the oldest recording here (1942). Most<br />
of this is from the 1950s—and that’s when I<br />
heard most of it and decided I preferred the<br />
real thing.<br />
The field is full of pseudonyms. Who was<br />
Pierre Challet, who recorded prolifically for<br />
Mercury in the late 50s? Who was Philip<br />
Green? The arranger “Ralph Sterling” was bet-<br />
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ter known as “David Carroll”, but was that also<br />
a pseudonym? I like his arrangement of<br />
Mendelssohn’s ‘On Wings of Song’. If you<br />
always thought it needed an orchestra, here it<br />
is (minus the singer, too—no singers here, but<br />
songs for orchestra).<br />
Be warned that some arrangements are a<br />
bit “trashy”; you have to accept them as part of<br />
the period charm. I recommend this as the<br />
best example of a major genre of the 1940s and<br />
50s, when the “general public” still responded<br />
to the beauty of wonderful melodies written by<br />
real composers.<br />
VROON<br />
Latin-<strong>American</strong> Quartet<br />
CAMPA: 3 Miniatures; CARRASCO: Quartet<br />
in E minor; DE ELIAS: Quartet 2; LOBATO:<br />
Quartet in G<br />
Sono Luminus 92130—80 minutes<br />
The inspired Cuarteto Latino<strong>American</strong>o brings<br />
to life the work of Mexican composers of the<br />
mid-20th Century. As the essay notes, most of<br />
these works are not products of the Mexican<br />
Nationalist movement of the early 20th Century.<br />
These are romantic works that use a great<br />
deal of chromaticism and, like the earlier<br />
works of Ponce, include Mexican folk music in<br />
the otherwise European tradition of composition.<br />
The De Elias begins with a large first movement<br />
that is incredibly nostalgic. He moves<br />
through what seems to be endless keys, as if he<br />
is trying to find an appropriate place for the<br />
never-ending melody that lingers softly. It<br />
sounds to me like an ode to a Mexican landscape<br />
or childhood town. II is the most chromatic<br />
of all, a bit agonizing to listen to. III is a<br />
joyous dance, filled with drama and youth. IV<br />
returns to the nostalgic vision of I and ends<br />
blazing with hope.<br />
The Carrasco is a excellent. The first movement<br />
begins with a passionate line that<br />
emerges from warm texture in the cello. It kind<br />
of sounds like the melody of the bolero,<br />
‘Besame Mucho’, oozing with sexuality and<br />
romanticism. Carrasco marks it “cumm granus<br />
salis”, (with a pinch of salt) as if telling the<br />
players to not take the music too seriously.<br />
Cuarteto Latino<strong>American</strong>o takes his advice—<br />
they never fall into sentimentalism or senseless<br />
dramatic playing. The last movement of<br />
the work is the most folk-like of all with a wonderful<br />
vision of a Mexican plaza on a warm day<br />
in Spring, with flowers blossoming and people<br />
dancing. Delightful!<br />
Outside of the ‘Rondo’ movement, I am<br />
not as taken by the Lobato. It is nice enough,<br />
but it sometimes seems to wander. But the<br />
‘Rondo’ is spot on, perhaps because he works<br />
with a very tuneful melody. His use of chro-<br />
maticism is significantly less sophisticated<br />
than Carrasco and De Elias.<br />
There are also three miniatures by Campa:<br />
‘Minuet’, ‘Gavotte’, ‘Theme Varie’. These were<br />
written much earlier (1889) and are the oldest<br />
known works for string quartet in Mexico.<br />
They are simple and charming dances—very<br />
tender and innocent.<br />
This is a phenomenal production of music<br />
that I am thrilled to start to know. The sound<br />
of Cuarteto Latino<strong>American</strong>o is a sound of<br />
experience and tremendous maturity; they are<br />
not distracted by a thing, and this music is second<br />
nature to them. This is wonderful place to<br />
start expanding your collection of Latin <strong>American</strong><br />
classical music.<br />
JACOBSEN<br />
Back to Melody<br />
Kilar, Malecki, Czarnecki<br />
Opium Quartet<br />
Accord 163—57 minutes<br />
The OPiUM quartet is a group of young string<br />
players; all four graduated from the Chopin<br />
Academy—one in 2003, three in 2005. This<br />
debut recording collects four works composed<br />
between 1986 and 2007, all influenced to some<br />
degree by the so-called “return to melody” or<br />
“new romanticism” that commanded the<br />
attention of several Polish composers in the<br />
mid-1970s. (Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful<br />
Songs and Penderecki’s first violin concerto are<br />
probably the most familiar examples.)<br />
The earliest work, Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa<br />
(1986), begins with minimalist patterns that<br />
articulate closely related harmonic changes,<br />
then gradually gain momentum to evoke a<br />
dance by a highlander band. (Shepherds in<br />
Orawa, a region on the Polish-Slovak border,<br />
perform such dances after their workday.)<br />
Maciej Malecki’s Polish Suite, written for<br />
OPiUM, borrows from four previous works and<br />
is unabashedly tuneful, even nostalgic. Slawomir<br />
Czarnecki’s second string quartet<br />
(1997)—the strongest work here—was written<br />
during an intense period of documenting folk<br />
music from the area of Spis; the music, while<br />
in a concert music idiom, retains vestiges of<br />
melody and even the playing style of the folk<br />
bands in the region. Malecki’s daughter Magdalena<br />
(the violist for the OPiUM quartet)<br />
shines as a soloist in the concluding Andante<br />
and Allegro, written by her father expressly for<br />
her graduation recital; the quartet is joined<br />
here by violist Wojciech Walczak and bassist<br />
Radoslaw Nur. While the composition occasionally<br />
indulges in more dissonance than the<br />
others, it is also thoroughly influenced by folk<br />
idioms. The performances are superb, and the<br />
engineering is spectacular.<br />
HASKINS<br />
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Polish Quartets<br />
MENDELSON: Quartet 1; PADLEWSKI:<br />
Quartet 2; LAKS: Quartet 5<br />
Silesian Quartet<br />
EDA 34—65 minutes<br />
EDA continues its series devoted to “lost” or<br />
neglected music by victims of the Nazis with<br />
string quartets by three little-known Polish<br />
Jewish composers. Included are the 1925 First<br />
Quartet of Joachim Mendelson (1897-1943),<br />
the 1942 Second Quartet of Roman Padlewski<br />
(1915-44), and the 1963 Fifth Quartet of Simon<br />
(or Szymon) Laks (1901-83). Both Mendelson<br />
and Padlewski were killed by the Nazis—<br />
Padlewski as part of the heroic resistance in<br />
the Warsaw Ghetto. Only Laks survived the war<br />
and continued to compose until the 1960s,<br />
before devoting himself to literary endeavors.<br />
All three quartets are mainly neoclassic in<br />
manner and often linear in texture, with much<br />
use of fugal and other contrapuntal techniques.<br />
But instead of sounding French or German,<br />
the inflections here are Slavic, recalling<br />
to some extent the quartets of their composers’<br />
much-better-known Polish contemporaries,<br />
Grazyna Bacewicz and Alexandre Tansman.<br />
Mendelson’s quartet is in three fairly compact<br />
movements with spirited outer movements<br />
and a central Largo. There are light<br />
touches of Ravelian impressionism, and the<br />
overall mood is optimistic. Padlewski’s quartet,<br />
drawing on baroque models, is laid out in<br />
two large movements: a toccata and a largescale<br />
introduction and fugue. This is a serious,<br />
rather austere work of considerable dignity but<br />
not much surface allure.<br />
Of greater interest is Laks’s four-movement<br />
Quartet 5, more chromatic and searching<br />
in its language, more varied and imaginative in<br />
texture, and more unpredictable and multifarious<br />
in its emotions both light and dark. It’s<br />
also the most expressive of personal feeling of<br />
the three here, notably in II’s sad (and quite<br />
tonal) chorale resonant with memorial significance<br />
at once private and universal. Music, as<br />
Eduard Hanslick pointed out, is a language<br />
that we understand without being able to<br />
translate.<br />
The Silesian Quartet plays this music with<br />
sensitivity and technical assurance, and EDA’s<br />
sonics are clear and natural. (But don’t be confused<br />
by the scrambled sequence of numbers<br />
on the booklet’s track listings!) I enjoyed the<br />
whole program but will return mostly for Laks.<br />
Interested collectors will want to know that<br />
several more works by Laks have been recorded,<br />
most of them also on EDA.<br />
LEHMAN<br />
Tertis Viola Ensemble<br />
Telemann, Weinzierl, Bowen, Bartok, Piazzolla,<br />
Norton Oehms 788—50 minutes<br />
The Tertis Viola Ensemble is named for Lionel<br />
Tertis, the British violist who commissioned<br />
his compatriots to write difficult (and excellent)<br />
solo music for the viola, and is therefore<br />
responsible for elevating the viola from its pre-<br />
20th Century status as a mostly inner-voice<br />
instrument with limited literature to a dignified<br />
solo instrument. A viola ensemble like this<br />
one, made of members of the viola section of<br />
the Munich Philharmonic, is something that<br />
would make Tertis proud. Listening to it makes<br />
me (even more) proud to be a violist.<br />
Much of the music here has been transcribed<br />
from music for multiple violins, but<br />
the well-known Fantasy Quartet for Four Violas<br />
by York Bowen (1884-1961) and the lesserknown<br />
(and gorgeous) Nachtstück for Four<br />
Violas by Max von Weinzierl (1841-1898) are<br />
original.<br />
The Weinzierl was first published in 1910<br />
as a work for four violas or three violins and<br />
cello, and was published again in 1988.<br />
Weinzierl was mainly a composer of vocal<br />
music, and the Nachtstück seems to be his<br />
only published instrumental composition. The<br />
score has a dedication to Dr Wenzel Sedlitzky,<br />
a Salzburg druggist who served as the president<br />
of the Mozarteum 1888-89.<br />
The two Telemann concertos are direct<br />
one-fifth-lower transcriptions of two of his<br />
four concertos for four violins (perhaps the<br />
other two, which are not well known, will<br />
appear on a future recording). The lower pitch,<br />
which evokes the sound of a viol consort,<br />
allows for a bit more space between the major<br />
second intervals that begin the C-major Concerto,<br />
and the striking differences between the<br />
violas’ registers give the piece a great deal of<br />
depth.<br />
The space between dissonant intervals<br />
brings extra resonance to the the nine Bartok<br />
violin duos that are on this recording. The<br />
duos were transcribed by Bartok’s son Peter.<br />
They are, of course, played by only two violists<br />
at a time, though the richness of the sound<br />
gives the impression of a much larger ensemble.<br />
The Piazzolla ‘Four for Tango’ is originally<br />
for string quartet, and this ensemble does its<br />
best to maintain the voicing; but, in spite of<br />
the excellent playing, I still prefer the piece in<br />
its original form. In Christopher Norton’s<br />
‘Steering Wheel Blues’, the precise way three<br />
German violists (and one from Honduras who<br />
studied in Freiburg) meet the imprecise but<br />
codified <strong>American</strong> idiom of Blues makes me<br />
smile. It brings to mind Die Symphoniker’s<br />
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recording of Meredith Wilson’s ‘Zayr Veyr<br />
Pbells’.<br />
FINE<br />
Brassage<br />
HANDEL: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba;<br />
CRAUSAZ: Brass Quintet Suite 1; STEPHEN-<br />
SON: Quintet; ARUNIUNIAN: Armenian<br />
Scenes; STURZNEGGER: Fanfare for GBQ; 4<br />
Fanfares; L’Encyclopedie de l’Opera; ROB-<br />
LEE: Early Days; LAVALLEE: La Rose Nuptiale<br />
Geneva Brass Quintet<br />
Gallo 1302—55 minutes<br />
I like this group’s light articulations and easy<br />
way of playing; they don’t hammer us the way<br />
so many brass ensembles do. But the trumpets<br />
and trombone sound more direct and prominent<br />
than horn and tuba, which seem distant<br />
and tubby. This is a built-in problem for brass<br />
quintets, given bell directions and timbres, but<br />
it must be solved if a recording is to be pleasant.<br />
The program offers a slew of new works,<br />
including an exciting little brass quintet by Etienne<br />
Crausaz. A fine and fairly lengthy (4:45)<br />
‘Fanfare for GBQ’ is contributed by the group’s<br />
horn player, Christopher Sturznegger. South<br />
African composer Allan Stephenson’s threemovement<br />
quintet is winsome. Richard Roblee’s<br />
‘Early Days’ is an excerpt—first mellow,<br />
then rollicking—from <strong>American</strong> Images.<br />
The all-Swiss members of Geneva Brass<br />
Quintet are trumpeters Samuel Gaille and<br />
Lionel Walter, horn player Sturznegger, trombonist<br />
David Rey, and tuba player Eric Rey.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
Thomas Carroll, cello<br />
BRAHMS: Sonata 2; BEETHOVEN: Sonata 3;<br />
SCHUBERT: Arpeggione Sonata<br />
with Llyr Williams, p<br />
Orchid 16—80 minutes<br />
This is a particularly poetic interpretation of<br />
these three cello masterpieces. The players<br />
create between them sensitively phrased and<br />
beautifully timed performances that hold the<br />
attention, seemingly without effort. The tone<br />
of the cellist is vocal in its orientation, and the<br />
recording is balanced as the musicians intended<br />
it, both instruments heard easily, yet with<br />
full emotional force. A tour de force.<br />
My only cavil is the articulation of all the<br />
downbeats in the first theme of the Beethoven<br />
scherzo, which may have been what he intended<br />
but doesn’t convince this old-fashioned cellist.<br />
The liner notes are written by the cellist<br />
and describe Vienna from the point of view of<br />
the composers in a touching manner, introducing<br />
us to each man through aspects of his<br />
life experience. I have seldom read such perceptive<br />
and moving descriptions. And that<br />
goes for the disc as a whole. Get it!<br />
D MOORE<br />
Casals Encores<br />
Alban Gerhardt; Cecile Licad, p<br />
Hyperion 67831—73 minutes<br />
These 19 numbers were chosen by the cellist<br />
as homage to Pablo Casals. All of them were<br />
recorded by that master, and five are credited<br />
to him as arranger. Gerhardt doesn’t play them<br />
exactly as Casals recorded them, since some<br />
are over the 4:30 length allowed on a 78 rpm<br />
side. Also his style, though lovely in tone and<br />
temperament, is not reminiscent in any direct<br />
way of Casals.<br />
We have everything here from Boccherini<br />
through Chopin, Saint-Saens, and Wagner to<br />
Falla and Granados with excursions by David<br />
Popper and Fritz Kreisler, ending with the folk<br />
song ‘Song of the Birds’. Of course my response<br />
will be to revisit my extensive Casals<br />
collection, but I don’t think a comparison is in<br />
order at this point. If you like the idea of this<br />
collection, Gerhardt is a tasteful player beautifully<br />
aided and abetted by Licad. Some of their<br />
tempos are on the slow side, notably in The<br />
Swan and in Chopin’s Prelude 15, Raindrop,<br />
but that’s a matter of taste, not ability. It is an<br />
attractive experience overall.<br />
D MOORE<br />
Autumn<br />
WIKLANDER: Fantasia; SWEENEY: Autumn<br />
Music; BRUCH: Kol Nidrei; RHEINBERGER:<br />
Overture, op 150:6; BACH: 3 Chorale Preludes;<br />
SALTER: Vitis Flexuosa; LLOYD WEB-<br />
BER: Benedictus; GENZMER: Cello & Organ<br />
Sonata Rebecca Hewes; Julian Collings, org<br />
Regent 364—72 minutes<br />
Music for organ and cello is not a common<br />
thing in the recording studio, though it happens<br />
often in the real world. The blend is a<br />
natural, as this program demonstrates. The<br />
Svyati Duo has discovered a number of fine<br />
compositions otherwise unknown, and a surprising<br />
number of them are included here. The<br />
program opens with a notably friendly and<br />
outgoing Fantasia by Kurt Wiklander (b 1950),<br />
a 1987 piece that sounds like something written<br />
during WW I, romantic but conscious of<br />
the down side of life. Eric Sweeney (b 1948)<br />
writes in a similar idiom, but his Autumn<br />
Music is a much more easygoing piece based<br />
on repeated rhythmic figures that bring us out<br />
to the woods, fields, and lakes of Ireland.<br />
Then come three transcriptions, first Max<br />
Bruch’s famous Kol Nidrei, then a piece by<br />
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Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901) culled by the<br />
players from his six pieces for violin and organ,<br />
and finally three of Bach’s organ chorale preludes<br />
colorfully scored by Helmut Barnefeld.<br />
This is all effectively handled by both players<br />
and arrangers.<br />
The most modern music comes last. Vita<br />
Flexuosa was composed for the duo by Timothy<br />
Salter (b 1942). It is nearly eight minutes of<br />
excitement and drama, contrasting with lyrical<br />
statements in a beautiful way. Another dramatic<br />
piece is Harald Genzmer’s three-movement<br />
sonata, a highly effective work with a fine<br />
mood and contrasts enough to excite anyone.<br />
Altogether a very listenable program, played<br />
with conviction and beauty of tone.<br />
This is the second disc I have heard by this<br />
duo. The first was called Svyati Duo and contained<br />
a similar kind of program including<br />
three more transcriptions of Rheinberger’s<br />
violin pieces, Op. 150, Marcel Dupre’s sonata<br />
and In Croce, a major work by Sofia Gubaidulina,<br />
among other fine pieces. If the present program<br />
interests you, you might look up Regent<br />
337 as well (May/June 2010, p 174).<br />
D MOORE<br />
Debut<br />
SCHUMANN: 5 Pieces in Folk Style;<br />
FRANCK: Cello Sonata; RUZICKA: Recitativo;<br />
SAINT-SAENS: Introduction & Rondo<br />
Capriccioso<br />
Valentin Radutiu; Per Rundberg, p<br />
Oehms 759—64 minutes<br />
A young cellist of 25, Radutiu was a student of<br />
David Geringas and Claudio Bohorquez in<br />
Berlin and shows the sense of musical phrasing<br />
one would expect from working with such<br />
fine cellists. Both Radutiu and Rundberg show<br />
this love of broadly expansive emotional and<br />
landscaped gestures, particularly in the gorgeous<br />
Franck sonata, originally for violin but<br />
transcribed for cello with Franck’s permission.<br />
There are moments when I miss some melodic<br />
clarity in the piano part in the emotional Allegro<br />
(II), yet the overall result is positive. Thank<br />
goodness Radutiu chooses to leave the lastmovement<br />
second climax at its original higher<br />
pitch, instead of transposing it down an octave<br />
as many cellists do. He plays it with flair, too.<br />
Peter Ruzicka’s Recitativo is a curious piece<br />
written in 2009, based on material from his<br />
opera Celan. It tends to disappear sometimes<br />
into the distant heights, to be brought back to<br />
earth by the piano—or not, as the case may be.<br />
It lasts 11 minutes and is a premiere recording.<br />
The program closes with a transcription by<br />
the cellist of the Saint-Saens piece, originally<br />
for violin and orchestra. As a listener who<br />
tends to prefer a composer’s original idea, I<br />
wondered what a cellist could possibly do to<br />
make this light-hearted virtuoso piece work.<br />
Surprise! He sold me. He had been disguising<br />
his virtuoso chops, but here he puts them to<br />
work to great effect, covering all the showy violin<br />
passages with aplomb and accuracy, many<br />
of them in the violin register, no less, and playing<br />
so well in tune and with such sensitivity to<br />
the composer’s beauty of phrasing that I really<br />
was amazed and moved by his virtuosity and<br />
musical ability. And also by the piece itself,<br />
always a favorite, but played and arranged<br />
here with notable sensitivity to the beauty of<br />
the original. Thank you, Valentin!<br />
D MOORE<br />
Jewish Songs<br />
RAVEL:Chanson Hebraique; BLOCH: Jewish<br />
Life; Nigun; Meditation Hebraique; ZYGEL:<br />
Nigun; Psalmodie; Chemah; TRAD: Kol<br />
Nidre; Question; Psalm; Conversation;<br />
Prayer; Chanson; Kaddish; Incertitude;<br />
Danse; Hassidic Chant; Elegy<br />
Sonia Wieder-Atherton, vc; Daria Hovora, p<br />
Naive 5226—77 minutes<br />
Wieder-Atherton has a curious concept of life<br />
that she incorporates into her programming in<br />
various ways. This one combines fairly recent<br />
recordings of Bloch and Ravel with what she<br />
calls 14 Stories based on traditional Jewish<br />
sources, some arranged by composer Jean-<br />
Francois Zygel and all recorded back in 1989.<br />
Each of these has a page of explanation in<br />
French and another in English, with a separate<br />
page for each one’s title, printed on thick<br />
paper in a booklet adding up to 70-odd pages.<br />
This was impossible to remove until I ripped<br />
up the case, so watch out! I don’t keep my CDs<br />
in jewel boxes, so it was no loss, but you may<br />
not be ready for my kind of mess yet.<br />
The explanations of the 14 stories are pretty<br />
incomprehensible, so let’s listen to the<br />
music. It begins with a pleasant setting of the<br />
Kol Nidrei for two cellos, both played by Sonia.<br />
It is followed by cello-piano renditions of a<br />
number of Jewish-sounding tunes set in a<br />
thoughtful but colorful manner, some by<br />
Sonia, some by Zygel. Two of the 14 pieces are<br />
for solo cello. It adds up to quite a collection<br />
lasting over 50 minutes. If you’re looking for<br />
settings of Jewish folk or liturgical music for<br />
cello and piano, you might find something<br />
nice here. The pieces are not particularly complex<br />
musically, but some parts are not easy for<br />
the cello, though you wouldn’t know it from<br />
listening to Sonia.<br />
The program ends with Ravel and Bloch,<br />
including all of Bloch’s Jewish settings, I think.<br />
This is a program of some depth emotionally,<br />
played to the hilt.<br />
D MOORE<br />
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Solo Clarinet<br />
Colors<br />
Berio, Denisov, Jolivet, Reimann, Goehr,<br />
Hosokawa, Lehmann, Lourie, Nieder,<br />
Pousseur, Widmann<br />
Eduard Brunner—Naxos 572470—71 minutes<br />
BARTOK: For Children, selections; MERLIN:<br />
Suite del Recuerdo; OURKOUZOUNOV: 4<br />
Legends; PIAZZOLLA: History of the Tango;<br />
RAVEL: Piece en Forme de Habanera; VILLA-<br />
Swiss-born clarinetist and former Bavarian<br />
Radio Symphony principal Eduard Brunner<br />
continues his steady pace of recording with<br />
LOBOS: Bachianas Brasileiras 5<br />
Bas Duo<br />
Sabudo 1001—58 minutes (H&B; CD Baby)<br />
European contributions to the late 20th Century<br />
unaccompanied solo clarinet repertoire,<br />
some of them not well known in the United<br />
States. The program includes the Luciano<br />
Berio Lied (1983); the Edison Denisov Sonata<br />
(1972); the Andre Jolivet Asceses (1967); the<br />
Aribert Reimann Solo (1994); the Alexander<br />
Goehr Paraphrase on a Dramatic Madrigal by<br />
Monteverdi (1969); the recently completed<br />
Toshio Hosokawa EDI (2009), written specifically<br />
for Brunner and still unpublished; the<br />
Hans Ulrich Lehmann Mosaik (1964); the<br />
Arthur Lourie Mime (1956); the Fabio Nieder<br />
Terracotta (1995); the Henri Pousseur Madrigal<br />
I (1958); and the Jorg Widmann Fantasie<br />
(1993), written when the composer-clarinetist<br />
was only 20 years old. The liner notes are generous<br />
with information on each piece and<br />
publisher information.<br />
All of the music belongs to the abstract language<br />
that developed after World War II—disjunct<br />
themes, atonal harmonic content,<br />
There is so much excellent flute and guitar<br />
playing that any new recording must be truly<br />
extraordinary to measure up to the likes of<br />
Paula Robison and Eliot Fisk, Bonita Boyd and<br />
Nicholas Goluses, and Eugenia Moliner and<br />
Denis Azabagic. If Elyse Knobloch and Peter<br />
Press are not ready to stand in their company,<br />
they’re only off by a hair.<br />
Press’s playing is more natural than his<br />
partner’s, though her playing is the more<br />
expressive. Knobloch’s playing sometimes has<br />
a nervous quality, and sometimes her sound is<br />
rounded to the point of becoming a little<br />
tubby. She seems very attentive to playing for a<br />
close pickup. The flute sound seems to have<br />
more resonance than the guitar, though they<br />
are balanced. Press manages to produce a<br />
melting, sustained quality in the Ravel and<br />
Villa-Lobos that I enjoyed hearing. The music<br />
is tonal, direct, and enlivened by occasional<br />
sound effects.<br />
extended techniques, and Expressionist mannerisms.<br />
With the exception of the Berio, most<br />
GORMAN<br />
of it runs together in a floating intangible<br />
cloud, and one piece could easily be mistaken<br />
for another. Nevertheless, Brunner is prepared,<br />
and he offers good renditions. He exe-<br />
East Meets West<br />
FERROUD: 3 Pieces; HOSOKAWA: Lied;<br />
LOEB: Scenes from the Japanese Countryside;<br />
OFFERMANS: Honami; TAKEMITSU:<br />
cutes the glissandos, flutter-tonguing, and Air; YUN: Garak<br />
multiphonics very well; he employs the expan- Leonard Garrison, fl, picc; Kay Zavislak, p<br />
sive dynamic range essential to each work’s<br />
Centaur 3099—60 minutes<br />
otherworldly atmosphere; and he has sufficient<br />
fingers and articulation to navigate the This program presents works by three of the<br />
seemingly endless thorny passages.<br />
most famous Asian composers and Asian-<br />
Esoteric proclamations, though, need more influenced compositions from the United<br />
than just decent readings. Brunner’s tone, States, Holland, and France. These pieces are<br />
tongue, legato, and voicing could all use more for solo flute, solo piccolo, and flute and piano.<br />
refinement, and his interpretations demand Yun’s Garak (1963) is by far the most virtu-<br />
more than following the composer’s directives. osic, and handled with aplomb. Time is altered<br />
His reed always sounds too soft, giving off a in this sound world, too: the work seems much<br />
grainy and spread timbre; his tongue could be longer than a mere ten minutes. The Offer-<br />
cleaner and more disciplined; his legato could mans takes its name from the Japanese word<br />
be creamier and have more line to it; and his used to describe waves created by wind in a<br />
frequent crossing of registers is often marred rice field. Offermans creates breathy effects<br />
by unnecessary pinching and throat manipula- that imitate the Japanese flute, shakuhachi,<br />
tion. Despite his volume capacity, his color and a central section of the piece beautifully<br />
spectrum is small, and while he respects the explores tone colors with numerous harmon-<br />
particular soundscape of each piece, he makes ics and alternate fingerings. It is mesmerizing,<br />
little effort to climb inside and offer something and the whistle tone that ends the piece takes<br />
personal. The end product may be satisfactory phenomenal control.<br />
for his students, his peers, and the avant-garde It is very demanding both to write and to<br />
community, but what about everyone else? play music for an unaccompanied wind instru-<br />
HANUDEL ment. David Loeb has written 18:30 of short<br />
pieces for solo piccolo. Garrison has both the<br />
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feel for atmosphere and command of solo<br />
playing.<br />
The piccolo playing is assured. The sweet<br />
tone Garrison produces and his control of<br />
dynamics at the softer end on both flute and<br />
piccolo make this very satisfying. Both the<br />
sound of the piano and the playing are crisp.<br />
Readers who like this recording will also<br />
want the complete Hosokawa disc on Naxos by<br />
Icelandic flutist Kolbeinn Bjarnason<br />
(May/June).<br />
GORMAN<br />
Loeki Stardust Collection<br />
Newton 8802044 [4CD] 231:45<br />
The Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet has a<br />
considerable following. They first played<br />
together in 1978 and first recorded in 1984; 18<br />
additional records have followed. Most of the<br />
potential buyers for this collection already<br />
have one or more of these. Here is the chance<br />
to get four programs together. This content<br />
was originally released on Decca, 1987-94.<br />
Baroque <strong>Record</strong>er Music (1987) was their<br />
second recording. It includes arrangements of<br />
Bach, Scheidt, Locke, Sweelinck, Purcell, and a<br />
Boismortier sonata. Italian <strong>Record</strong>er Music<br />
(1989, released in 1991) offers adaptations<br />
from Renaissance vocal works by Merula, Conforti,<br />
Trabaci, Frescobaldi, and Palestrina.<br />
Concerti di Flauti (1992-94) was a collaboration<br />
with The Academy of Ancient Music and<br />
presents concertos by Marcello, Heinichen,<br />
Schickhardt, Telemann, and Vivaldi (the in due<br />
cori of R 585). Last, Extra Time (1989-90) pulls<br />
together an array of classical and pops pieces<br />
from JC Bach to Henry Mancini and Charlie<br />
Parker. It takes six pages to list everything.<br />
The notes offer no specific background<br />
about the music, but three pages of stories by<br />
one of the members about how the ensemble<br />
began and descriptions of the programs chosen.<br />
It is worth observing that the recorder is<br />
far less flexible in pitch than many other<br />
instruments. The notes tell us that “[we] quickly<br />
learned that when a recorder ensemble is<br />
anything but perfect in terms of tuning, the<br />
result is not just unsatisfactory but disastrous”.<br />
It is in this context, then, that the present<br />
music can be appreciated: virtuoso playing,<br />
tuning, and ensemble. If you’ve never heard of<br />
the Loeki Stardust Quartet before, consider<br />
this collection a great place to start.<br />
GORMAN<br />
Cantilena<br />
ALAIN: 3 Movements; BACH: Sonata in A;<br />
BONIGHTON: Cantilena; DUPRE: Prelude;<br />
HILLER: Andante Religioso; KIRALY: 3<br />
Miniatures; LACHNER: Elegy; MARTIN:<br />
Sonata da Chiesa; WEAVER: Rhapsody<br />
Marianiello-Reas Duo<br />
MSR 1358—79 minutes<br />
It is rare to hear a program of music for flute<br />
and organ. This is the second release by these<br />
players; their first, Dialogues (MSR 1069, not<br />
reviewed) is an <strong>American</strong> program that came<br />
out in 2003. The most likely place for music for<br />
flute and organ to be heard is in a church; that<br />
necessarily constrains the length and character<br />
of these selections.<br />
The Rhapsody by NY-based organist John<br />
Weaver is a 9-minute piece that makes the<br />
strongest impression. At the same time, as a<br />
concert piece, it may very well lack exposure<br />
because it won’t fit into a church service, as<br />
much of the rest will. By its title, Frank Martin’s<br />
Sonata da Chiesa (1938, originally written<br />
for viola da gamba) straddles both the sacred<br />
and secular worlds, and the Bach fits either<br />
well. Australian composer Rosalie Bonighton’s<br />
Cantilena is pleasant music based on conventional<br />
platitudes of our time. Hans Hiller<br />
(1873-1938) had me thinking of Humperdinck,<br />
and while the Alain and Dupre might have you<br />
thinking organ, they were originally written for<br />
piano.<br />
The Alain is one of the two works I have<br />
performed. Jean-Pierre Rampal recorded it<br />
with the composer’s sister, Marie-Claire, but<br />
his tone is uncovered and unpretty, affecting<br />
the first movement in particular. This sounds<br />
better. Marianello and Reas take the final moto<br />
perpetuo more slowly than Alain and Rampal,<br />
who really whip through it. There is enough<br />
energy for anyone except real speed demons,<br />
and a slower tempo allows all of the notes to<br />
be heard clearly. The opening movement of<br />
the Bach is likewise sedate, but to different<br />
effect; most listeners would probably not identify<br />
the tempo indication as ‘Vivace’ based on<br />
this rendition. The Lachner is also too sluggish;<br />
this was his last piece, and it sounds like he<br />
was half-dead when he wrote it. By their modernism,<br />
the Kiraly Miniatures stand apart from<br />
everything else, and in a positive way.<br />
Linda Marianiello plays well enough without<br />
exciting or offending me. The spectrum of<br />
interest is as follows: the Bach is just notes and<br />
drudgery; the Dupre sounds luscious sometimes,<br />
and the Martin has much that works.<br />
The writing in most of these pieces is fairly<br />
sedate and unchallenging, but there is a high C<br />
in the Hiller, an optional high C in the Lachner<br />
(not played), and I believe a high C-sharp in<br />
the Weaver. Organist Keith Reas has primarily<br />
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the job of not overwhelming the flute and<br />
remaining patient. He gets a few big moments<br />
in the Weaver and the Lachner, sensitive registration<br />
opportunities in the Dupre and Kiraly,<br />
and his partnership is excellent. The sound<br />
presents their playing clearly, with just a little<br />
resonance.<br />
GORMAN<br />
Loro<br />
CORDERO: 2 Afro-Antillean Pieces; COREA:<br />
6 Children’s Songs; GISMONTI: 8 Pieces;<br />
ROTA: 5 Easy Pieces; SATIE: 2 Pieces; STRA-<br />
VINSKY: 3 Easy Pieces<br />
Duo Musica<br />
Scandinavian 220508—65 minutes<br />
This recording gets right everything the Bas<br />
Duo (see above) was just short of, despite their<br />
accomplished playing. The playing is relaxed;<br />
it sizzles and soars. The flute and guitar sound<br />
entirely natural together, whereas they sounded<br />
slightly unnatural on Colors. Bent Larsen<br />
and Jan Sommer are accomplished Danish<br />
musicians who play a program that is easy to<br />
listen to.<br />
One small note: there is a cardboard slipcase<br />
that I had to tear off in order to get to the<br />
disc, hopelessly destroying a picture of boats<br />
in a harbor, the works and their timings on the<br />
back. The front and back covers of the CD are<br />
the same. The music inside is well worth this<br />
sacrifice.<br />
GORMAN<br />
Robert Willoughby, flute<br />
PIERNE: Sonata da Camera; Canzonetta;<br />
REGER: Serenade in G; Suite in A minor;<br />
ROUSSEL: Trio<br />
Marilyn McDonald, v; Kathryn Plummer, John<br />
Tartaglia, va; Catharina Meints, vc; Wilbur Price, p<br />
Boston 1054—71 minutes<br />
<strong>Record</strong>ings made in 1982 (Reger) and 1985<br />
(Pierne and Roussel) for Gasparo are remastered<br />
here. The sound levels and balance vary.<br />
The Reger Serenade for flute, violin, and viola<br />
is recorded in a resonant, boxy environment<br />
with the flute nestled in the sound of the<br />
strings. They are more forward, but not in a<br />
bad way. The Suite finds the flute rather lost,<br />
placed behind a lovely piano. This is an example<br />
of Reger’s gebrauchsmusik; the Serenade<br />
for trio is one of his last compositions. That<br />
piece grew on me, whereas the Suite did not.<br />
The Roussel has—from all three players—<br />
fire and personality sometimes lacking in the<br />
Reger. With the Pierné we are immediately<br />
seized by the musical narrative and presented<br />
with a natural balance among the players.<br />
Catharina Meints has the driest pizzicato I’ve<br />
ever heard, but when bowing she makes an<br />
excellent chamber music partner. The record-<br />
ing ends with a delicious bonbon, the Pierné<br />
Canzonetta.<br />
Robert Willoughby is one of the foremost<br />
flute players of a generation that has largely<br />
left us. He taught for many years at Oberlin<br />
and later at Peabody; he now teaches at Longy.<br />
Not mentioned in the notes is that in 1996 he<br />
won the National Flute Association’s Lifetime<br />
Achievement Award. He plays very well here,<br />
but I imagine he would sound even better on<br />
the instruments commonly available to professionals<br />
today. This re-release adds to his legacy<br />
of accomplished students who teach at universities<br />
and play in orchestras nationwide.<br />
GORMAN<br />
The Infinite Fabric of Dreams<br />
MERTZ: Hungarian Fantasy; Elegy; HAUG:<br />
Prelude, Tiento, Toccata; CASTELNUOVO-<br />
TEDESCO: Sonata; BRITTEN: Nocturnal<br />
Colin Davin, g<br />
Davin 0—63 minutes (800-BUYMYCD)<br />
I had my doubts about this one—apparently<br />
self-produced, with no company or number<br />
and no information about the music or the<br />
performer. But I determined it is distributed by<br />
several major outlets—and the program is a<br />
really serious one.<br />
My doubts were misplaced. Mr Davin is<br />
the real thing, a player with a virtuoso’s technique,<br />
a deeply expressive musicanship, and a<br />
probing imagination. The opening Mertz<br />
pieces are some of the finest interpretations<br />
I’ve heard. Mertz tends to overwrite—he will<br />
often lurch from climax to climax, as if he<br />
wants the listener to be perpetually in a state<br />
of excitement. That makes his music hard to<br />
interpret convincingly, especially in the Elegie;<br />
but Davin has the measure of this music, and<br />
his performances are convincing and moving.<br />
Hans Haug is a Swiss composer, whose<br />
association with Segovia led to several work for<br />
guitar. His work has never been especially<br />
popular among guitarists, probably owing to<br />
Segovia’s lukewarm advocacy. But his music is<br />
pleasant and interesting, free from Hispanic<br />
cliches (possibly why Segovia never truly<br />
warmed to him). It somewhat resembles<br />
Alexander Tansman in style. Davin’s performance<br />
is warm and lyric, just what the music<br />
needs.<br />
Now we come to two of the greatest compositions<br />
for guitar from the 20th Century.<br />
Davin’s performance of the Castelnuovo-<br />
Tedesco Sonata: Homage to Boccherini is the<br />
finest I’ve ever heard. It’s as expressive and<br />
more technically sure than Segovia’s. His second<br />
movement is so achingly beautiful that I<br />
had tears when I heard it, and his final movement<br />
manages to maintain a solid wall of<br />
sound without breaking.<br />
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To follow this with the Britten Nocturnal is<br />
an incredibly bold choice for a debut recording,<br />
but Davin is up to the challenge. His performance<br />
won’t displace Bream’s, but it is a<br />
thoughtful, perceptive interpretation, filled<br />
with details often missed; and the buildup to<br />
the final passacaglia, and its final surrender to<br />
the tonal world of Dowland’s song, ‘Come<br />
Heavy Sleep, Come Sweet Death’ is almost<br />
overwhelming.<br />
Some information about Mr Davin can be<br />
found on some reviews of his recording on various<br />
internet sites. He is from Cleveland, and<br />
his teachers include Jason Vieaux, Bill<br />
Kanengiser, and Sharon Isbin. The choice to<br />
avoid musical or biographical notes was his<br />
own (he wants the music to speak for itself), as<br />
was the clear, close, un-reverberant recorded<br />
sound. I am not enamored of either choice,<br />
but I do admire both his talent and his sense of<br />
integrity.<br />
This is no vanity production. Davin has<br />
considerable talent and maturity, so seek this<br />
one out.<br />
KEATON<br />
Admir Doci<br />
RODRIGO: 3 Canciones Espanolas; Aranjuez,<br />
ma Pensee; TURINA: Sevillana; BOC-<br />
CHERINI: Introduction & Fandango;<br />
ASSAD: Valsa de Outono; GNATALLI: Sonata<br />
with Cello; REGONDI: Introduction &<br />
Caprice; DERUNGS: Elegie; WETTSTEIN:<br />
Skizzen; SENFL: 4 Lieder<br />
Admir Doci; Leila Pfister, mz; Martin Derungs,<br />
hpsi; Mattia Zappa, vc; Matthias Weilenmann, rec<br />
Guild 7347—66 minutes<br />
Albanian guitarist Admir Doci plays solos,<br />
songs, and chamber music, so there is a nice<br />
variety. I enjoy performances like this, and<br />
wish there were more of them. Doci is a fine<br />
player, based in Switzerland, and his partners<br />
are also fine.<br />
He opens with four songs by Rodrigo and<br />
mezzo Leila Pfister. She has a rich, dark sound<br />
that’s ideal for this music, though she never<br />
overpowers the guitar. ‘Aranjuez, ma Pensee’<br />
is arranged from the concerto by Rodrigo. The<br />
text is by Victoria Kahmi, the composer’s wife.<br />
It’s undeniably beautiful, but I can’t help feeling<br />
that hearing the music out of context is disappointing.<br />
The Boccherini is a Bream arrangement of<br />
the last movement of his most popular quintet.<br />
It’s effective, if a bit anachronistic, and it’s<br />
played with real joy. Martin Derungs is both<br />
harpsichordist here and a composer, and his<br />
Elegie for guitar solo, is haunting and mysterious.<br />
This is the third performance I’ve heard of<br />
Radames Gnattali’s sonata for guitar and cello.<br />
I reviewed an all-Gnattali disc (J/F 2011) by<br />
Marc Regnier and cellist Natalia Khoma on<br />
Dorian. That remains my favorite performance,<br />
but this is almost as fine (as is the performance<br />
of Goluses and Tayor on viola—see<br />
Night Strings below). Gnattali is Brazil’s most<br />
important composer after Villa-Lobos, and it’s<br />
good to hear more of his music. The sonata is<br />
one of his finest works. The first and third<br />
movements use unusual groupings of beats<br />
(such as 9/8 as 2+2+2+3), and II is deeply<br />
expressive. I liken the work to what Prokofieff<br />
might have written if he’d been born in Brazil.<br />
Doci is as strong as a soloist as he is in<br />
chamber music. The Turina, Assad, Regondi,<br />
Derungs. and Wettstein are all excellent performances,<br />
and he’s mastered the varied<br />
idioms convincingly. The closing set is quite<br />
unusual—four Lieder by Ludwig Senfl, a Franco-Flemish<br />
composer of the Renaissance,<br />
Heinrich Isaac’s pupil, best known for his secular<br />
German songs and for his sacred music.<br />
He is a master of his age, and the melodies are<br />
ably played on recorder by Matthias Weilenmann.<br />
It’s a surprising and delightful end to an<br />
inventive and enjoyable program.<br />
KEATON<br />
Night Strings<br />
DOBBINS: Night Suite; FALLA: Spanish<br />
Folksong Suite; ADLER: Into the Radiant<br />
Boundaries of Night; GNATALLI: Sonata;<br />
KIMBER: Hispanic Fantasy<br />
Nicholas Goluses, g; George Taylor, va<br />
Albany 1257—59 minutes<br />
When I was in college, my major professor had<br />
a duo with the viola prof, and I fell in love with<br />
the combination. Viola is the best match for<br />
guitar among the bowed strings. Violin is too<br />
penetrating, cello too big and rich, and don’t<br />
even think about double bass. The viola is the<br />
Goldilocks instrument; timbre and register are<br />
all just right.<br />
There is, however, almost no original<br />
repertory for the combination, so one has to<br />
rely on transcription or living composers, and<br />
that’s what Goluses and Taylor, both professors<br />
of their instruments at the Eastman<br />
School of Music, have done here. The results<br />
are delightful. Both players are masters, and<br />
both play with a delightful subtlety and<br />
finesse. They are comfortable and communicative<br />
playing together, spontaneous and<br />
responsive—just what fine chamber music<br />
should be.<br />
Bill Dobbins is professor of jazz studies at<br />
Eastman, and has crafted an ingenious suite of<br />
three classic jazz tunes for the duo: Wayne<br />
Shorter’s ‘Night Dreamer’, Thelonius Monk’s<br />
‘Round Midnight’, and Dizzy Gillespie’s ‘Night<br />
in Tunisia’. These are composed works. Nei-<br />
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ther Goluses nor Taylor takes the tunes and<br />
improvises. This comes off as chamber music,<br />
based on borrowed melodies and worked out<br />
in their style. Still, who can resist the heartrending<br />
beauty of ‘Round Midnight’, one my<br />
favorite jazz tunes of all time. And sparks do fly<br />
in ‘Night in Tunisia’, an effective close.<br />
I’ve played Falla’s Suite Popular Espanol<br />
for decades, with singers and with melody<br />
instruments. Goluses and Taylor omit one of<br />
the songs, the ‘Seguidilla Murciana’—it relies<br />
on rapid repetitions of text on a single pitch,<br />
and doesn’t work well in an instrumental transcription.<br />
The notes indicate that they are<br />
using the Max Eschig edition, but I hear a<br />
number of differences, each effective, that the<br />
players have made in the transition from voice<br />
to viola. I love the subtle use of the mute for<br />
the final phrase of the ‘Jota’.<br />
Samuel Adler taught composition at Eastman<br />
for many years and wrote Into the Radiant<br />
Boundaries of Light for Goluses and violist<br />
John Graham. His goal was to create a work<br />
that represented the two instruments equally,<br />
allowing each player to demonstrate his musicianship,<br />
without making a virtuoso showpiece—think<br />
of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. The<br />
work is a beautiful, rich, neo-romantic treasure.<br />
I reviewed an all-Gnattali recording (J/F<br />
2011), and my favorite performance on that<br />
disc was the sonata for cello and guitar. That<br />
was the first all-Gnattali disc reviewed for ARG;<br />
now, for this issue, I got two more recordings<br />
of the work, both worthy (see Admir Doci’s<br />
above). My favorite performance remains the<br />
first one, Marc Regnier on Dorian, but this is<br />
almost as fine. I do miss the richness of the<br />
cello, but viola balances better with the guitar.<br />
Gnattali wrote Concerto Copacabana for my<br />
major prof, Juan Mercadal, so I’ve known at<br />
least that part of his work for some time.<br />
The least interesting work is the last,<br />
Michael Kimber’s Hispanic Famtasy. It’s a<br />
slight work, filled with Spanish-sounding<br />
cliches. It’s too long for an encore, but that’s<br />
sort of the role it serves here. Still, I’m sure it’s<br />
popular with audiences.<br />
Performances for this combination are<br />
rare, and ones of this caliber are rarer still.<br />
Enjoy this one.<br />
KEATON<br />
Everything but the City<br />
HENZE: Minette; 3 Fairytale Pictures;<br />
TAKEMITSU: A Boy Named Hiroshima; Bad<br />
Boy; NIEMINEN: Night Shadows; WOU-<br />
DENBERG: Everything but the City<br />
Helsinki Guitar Duo—Pilfink 30—56 minutes<br />
Mikko Ikaheimo and Rody van Gemert are the<br />
soloists in Moreno Torroba’s concerto for two<br />
guitars, Tres Nocturnos, reviewed in this issue.<br />
I found their playing effective and idiomatic,<br />
but was a bit disturbed by their less-than-precise<br />
ensemble. This recital is even better musically,<br />
though they still sometimes have trouble<br />
playing exactly together. That’s not an easy<br />
challenge—listen to some all-pizzicato passages<br />
in orchestral works, like the scherzos in<br />
the Sibelius second or the Tchaikovsky fourth,<br />
and you’ll often hear a real mess. Apart from<br />
that, the performances are committed and<br />
imaginative. They have a nice range of tone<br />
and dynamics, and use it effectively.<br />
If you know Hans Werner Henze only<br />
through his Royal Winter Music for guitar or<br />
from some of his thorny, difficult orchestral or<br />
stage works, these duos will come as a surprise<br />
to you. Indeed, Henze adapted his music to<br />
whatever he chose at a given time. His reluctance<br />
to let theory dictate kept him at odds<br />
with some of the Darmstadt folks, which was a<br />
good thing. These works are charming, neoclassical,<br />
and quite tonal.<br />
The cycle from Minette is based on arias<br />
from his opera The English Cat, about a trio of<br />
pacifist cats raising a baby mouse. Really. The<br />
music is charming, with almost a cabaret-like<br />
style, and the arrangement of seven movements<br />
for two guitars is effective. The Fairytale<br />
Pictures is from the opera Pollicino (Tom<br />
Thumb to English speakers). The opera was<br />
written for children to perform and the music<br />
is easily accessible. The Helsinki duo’s performances<br />
of both sets have all the gentle charm<br />
the music needs. In March/April 2011 I<br />
reviewed another performance of three pieces<br />
from that opera, but that was a different three<br />
pieces, and for guitar solo, rather than the duo.<br />
Both Takemitsu pieces are from film scores.<br />
They are melodic, very pretty, and frankly<br />
rather more vanilla than one normally hears<br />
from this composer. They are more in the vein<br />
of his arrangements of popular music, and I’m<br />
sure these pieces will please many listeners.<br />
Kai Nieminen’s Night Shadows is, like his<br />
Acquarelli della Notte (see the review of his<br />
solo recital in this section), based on the Aurora<br />
Borealis. It also is a colorful piece, but<br />
meanders along without leaving much of an<br />
impression. On the other hand, Rijndert van<br />
Woudenberg’s Everything but the City is fascinating.<br />
It was written for these performers and<br />
deals with the clash between city life and the<br />
natural world. III is especially moving—a<br />
beautiful piece written as a Requiem for the<br />
composer’s father, who died while swimming<br />
in the North Sea. And the final movement,<br />
based on a seabird’s mating dance, builds to a<br />
truly raucous climax.<br />
This is an interesting collection of music<br />
you’re not likely to find performed elsewhere,<br />
and played quite well.<br />
KEATON<br />
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Sharon Isbin, guitar<br />
CORIGLIANO: Troubadours; SCHWANT-<br />
NER: From Afar; FOSS: <strong>American</strong> Landscapes<br />
St Paul Chamber Orchestra/ Hugh Wolf<br />
EMI 50999—67 minutes<br />
This is a reissue of a recording that was made<br />
for Virgin in 1995 (J/F 1996—Mr Ellis was<br />
warm in his praise, though he was as annoyed<br />
by the Schwantner as I was charmed). I’m glad<br />
to see it continues to circulate.<br />
Sharon Isbin is a national treasure. She is a<br />
magnificent musician, and she continues the<br />
Segovia tradition of expanding the guitar<br />
repertory with commissioned and inspired<br />
works. Each of these works is a worthy offering<br />
from one of America’s leading composers, and<br />
each is presented in an excellent performance.<br />
Corigliano’s Troubadours is typical of that<br />
composer in a lyric mood. It is a large set of<br />
variations based on a theme inspired by the<br />
melodies of the troubadours (in fact, the last<br />
third of the theme is a quotation of a song by<br />
the trobairitz—a female troubadour—Beatriz,<br />
Comtessa di Dia, ‘A Chantar’). The music is<br />
colorful and rich, yet still simple, in keeping<br />
with its origins. It evolves from active to calm,<br />
from powerful to meditative. Isbin’s performance<br />
is superb, and she is well matched by<br />
the St Paul players.<br />
Joseph Schwantner’s From Afar... is the<br />
most virtuosic work here. It is swirling and colorful—understandably<br />
so, since this is the only<br />
work whose composer is actually a guitarist (or<br />
was in his early years). It was composed when<br />
Schwantner was composer-in-residence for<br />
the St Louis Symphony—the first time that a<br />
guitar composer was commissioned by a<br />
major <strong>American</strong> orchestra.<br />
Luca Foss’s <strong>American</strong> Landscapes is the only<br />
work here that is actually based on <strong>American</strong><br />
folk music. The first movement includes several<br />
folk song quotes, including ‘Jefferson and Liberty’<br />
and the unfortunately named ‘Dog’s Tic’; the<br />
slow movement is a set of variations on ‘Wayfaring<br />
Stranger’, with some witty use of quarter<br />
tones (including one point where the guitar detunes<br />
one of the bass strings—which Isbin executes<br />
with amazing accuracy). The final movement<br />
is based on a pair of bluegrass tunes, ‘Cotton-eyed<br />
Joe’ and ‘Stay a Little Longer’, and<br />
ends with an Ives-like quote of ‘America the<br />
Beautiful’ in another key.<br />
In the last 15 years, none of these works<br />
have caught on—<strong>conductor</strong>s seem inclined to<br />
learn the Aranjuez and be done with it if they<br />
pay attention to guitar concertos at all. But<br />
they are worthy, and Isbin’s and Wolff’s collaboration<br />
means that at least there is a good<br />
model.<br />
KEATON<br />
Johannes Moller, guitar<br />
BARRIOS: El Sueno en la Floresta; CRAEY-<br />
VANGER: Der Freischutz Variations; VILLA-<br />
LOBOS: 3 Etudes; Cadenza; GOUGEON:<br />
Lamento-Scherzo; REGONDI: Reverie;<br />
BROUWER: Sonata; MOLLER: Poem to a<br />
Distant Fire Naxos 572715—73 minutes<br />
Johannes Moller is the winner of the 2010 Guitar<br />
Foundation of America Competition, probably<br />
the most important in the Americas. The<br />
first prize includes a Naxos recording contract<br />
along with several concerts. The contest<br />
always attracts the highest levels of talent, and<br />
Mr Moller is no exception. It is not enough to<br />
have an excellent technique—the winner must<br />
also have a distinct musical personality, an<br />
interpretive viewpoint. This recording is one of<br />
the most musical and expressive programs I’ve<br />
heard.<br />
Yes, Moller has a virtuosic technique, but<br />
he’s not eager to show it off at any opportunity,<br />
especially if there are areas to be explored<br />
that need space, quiet, and contemplation.<br />
And he has an amazing range of sound expression.<br />
Timbre is for him a distinct interpretive<br />
tool, so any given passage marked, say, pizzicato<br />
will not be identical to any other. Each<br />
phrase, each piece, creates its own world.<br />
This is even evident in his programming.<br />
Who would have thought to play the cadenza<br />
from the Villa-Lobos concerto as part of a<br />
recital? But it works, and by creating a set of<br />
Etudes 7, 9, the cadenza, and Etude 12, he has<br />
made the aesthetic equivalent of a four-movement<br />
sonata. It was sheer genius to see how<br />
naturally the ending of the cadenza led into<br />
the wild, swirling portamento chords of the<br />
last etude. And it was nice to hear such a loving<br />
performance of Etude 9, a beautiful piece I’ve<br />
always adored, but I’ve never heard it performed<br />
outside of a complete set. One could<br />
quibble with some of Moller’s rhythmic choices<br />
in 7 or 9, but he clearly has his own conception,<br />
and he presents that convincingly.<br />
The opening Barrios is played with all the<br />
mysterious, dream-like mood it should have.<br />
The Weber variations by Karel Arnoldus Craeyvanger<br />
(who?) is a treat. The music could be by<br />
Weber; it inhabits a world a generation after<br />
Sor and Giuliani, and the variations avoid the<br />
trap of the obvious that older composers so<br />
often succumbed to.<br />
The Lamento-Scherzo by Denis Gougeon<br />
was the required piece for the competition, yet<br />
Moller plays it like he’s known it for years. It’s<br />
a challenging work, making demands on both<br />
the virtuosic technique and the intellectual<br />
and intuitive understanding of the player.<br />
Regondi’s Reverie is an overblown piece, with<br />
way too many notes, but Moller makes it all<br />
convincing.<br />
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The Brouwer sonata is another modern<br />
masterpiece, full of wild contrasts, mystery,<br />
and humor (note the quote from Beethoven’s<br />
Pastoral Symphony at the end of the first<br />
movement). Brouwer’s scores are notable for<br />
the level of detail they include, for timber,<br />
dynamics, articulation, and special effects. He<br />
loves lots of contrast in his music, and I’m sure<br />
he would love Moller’s performance, which is<br />
one of the finest I’ve heard.<br />
Moller’s bio describes him as “guitarist and<br />
composer”—self-taught. As a teacher, I can’t<br />
approve, but as a musician, I love the final<br />
work on the program, his Poem to a Distant<br />
Fire. It is a beautiful work with ambiguous<br />
tonality that reminds me a bit of Scriabin. It is<br />
totally without cliches, so easy to fall into on<br />
guitar music; the final set of extremely high<br />
harmonics brings the program to an end quietly.<br />
This made me sad when it was over. I look<br />
forward to more from Mr Moller as his career<br />
develops.<br />
KEATON<br />
In the Woods<br />
FALLA: Homenaje; MILHAUD: Segoviana;<br />
ROUSSEL: Segovia; GOMEZ-CRESPO:<br />
Nortena; TAKEMITSU: In the Woods; Piece<br />
for the 60th Birthday of Sylvano Bussotti;<br />
Equinox; TORROBA: Suite Castellana; Nocturno;<br />
Madronos; NIEMINEN: Acquarelli<br />
della Notte<br />
Kai Nieminen, g<br />
Pilfink 21—53 minutes<br />
Kai Nieminen is a well-established guitarist<br />
and teacher based in Finland, with an active<br />
European career. He plays with Duo Upingos,<br />
a guitar-oboe ensemble, whose release is also<br />
reviewed in this issue. He is also a composer,<br />
and one can hear his music on this recording<br />
and on one by the Helsinki Guitar Duo, also<br />
reviewed here.<br />
Nieminen presents a recital mostly of<br />
miniatures from the Segovia repertory. I wish I<br />
found his playing more convincing. His sound<br />
is bold and varied—perhaps too bold. I wish<br />
there were more gentleness in many of the<br />
pieces. Gomez-Crespo’s Nortena simply<br />
sounds harsh. And his rubato often breaks the<br />
flow rather than enhances it. Rubato needs to<br />
do one of two things: either make a passage<br />
more beautiful or clarify the phrase structure.<br />
Is there a need, for instance, in Torroba’s<br />
Madronos, to stop the piece’s magical, gentle<br />
flow every few beats? Other choices just seem<br />
odd. Torroba’s Nocturno starts promisingly,<br />
but why spoil the mystery in the middle section<br />
by playing the chords staccato and the<br />
same volume as the melody?<br />
His own piece, Acquarelli della Notte is col-<br />
orful—appropriate for music inspired by the<br />
Aurora Borealis—but tends to meander. It’s<br />
never a good sign when half way through a<br />
piece, you start thinking “Isn’t this over yet?”<br />
Each of the other pieces has had better<br />
performance in other hands. Unless you want<br />
this particular set of pieces, you are better off<br />
elsewhere.<br />
KEATON<br />
Sans Souci<br />
TORROBA: Castles of Spain (4); BARRIOS: 3<br />
Waltzes; SATIE: 3 Gnossiennes; ASSAD:<br />
Saudades; SPOOR: Sans Souci; BROUWER:<br />
Un Dia de Noviembre<br />
Aaron Spoor, g<br />
ATSTA 0—47 minutes (800-529-1696)<br />
The jacket lists Mr Spoor as producer and<br />
recording engineer, and indicates that the project<br />
took ten months in 2010. Other than that<br />
there is no information about Spoor or the<br />
music.<br />
I’m afraid Mr Spoor is simply not ready for<br />
prime time. These performances are amateurish.<br />
His rubato is both self-indulgent and predictable<br />
(it’s tricky to be both). Slurs are<br />
rushed, tempos uneven, scalar passages sloppy.<br />
His tone is not bad, but is often on the<br />
twangy side. Beyond his immediate family and<br />
friends, I don’t know who would be interested<br />
in this.<br />
KEATON<br />
Machaca—Mano a Mano<br />
PONCE: Prelude; Estrellita; PIAZZOLLA:<br />
Bordel 1900; Café 1930; Nightclub 1950;<br />
LAURO: Natalia; IANNARELLI: Valzer Brilliante;<br />
BROUWER: Danza Caracteristica;<br />
Cancion del Cuna; BELLINATI: Jongo;<br />
VILLA-LOBOS: Bachianas Brasileiras 5:<br />
Aria; ROTH: Quintet<br />
Morgan Szymanski, g; Jose Menor, hpsi; Ruth<br />
Rogers, v; Laura Mitchell, s; Luzmira Zerpa: g,<br />
cuatro; O Duo, Oliver Cox, perc; Gemma Rosefield,<br />
vc; Phuong Nguyen, acc; Sacconi Quartet<br />
Sarabande 1—68 minutes<br />
Szymanski, born in Mexico and trained at the<br />
Royal College of Music in London, has taken<br />
some well-known works, many originally<br />
solos, and arranged them for chamber ensembles.<br />
The results are, for the most part, charming<br />
and enjoyable, if not always especially exiting<br />
or compelling.<br />
Ponce’s ‘Preludio’ is usually heard as a<br />
solo, and it’s one of the most joyous, delightful<br />
bits of Ponce’s neo-classic output. He made an<br />
arrangement with harpsichord. The harpsichord<br />
part is interesting, but too busy. Piazzolla’s<br />
Histoire du Tango is a four-movement<br />
work, originally for guitar and flute (I believe—<br />
with Piazzolla it’s hard to say). But any melody<br />
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instrument can fill in for the flute. Szymanski<br />
plays only three movements, two with violin<br />
and guitar, and the slow ‘Cafe 1930’ with<br />
accordion. It works well.<br />
The addition of percussion to Brouwer’s<br />
‘Danza Caracteristica’ is a brilliant touch. Less<br />
so the percussion in the lullaby, ‘Cancion de<br />
Cuna’. Nor am I convinced of the addition of<br />
voice and text to the lullaby, even though they<br />
have found the text from Ernesto Grenet’s<br />
original setting. Laura Mitchell has a light,<br />
pretty voice—too light for my taste. Text is also<br />
added to the Lauro waltz, and she sings the<br />
Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras 5. She has<br />
considerable competition on that work, and<br />
falls short of most of it.<br />
The most interesting work—and by far the<br />
best performance—is Alec Roth’s Guitar Quintet.<br />
It’s one of the finest essays for guitar and<br />
strings I’ve ever heard. It has beautiful<br />
melodies, interesting harmonies, evocative<br />
effects—and, if one can judge by the titles of<br />
the movements, considerable extramusical<br />
inspiration. That makes the total lack of notes<br />
frustrating. What does it mean, when the first<br />
movement is supposed to be ‘In Memoriam<br />
Lobgott Piepsam’? Or the second says ‘Papa H<br />
Dances’? Papa Haydn? Papa Honegger? Hitler?<br />
The rest of the performances range from<br />
charming and delightful to a bit disappointing,<br />
but the recording is worth getting for the quintet<br />
alone. (This may only be available thru<br />
Internet sources.)<br />
KEATON<br />
In South <strong>American</strong> Twilight<br />
DESPORTES: Pastorale Melancolique; Pastorale<br />
Joyeuse; PESSARD: Andalouse;<br />
GOSSEC: Tambourin; VILLA-LOBOS: 5 Preludes;<br />
Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras 5;<br />
Distribuicao de Flores; CHAVEZ: Upingos; 3<br />
Pieces; SOR: La Romanesca; PIAZZOLLA:<br />
Café 1930<br />
Duo Upingos (Kai Nieminen, g; Juha Markkanen,<br />
ob)<br />
Pilfink 53—60 minutes<br />
I review another of Nieminen’s releases in this<br />
section, and I wasn’t very impressed with it.<br />
This is better. In particular, I was happy to<br />
hear the combination of guitar and oboe—a<br />
lovely sound, and I actually prefer it to the<br />
ubiquitous guitar and flute ensemble. Many<br />
combinations of guitar and flute can substitute<br />
oboe without any changes, as is the case with<br />
many of the works here. Markkanen has a<br />
beautiful sound, though he’s not the most subtle<br />
in his phrasing. Nieminen balances well<br />
with the oboe, and his tendency to a bold<br />
sound actually serve him well in this setting.<br />
The opening four pieces are pleasant, if<br />
insubstantial. Pessard’s ‘Andalouse’ is one of<br />
those pieces that represent what a Frenchman<br />
thinks a Spaniard sounds like, and the Frenchman<br />
is wrong. The next ensemble works are<br />
the two Villa-Lobos pieces. The Bachianas<br />
Brasileiras should have been magical, but is<br />
just prosaic. Neither player makes any attempt<br />
to come down in sound for the return of the<br />
aria melody, when the work calls on the singer<br />
to hum (it is marked boca chiusa, closed<br />
mouth).<br />
Nieminen has several solos here. The five<br />
Villa-Lobos preludes are some of the most<br />
popular in the guitar repertory, and there is<br />
considerable competition. These performances<br />
can’t be recommended. Most of the<br />
technically demanding passages are either<br />
sluggish or uneven—and he slows down parts<br />
of the arpeggio in the middle section of No. 2.<br />
The three pieces by Mexican composer<br />
Carlos Chavez are better, especially the final<br />
‘Un Poco Mosso’. Markkanen then plays his<br />
own solo, ‘Upingos’, the source of the duo’s<br />
name. It’s technically fluid, if a bit unimaginative.<br />
Somehow both players really came alive in<br />
the last two pieces. Sor’s ‘La Romanesca’ is<br />
actually my favorite performance of the lot,<br />
and both players are suddenly sensitive and<br />
expressive to a degree I hadn’t heard. Piazzolla’s<br />
‘Cafe 1930’ is from his set Histoire du<br />
Tango, and is given a moving, mysterious, and<br />
romantic performance.<br />
But why name your disc In South <strong>American</strong><br />
Twilight when only two of the composers are<br />
actually from South America?<br />
KEATON<br />
Happy Here<br />
VEDDER: Rise; JEFFES: For a Found Harmonium;<br />
BACH: Sheep May Safely Graze;<br />
BRUCE: White Room; COUPERIN: Mysterious<br />
Barricades; O’RIADA: Women of Ireland;<br />
COULTER: Redwood Waltz; VERDERY:<br />
Happy Here; Tread Lightly; TRAD: Costa de<br />
Galicia; One Night in Bethlehem<br />
William Coulter, Benjamin Verdery, g<br />
Mushkatweek 400—48 minutes (503-477-7103)<br />
This came with a note from the Editor, “this<br />
may not be for ARG”. It is, indeed, not the classical<br />
repertory, except for the Bach and<br />
Couperin. The rest is in various folk traditions.<br />
But Ben Verdery is a well-established, wellrespected<br />
classical guitarist (Bill Coulter is just<br />
as renowned and specializes in Celtic music).<br />
Music for guitar often has one foot in the cultivated<br />
world and another in the vernacular. I’ve<br />
had recent reviews of such music of Columbia,<br />
another of Chile—and don’t get me, or Mr<br />
Vroon, started on Piazzolla. Besides, this is<br />
damned fine music-making.<br />
The notes (another nearly illegible mess of<br />
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tiny type superimposed over color shots) tell<br />
just a bit about each piece, and most seem to<br />
have arisen out of one of the two starting to<br />
play something, and the two improvising<br />
together. With average musicians, that could<br />
be dreadful, but these are not average musicians.<br />
They play with taste, affection, and<br />
imagination. The results are never disappointing<br />
and often delightful and moving. Verdery<br />
plays a nylon-stringed instrument, Coulter a<br />
steel-stringed acoustic. Some of the cuts seem<br />
to be solos, though the notes don’t specify. The<br />
sources are disparate. Couperin’s ‘Mysterious<br />
Barricades’ is well known, and the transcription<br />
by Alirio Diaz stays close to the original.<br />
Bach’s ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ is given a<br />
looser arrangement, without the pulsing bass<br />
that would identify it as baroque, but who can<br />
resist this gorgeous music in any guise?<br />
Other sources are more surprising. ‘Rise’ is<br />
by Eddie Vedder of the band Pearl Jam, and<br />
‘White Room’ is by Jack Bruce of Cream. Yet<br />
neither arrangement seems like anything<br />
taken from an electronic, highly amplified<br />
source, and the performances are moving and<br />
wholly natural.<br />
The traditional music from Ireland and<br />
Spain has the players in more familiar territory.<br />
‘One Night in Bethlehem’ is achingly beautiful,<br />
and the final work, ‘Peggy Gordon’ even<br />
more delicate and lovely. Both Verdery and<br />
Coulter contribute here as composers as well<br />
as arrangers. There pieces are in folk style, as<br />
would be expected in this project. ‘Tread<br />
Lightly’, written in memory of Verdery’s brother<br />
Dan, is sweet, gentle, and deeply moving.<br />
I took great pleasure in this recording, and<br />
I’ll return to it often.<br />
More Bizarre or baRock<br />
Elizabeth Anderson, hpsi<br />
Move 3326—64 minutes<br />
KEATON<br />
Here is a collection of harpsichord favorites,<br />
pop-jazz-baroque fusion pieces, and contemporary<br />
harpsichord music. Anderson is a<br />
dynamic and imaginative player. I enjoy her<br />
energetic rendition of Mozart’s Rondo alla<br />
Turca. She also has a sensitive, introverted<br />
side; and several of the pieces she has programmed<br />
for this recording, like Herbert Howells’s<br />
poignant ‘Lambert’s Fireside’, show her<br />
in that light. The harpsichord is supported in<br />
some pieces by a jazz rhythm section of bass,<br />
drums, and vibes, in various combinations.<br />
The Australian didjeridu makes an appearance<br />
in Ron Nagorcka’s ‘This Beauteous Wicked<br />
Place’.<br />
KATZ<br />
<strong>American</strong> Music for Percussion 2<br />
CARTER: Tintinnabulation; CHILD: Refrain;<br />
COHEN: Acid Rain; HARBISON:<br />
Cortege; LERDAHL: First Voices<br />
Yelena Beriyeva, Yelizaveta Beriyeva, p; Kimberly<br />
Soby, s; Mary Kate Vom Lehn, mz; Thea Lobo, a;<br />
New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble/<br />
Frank Epstein<br />
Naxos 559684—50 minutes<br />
There’s one nice thing about modern percussion<br />
music: you don’t have to sit there nagging<br />
yourself because you can’t hear and keep track<br />
of the tone rows. And, I’ve heard some good<br />
non-pitched percussion pieces in my time, but<br />
these seem simply so much organized striking<br />
of clangy objects—or maybe I’m too populist<br />
and I need an occasional steady beat to hold<br />
onto. John Harbison’s Cortege is a sometimes<br />
angry tribute to his friend Donald Sur, who<br />
died in 1999. Alas, maybe because I’m already<br />
used to percussion being, well, percussive, the<br />
anger doesn’t come across. Maybe it’s in the<br />
playing, but I think it’s easier to grasp brutality<br />
when it’s coming from strings, for example.<br />
The ticking clock feeling at the end is effective,<br />
though.<br />
The First Voices, by Fred Lerdahl, is a setting<br />
from Rousseau’s On the Origin of Language,<br />
about there being no difference<br />
between speaking and singing at the beginning<br />
of the evolution of language. The singers perform<br />
with very little vibrato; the dry harmonies<br />
dance to the rhythms, and the sound is similar<br />
to Partch’s Delusion of the Fury. The playing is<br />
good, and the sound is deep and very clear.<br />
There’s nothing that would draw me to listen<br />
to this again. Notes in English, with a<br />
translation of the Rousseau. (Also, there’s a<br />
percussion instrument called a “rape”? That’s<br />
unfortunate, though it does remind me of a<br />
graffito I saw in graduate school: “the lute is<br />
often accompanied by the rape and the pillage”.)<br />
ESTEP<br />
Czech & Moravian Oboe<br />
Marlen Vavrikova<br />
Centaur 3079—76 minutes<br />
The robust history and culture of the Czech<br />
Republic continues to yield new fascinations.<br />
These mostly unpublished works are scored<br />
for a combination of oboe with strings and<br />
piano. For the soloist, Marlen Vavrikova, assistant<br />
professor of music at Grand Valley State<br />
University in Michigan, they embody perhaps<br />
only a sampling of homeland favorites. A few<br />
of them belong solidly to the classical tradition,<br />
some to folk, and others to a much more<br />
modern idiom.<br />
A work by Edvard Schiffauer, born in 1942,<br />
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called Fantasy about Love falls neatly into the<br />
category of abstract work, whereas the two<br />
quartets by Pavel Masek (1761-1826) are undeniably<br />
classical, if not quite reminiscent of<br />
early Mozart. Others come from the country’s<br />
rich folk tradition. Ctirad Kohoutek’s Sonatina<br />
Semplice, for example, while a modern work, is<br />
the depth of Czech and Moravian tradition and<br />
its modern composers’ interests in preserving<br />
their heritage. And as much repertoire of certain<br />
instruments as the oboe have been developed<br />
over time by composers writing pieces<br />
specifically for competitions and juries at conservatories,<br />
Pavel Cotek’s Miniatures is a collection<br />
of nine short works designed to test<br />
specific technical abilities using an appealing<br />
melodic context.<br />
Overall, Vavrikova doesn’t try too hard to<br />
sell the unfamiliar repertoire, which can often<br />
achieve the opposite result. That is, pushing<br />
the performance beyond this level of effort<br />
reduces the appeal. Instead, she plays with<br />
intuition and subtly uses vibrato to maximum<br />
effect. The result is that her performance holds<br />
great appeal for the listener, while widening<br />
the repertoire available to the instrument.<br />
SCHWARTZ<br />
In Memoriam Nadia Boulanger<br />
BOULANGER,L: Pie Jesu; BOULANGER,N:<br />
Prelude; Petit Canon; Piece on Flemish Folk<br />
Airs; Improvisation; FAURE: Pie Jesu;<br />
IBERT: Fugue; THOMSON: Pastorale on a<br />
Christmas Plainsong; COPLAND: Preamble<br />
for a Solemn Occasion; FRANCAIX: Suite<br />
Carmelite; LEE: Mosaiques; CONTE: Prelude<br />
& Fugue<br />
Carolyn Shuster, org; Magali Leger, s<br />
Ligia 109206—70 minutes<br />
This recording was made 30 years after the<br />
death of Nadia Boulanger and it is welcome.<br />
The compositions are pieces written by Nadia<br />
and her sister Lili, friends of Nadia, and her<br />
pupils. Shuster is currently titulaire of the 1867<br />
Cavaille-Coll choir organ at Trinite Church,<br />
Paris; Magali Leger is a concert and opera<br />
soprano; the organ is the 3-53 Cavaille-Coll<br />
(1894) in Saint-Antoine-des- Quinze-Vingts,<br />
Paris (12th arrondissement).<br />
It may be redundant to most ARG readers,<br />
but Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) was an internationally<br />
known musician who aside from<br />
her own talents as a composer, taught and<br />
counseled Daniel Barenboim, Elliot Carter,<br />
Aaron Copland, and organists Gerre Hancock<br />
and Marilyn Mason. It may be that it was Nadia’s<br />
role in promoting the music by her incredibly<br />
talented sister Lili that made her known to<br />
many. Her own pieces, while neatly crafted<br />
and quite pleasant, lack that special touch,<br />
that unexpected turn here and there that<br />
would set them apart.<br />
Of the four pieces heard here, the Prelude<br />
is most interesting. I came across the music of<br />
Lili years ago with a recording of her works<br />
done by Markevitch and the Lamoureux<br />
Orchestra (originally on Everest, and now on<br />
EMI 64281). Her only appearance on this disc<br />
is her Pie Jesu, a haunting solo for mezzo<br />
soprano. Leger’s voice is too heavy for this sensitive<br />
work. She does a better job with Fauré’s<br />
selection from his Requiem.<br />
Ibert’s delightful 1920 Fugue from Three<br />
Pieces has a simple subject that may make this<br />
an attractive addition to the repertory of<br />
organists. Divinum Mysterium opens Thomson’s<br />
piece followed by five variations. The<br />
most complex of the settings has the opening<br />
tune in the left hand, ‘Vom Himmel Hoch’ in<br />
the right hand, and ‘God Rest You’ in the<br />
Pedal. Copland’s entry gets a powerful performance<br />
from Fournier as befits the solemnity of<br />
the title. Francaix’s 1960 work was taken from<br />
the Dialogue of the Carmelites film. The organ<br />
adaptation is dedicated to Pierre Cochereau,<br />
who replaced Francaix’s father as Director of<br />
the Mans Conservatory. The six very brief<br />
pieces in this suite (mostly one to two minutes)<br />
are dedicated to specific nuns.<br />
Mosaiques by Noel Lee (b.1924) is nine<br />
minutes of rhythms and tunes in an atonal<br />
framework. Not very pleasant. David Conte (b<br />
1955) teaches composition and leads choirs at<br />
San Francisco Conservatory. His prelude slowly<br />
broadens after a hushed beginning, concluding<br />
powerfully. The four-note subject of<br />
the fugue is easy to follow. This also builds to a<br />
dramatic conclusion. I find the Fugue more<br />
attractive than the Prelude. In sum, a well<br />
played tribute to Nadia Boulanger.<br />
METZ<br />
Late Issue?<br />
When ARG is mailed (usually around the<br />
23rd of the month before the cover) it is out<br />
of our hands. It may take 3 or 4 weeks to get<br />
to you. (It takes longer around the Christmas<br />
holidays and may seem to take longer in late<br />
February, because that is a short month.) But<br />
if it hasn't arrived by then, let us know so we<br />
can replace it in the next mailing. We generally<br />
cannot afford to mail individual copies,<br />
so if you renew late, you will have to wait for<br />
the issue you missed. The same if you forgot<br />
to tell us a change of address.<br />
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Martha Argerich & Friends,<br />
Lugano 2010<br />
SCHUMANN: Violin Sonata 1; Adagio &<br />
Allegro; CHOPIN: Rondo for 2 Pianos; Piano<br />
Concerto 1; BRAHMS: Schumann Variations;<br />
LISZT: Les Preludes; KORNGOLD:<br />
Piano Quintet; BARTOK: Sonata for 2 Pianos<br />
& Percussion; GRANADOS: Piano Quintet;<br />
STRAVINSKY: Firebird Suite; GRAINGER:<br />
Fantasy on Porgy & Bess; SCHNITTKE: Piano<br />
Quintet<br />
Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Sergei Edelmann,<br />
Carlo Maria Griguoli, Alexander Gurning,<br />
Stephen Kovacevich, Lily Maisky, Alexander<br />
Mogilevsky, Gabriela Montero, Daniel Rivera,<br />
Alessandro Stella, Georgia Tomassi, Lilya Zilberstein,<br />
p; Renaud Capucon, Lucia Hall, Geza<br />
Hosszu-Legocky, Alissa Margulis, Dora Schwarzberg,<br />
v; Lida Chen, Nora Romanoff-Schwarzberg,<br />
va; Gautier Capucon, Mark Drobinsky, Natalia<br />
Margulis, Jorge Bosso, vc; Louis Sauvetre, Danilo<br />
Grassi, perc; Italian Swiss Orchestra/ Jacek Kaspszyk<br />
EMI 70836 [3CD] 240 minutes<br />
Since 2005, a 3CD set of concert recordings<br />
from the Lugano Festival has been an annual<br />
EMI release. Over the years these recordings<br />
have garnered many awards and consistently<br />
outstanding reviews. For people who have<br />
enjoyed them in the past, like me, here is one<br />
more superlative release in the series. The<br />
tenth annual Martha Argerich Project, promoted<br />
by the Lugano Festival, took place June 8 to<br />
30, 2011—around when I was listening to last<br />
year’s highlights for this review. Each year<br />
some 50 artists are brought together around<br />
the great pianist, all of whom are either highly<br />
regarded musicians or talented young players.<br />
A number of people listed above have performed<br />
often enough to be considered regulars.<br />
Several of the younger pianists have come<br />
my way for review, and all have listed playing<br />
with Martha Argerich at Lugano prominently<br />
in their biographies.<br />
Designed as a showcase for ensemble<br />
music, the event is presented as a workshop,<br />
with artists in residence invited to play rarely<br />
performed compositions alongside masterpieces<br />
of the repertoire. We have three almost<br />
unknown piano quintets, all given very convincing<br />
performances. The two large Schumann<br />
works with the Capucon brothers<br />
accompanied by Argerich are wonderful. The<br />
two-piano works are varied and all at a very<br />
high level, whether or not Argerich is one of<br />
the participants. I particularly enjoyed the<br />
Liszt and the Grainger setting of Gershwin. I<br />
have seen a program from the 1800s where<br />
Liszt’s two-piano version of Les Preludes ended<br />
a big concert with the composer and Saint-<br />
Saens as the pianists. The Bartok as done here<br />
by the husband and wife team of Argerich and<br />
Kovacevich is easily the best concert performance<br />
of the work I have ever heard.<br />
I learned Chopin’s Piano Concerto 1 from<br />
Argerich’s first recording about 40 years ago.<br />
She hasn’t lost her touch with it, and is strongly<br />
supported by Jacek Kaspszyk. About the only<br />
work on the three discs that I could do without<br />
is the three-piano version of the Firebird Suite.<br />
It is performed well and I’m sure the pianists<br />
had a great time with it, but I am convinced<br />
that Stravinsky knew what he was doing when<br />
he did his piano arrangements of Petroushka<br />
and Sacre du Printemps (see other reviews in<br />
this issue) and did not do a similar arrangement<br />
of Firebird.<br />
Martha Argerich is the heart and soul of<br />
this event. She turned 70 this past June and is<br />
universally acknowledged as one of the greatest<br />
pianists of her generation. I cannot imagine<br />
any ARG reader who would not enjoy just<br />
about everything here.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
Beethoven and His Teachers<br />
BEETHOVEN: Piano Duet Sonata, op 6;<br />
Waldstein Variations; Marches, op 45; Variations<br />
on Ich Denke Dein; Grosse Fuge;<br />
ALBRECHTSBERGER: Prelude & Fugue;<br />
NEEFE: 6 Easy Pieces from The Magic Flute;<br />
HAYDN: Divertmento<br />
Cullen Bryant & Dmitry Rachmanov, p; Maria<br />
Ferrante, s<br />
Naxos 572519 [2CD] 92 minutes<br />
This is an outstanding release and one that<br />
might easily be overlooked. While I am not<br />
generally a period instrument person, I do<br />
appreciate hearing works performed on an<br />
excellent instrument appropriate for the period<br />
where they were written. Here we have not<br />
one, but two fascinating fortepianos: Caspar<br />
Katholnig, Vienna, circa 1805-10 and Johann<br />
Tröndlin, Leipzig, 1830. Both have been<br />
expertly maintained and preserved by the<br />
Frederick Historic Piano Collection in Ashburnham,<br />
Massachusetts. All works except the<br />
Three Marches and the Great Fugue are performed<br />
on the Katholnig, reserving the<br />
Tröndlin for the two largest works. The<br />
dynamic range coaxed out of both instruments<br />
is a testament to the abilities of Bryant and<br />
Rachmanov, who should also be commended<br />
for their absolute dead-on ensemble. I have sat<br />
shoulder-to-shoulder with another pianist at<br />
an 1860s square piano (once played by<br />
Brahms) and can only imagine the difficulties<br />
the earlier, smaller instruments would present.<br />
A telling picture in the booklet shows both<br />
men off at a slight angle to the center of the<br />
keyboard. The sound these instruments produce<br />
is different from a modern piano in the<br />
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sonorities for each register (low, middle, and<br />
high). The highest notes sound much more<br />
akin to a plucked violin or even a marimba or<br />
xylophone, while the middle is closest to our<br />
modern home spinet pianos. The bass is, as<br />
expected, not as full and sonorous as a modern<br />
grand, but very clear and never muddy. At the<br />
loudest moments in the Marches you hear<br />
kind of a raspy twang that reminds you of the<br />
percussion that is often associated with<br />
marches—a truly unique effect.<br />
It would be easy to label this entire release<br />
rarities. Of the five significant compositions by<br />
Beethoven, which account for more than half<br />
the total time, only one, the Grosse Fuge, has<br />
come my way for review in the past several<br />
years. The Variations on ‘Ich denke dein’ are<br />
listed as a world premiere recording. Beethoven<br />
notated the theme for soprano and<br />
piano four-hands. The Magic Flute pieces are<br />
quite enjoyable and the only thing I have ever<br />
heard by an early teacher of Beethoven, Christian<br />
Gottlob Neefe. Perhaps the most entertaining<br />
piece here is the Haydn Divertmento.<br />
Based on the familiar Harmonious Blacksmith<br />
theme, this two-movement work is a set of<br />
variations and a minuet. The variations, as the<br />
subtitle ‘Il Maestro e lo Scolare’ implies,<br />
exploits the master and student relationship.<br />
Never was there a master and student who<br />
could so accurately imitate each other as the<br />
two pianists here.<br />
Whether you are an expert in the field of<br />
period instruments or just curious about their<br />
sound, you owe it to yourself to make this<br />
recording a part of your collection. The repertoire,<br />
performers, booklet notes, and recorded<br />
sound are all superb; and I plan to keep this<br />
one on my active listening stack for the foreseeable<br />
future.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
Hans-Goran Elfving<br />
DEBUSSY: Ce qu’a Vu le Vent d’Ouest; Poissons<br />
d’or; Le Puerta del Vino; Les Collines<br />
d’Anacapi; SJOGREN: Andantino ur Stemningar;<br />
Morgonvandring ur Folklivsbilder<br />
de; FALLA: Ritual Fire Dance; Fantasia Baetica;<br />
THUNAEUS: Preludes 1, 11, 12, 14, 19,<br />
20; BRITTEN: Holiday Diary; NILSSON: Om<br />
en Resa; BRAHMS: Rhapsody in B minor<br />
Nosag 187—79 minutes<br />
This gives good value for your money in terms<br />
of playing time. There are some drawbacks,<br />
however. Hans-Goring Elfving plays with a<br />
rather clangorous tone and his touch is somewhat<br />
uneven. I can’t tell you much about him<br />
as the jacket notes are only in Swedish. Two of<br />
the three Swedish composers—Ragnar Thunaeus<br />
(1898-1972) and Torsten Nilsson (1920-<br />
99)—are ones I have never heard of before.<br />
Neither one is particularly appealing.<br />
BAUMAN<br />
Tao Lin<br />
CHOPIN: Piano Sonata 3; MOZART: Sonata<br />
14; SCARLATTI: Sonatas<br />
Artek 55—67 minutes<br />
The actual title of this release is “Tao Lin Live<br />
in Concert”, but our editor considers the term<br />
“live” redundant. Fully agreeing with Mr<br />
Vroon, I will admit that the prospect of seeing<br />
an artist dead in recital might really be a<br />
ghoulish thing, though an experience never to<br />
be forgotten.<br />
Now, to the Chinese-<strong>American</strong> Mr Lin.<br />
Admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of<br />
Music at the age of eight, he eventually moved<br />
to the United States and became active as a<br />
solo performer and chamber music player. His<br />
many awards include the William Kapell International<br />
Piano Competition. He is currently<br />
Professor of Collaborative Piano at Lynn University<br />
in Boca Raton, Florida.<br />
This recording, made at the Gary Soren<br />
Smith Center for the Fine and Performing Arts<br />
in California, has a mid-auditorium perspective<br />
in a rather resonant hall. The two Scarlatti<br />
sonatas show Lin’s impressive technique, but<br />
not always to best advantage as the wash of<br />
sound robs the music of some clarity. The<br />
Mozart grouping, consisting of the Rondo, K<br />
485, Fantasy, K475, and Sonata 14, are all<br />
straightforward and quite pleasant but with little<br />
to excite the imagination or to distinguish<br />
them from many others.<br />
Chopin’s Sonata 3, which has captured the<br />
fancy of a legion of today’s pianists, is not<br />
always an easy work to bring off. While grander<br />
in scale than its well-known predecessor, it<br />
lacks the fancy and emotional concentration<br />
of that work. Lin certainly knows how to handle<br />
Chopin properly with playing that is exciting<br />
and flows naturally. Once again the recording<br />
is muddy, particularly in passagework.<br />
With all the currently available recordings this<br />
one is not really competitive.<br />
BECKER<br />
Liisa Pohjola, piano<br />
with Olli Pohjola, fl; Jeanne Loriod, ondes martinot;<br />
Finnish Radio/ Sakari Oramo<br />
Alba 286 [3CD] 207 minutes<br />
Pohjola studied piano with Timo Mikkila at the<br />
Sibelius Academy, with Richard Hauser in<br />
Vienna, with Detlev Kraus in Essen, and with<br />
Magda Tagliaferro in Paris. She gave her debut<br />
recital in 1955 and has mostly been on the<br />
European concert scene. As Professor of Piano<br />
at the Sibelius Academy from 1976 to 2001 she<br />
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championed the music of her contemporaries<br />
and continues to do so as an active teacher.<br />
This very welcome set gathers together a<br />
host of recordings of mostly short pieces by<br />
Finnish and 20th Century composers. With the<br />
exception of a handful of Haydn, Schumann,<br />
and Chopin, most of her repertory will be<br />
unfamiliar to all but a few of our readers.<br />
<strong>Record</strong>ing dates are supplied in the booklet<br />
along with thorough notes for this most<br />
unusual set.<br />
Stravinsky’s Capriccio is the only work with<br />
orchestra. Its dry wit and capriciousness<br />
comes across well, particularly with the<br />
Finnish orchestra. As many times as I have listened<br />
to this piece over the years, it has never<br />
found a warm place in my affections. Pohjola<br />
and Oramo manage to capture its desiccated<br />
spirit perfectly.<br />
Four of Debussy’s Etudes and three of<br />
Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces display the artist’s<br />
stirling technical abilities and the remarkable<br />
strength of her fingers. This kind of virile playing<br />
is not encountered very often.<br />
The Finnish Folk Song Arrangements by<br />
Sibelius combine a more quiet, reflective kind<br />
of writing, with, in the case ‘That Beautiful<br />
Girl’ an obvious appreciation for the more<br />
zaftig aspects of attractiveness. The composer’s<br />
Nocturne Op.51:3 uses a flute and is<br />
drawn from his incidental music to Belshazzar’s<br />
Feast. Two additional pieces from the<br />
composer’s Op. 24, ‘Romanze’ and ‘Barcarola’,<br />
are most attractive.<br />
Kocab by the Finnish composer Erkki<br />
Salmenhaara (1941-2002) is named after the<br />
second brightest star in the constellation Ursa<br />
minor. It packs a terrific wallop in its fourminute<br />
duration and is quite a discovery. Also<br />
a discovery (even with a momentary sound<br />
blip) is the Chopin Nocturne Op. 27:1, played<br />
with just the right amount of forbidding dark<br />
cloud cover and lyrical loveliness.<br />
Prokofieff’s Sonata 5 has Pohjola easily<br />
holding her own among the competition. The<br />
gentle, almost nonchalant writing is played<br />
with stunning clarity and forward momentum.<br />
With the Andantino we have the sardonic<br />
nose-thumbing so typical of his colleague<br />
Shostakovich. As with its predecessor, it ends<br />
with a whimper before advancing to a last<br />
movement similar to the opening. Pohjola<br />
rightfully makes no attempt to emulate the<br />
pile-driving dynamics of the later sonatas.<br />
Finnish composer Aarre Merikanto (1893-<br />
1958) is represented by his Six Pieces, Op. 20.<br />
Each of these is an attractive romantic miniature,<br />
but with far more impressionist harmonies<br />
than one might initially expect. Pohjola<br />
is well attuned to the character of each piece<br />
and makes of them a joyful discovery for the<br />
listener.<br />
Haydn’s Sonata 37 in E might seem an<br />
unusual choice here, and its early recording<br />
date (1971) shows in the sound. Despite the<br />
boxiness, it’s a sprightly reading perfectly in<br />
tune with what we have come to expect from<br />
excellent Haydn interpreters—crisp, clean,<br />
refined—but not too refined.<br />
Three pieces from Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata<br />
were recorded in 1969 and take a little over<br />
seven minutes to perform. While this composer<br />
does not immediately come to mind when<br />
thinking of accessibility, these three pieces<br />
have relatively little of the avant-garde about<br />
them. If they finally fail to capture the heart,<br />
they are not too indigestible.<br />
Rare pieces by Arensky and Rimsky-Korsakoff<br />
are pleasant enough, but Anton Rubinstein’s<br />
famous ‘Romanze’ still has the ability to<br />
leave a lump in the throat—at least in the right<br />
hands and susceptible throats. ‘Andante<br />
orgoglioso, ma con grazier’ by Erik Bergman<br />
(1911-2006) is quite an impassioned piece as<br />
heard here, and his Hommage to Christopher<br />
Columbus, while more modern in sound,<br />
makes use of some interesting chordal clusters<br />
and other sonorities. If Columbus, or his journeys,<br />
never once came to mind, its two movements<br />
are effective, especially the rhythmic<br />
‘Guanahani’ (San Salvador).<br />
Andre Jolivet’s Three Poems for Ondes<br />
Martenot and Piano were written shortly after<br />
the years he spent with Edgard Varese. The<br />
electronic instrument is similar in sound to the<br />
Theremin and has been used like the<br />
Theremin to evoke otherworldly sounds in<br />
many films. Jolivet’s work is definitely weird<br />
and otherworldly—perhaps only lacking a<br />
monster to pop out at the appropriate time.<br />
Crashing piano chords contrast with the wailing<br />
sound of the instrument, and long quiet<br />
stretches create a feeling of unease. It was a<br />
long 16 minutes.<br />
Messiaen’s Catalog of Birds uses the piano<br />
to recreate and elaborate on a series of bird<br />
calls. Pohjola plays more than half an hour of<br />
them and does what she has to do very well.<br />
Stylistically they sound abstract and aleatory.<br />
People attuned to this composer may find<br />
them more interesting than I did. Even the<br />
sounds of the ‘Nightingale’ sound ugly in this<br />
setting.<br />
Usko Merilainen (1930-2004), a student of<br />
Merikanto, wrote his Sonata 2 in 1966. It’s in<br />
three classically styled movements and sounds<br />
quite modern. For all its athematic content, it<br />
hangs together formally and does not outstay<br />
its welcome. Tempos are predominantly slow<br />
until the Presto finale, when Pohjola gets to<br />
display her skillful handling of rapid repeated<br />
notes. I would be curious to hear Merilainen’s<br />
remaining two sonatas, dedicated to the<br />
pianist.<br />
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For readers inclined towards exploration,<br />
this set will point them in a few new directions.<br />
BECKER<br />
Russian & Armenian Music<br />
for 2 Pianos<br />
KHACHATURIAN: 4 Dances from Spartacus;<br />
6 Dances from Gayne; Suite for 2 Pianos;<br />
TCHEREPNIN, A: Fantasy on Chinese Folk<br />
Melodies; ARUTIUNIAN-BABADSHANIAN:<br />
Armenian Rhapsody<br />
Queen Elisabeth Duo<br />
Telos 14—70 minutes<br />
This is a collection of exciting music, powerfully<br />
performed and very well recorded. The<br />
notes, at least as translated from the German,<br />
are not clear and actually caused me a considerable<br />
amount of work to sort out the works<br />
presented here. I am still unsure of the origin<br />
of the Khachaturian arrangements from his<br />
two most famous ballets. I would guess that<br />
they were done by the composer himself but<br />
cannot confirm that. The Tcherepnin is the<br />
composer’s arrangement of his Piano Concerto<br />
4, but it is not clear if it is a standard<br />
arrangement of the orchestra for one piano<br />
and the original solo part for the second, or<br />
some more creative combination and rearrangement<br />
of the music. There are a number<br />
of added percussion effects in this work by<br />
unnamed musicians.<br />
The real find here is the Tcherepnin. As the<br />
parent of two adopted Asian daughters, my<br />
interest in Chinese music has increased significantly<br />
in the past dozen years. I have not ever<br />
encountered a piece written in the traditional<br />
Western style that incorporated Chinese<br />
melodies and harmonies so effectively. Most of<br />
the time I run into composers imitating Puccini<br />
more than real oriental music. Tcherepnin<br />
actually lived in China for several years, and<br />
his wife was Chinese. He was a true musician<br />
of the world and ended up living here in the<br />
US.<br />
All together, there is a sameness to the<br />
music that only the Tcherepnin interrupts. I<br />
would recommend this for the Tcherepnin and<br />
also if you want to explore the world of Armenian<br />
concert music for two pianos.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
Mozart to Gershwin<br />
Margery McDuffie Whatley, Steven Hesla, p<br />
ACA 20110—79 minutes<br />
This attractive Georgia-born pianist now<br />
resides in Missoula, Montana. For the twopiano<br />
version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue<br />
she has linked with Steven Hesla, a faculty<br />
member at the University of Montana. This is<br />
Whatley’s third recording for ACA.<br />
Besides the Gershwin, Beethoven’s Sonata 17<br />
is the other main work on this recording.<br />
Whatley plays it with little pedal and articulates<br />
with great clarity. Although the competition<br />
is fierce, she more than manages to hold<br />
her own and gives a strong profile to the<br />
music. Despite an almost endless list of fine<br />
performances, there is always room for yet<br />
another if it is of this quality.<br />
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is a warhorse<br />
that has managed to survive practically every<br />
permutation, especially in the hands of<br />
pianists with imagination and flair. Whatley<br />
has both and manages to swing with the best<br />
of them. Hesla is an effective partner, and one<br />
rarely misses an orchestra (or jazz band). At<br />
around 17 minutes, the music is uncut.<br />
Chopin’s Scherzo 1 and Nocturne 8 are<br />
models of expressive clarity. There are no<br />
blurred passages in the difficult Scherzo, and<br />
the Nocturne is lovingly executed. Debussy’s<br />
‘Reflects dans l’eau’ and Griffes’ ‘White Peacock’<br />
are both impressionist pieces and call for<br />
a bit more indulgence and pedal than Whatley<br />
is willing to give them. All is a little too clear—<br />
too direct, when a slower, more introspective<br />
approach might work better. Not willing to<br />
continue with this nitpicking, I must admit her<br />
performances are quite pleasing, and I might<br />
eventually be won over by her approach.<br />
Mozart’s Variations will always be, a crowd<br />
pleaser. ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ sparkles.<br />
BECKER<br />
20th Century Russian Piano<br />
GUBAIDULINA: Ciaconna; PART: Partita;<br />
SHOSTAKOVICH: 8 Preludes; SHCHEDRIN:<br />
2 Preludes & Fugues; KARAYEV: 10 Preludes<br />
Vladimir Yurigin-Klevke<br />
Delos 2008—58 minutes<br />
Yurigin-Klevke’s tone is very steely, and the<br />
piano is bright and poorly regulated—sometimes<br />
it sounds thin enough to be an electric<br />
piano (or a fortepiano in Shchedrin’s Prelude<br />
and Fugue 12). The ‘Toccatino-Fughetta’<br />
movement of Pärt’s Partita should sound fleet<br />
in the opening; here it’s heavy all the way. I<br />
much prefer my music, even 20th Century<br />
writing, to have more roundness to the tone.<br />
The phrasing is too inconsistent in the<br />
Shostakovich (Preludes Op. 34: 1, 2, 3, 10, 14,<br />
16, 17, and 24): ponderous one second, hammered<br />
the next, then lighter, but nearly always<br />
edgy.<br />
Kara Karayev (1918-1982; G’s and Q’s may<br />
be substituted for K’s) was an Azerbaijani composer<br />
and a student of Shostakovich; these<br />
preludes are in between his teacher’s and<br />
Kabalevsky’s in quality—they’re not works of<br />
genius, but they’re not bad at all. Prelude 23 in<br />
F has some genuine humor and jazz influence,<br />
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as if Claude Bolling got drunk and wrote a tribute<br />
to one of Shostakovich’s more baroque<br />
preludes. I’d like to hear more of the Karayev<br />
(on a better piano). Notes in English.<br />
ESTEP<br />
Mad Dances<br />
Larsen, Diamond, Del Tredici, Albright,<br />
Isaacs Dan Goble, sax; Russell Hirshfield, p<br />
Albany 1251—61 minutes<br />
Here, Western Connecticut State University<br />
professors Dan Goble and Russell Hirshfield<br />
give a recital of recent <strong>American</strong> music for saxophone<br />
and piano. The liner note explains the<br />
theme of the album, but in reality it is a mix of<br />
absolute and descriptive elements, and each<br />
work is best taken on its own merits. Libby<br />
Larsen’s Holy Roller (1997) supposedly refers<br />
to a Pentecostal church meeting; WCSU faculty<br />
member Kevin Jay Isaacs contributes<br />
Skookum Suite (2009), after the Native <strong>American</strong><br />
name for the Sasquatch creature rumored<br />
to inhabit the forests of the <strong>American</strong> Northwest;<br />
the late William Albright and the late<br />
David Diamond are each represented with<br />
their saxophone sonatas (both 1984); and for a<br />
neo-romantic departure we are given David<br />
Del Tredici’s Acrostic Song for flute and piano<br />
from his Lewis Carroll stage work Final Alice<br />
(1976) for soprano and orchestra, adapted for<br />
saxophone and piano.<br />
Much of the concert is abstract and difficult<br />
to grasp, but Goble and Hirshfield tackle it<br />
with enthusiasm. Goble, in particular, always<br />
goes for it, calling on the full dynamic<br />
resources of his instrument and fearlessly traveling<br />
to its extremes. He also renders the<br />
extended techniques in the scores, especially<br />
multiphonics, with ease and comfort. At the<br />
same time, his coarse timbre, undisciplined<br />
embouchure, and mechanical vibrato undermine<br />
his efforts. His sound can be pleasant at<br />
very soft volumes, but his mezzo range is<br />
reedy, and his loud playing is honky. Intonation,<br />
too, is not always steady, often owing to<br />
overt jaw pinching and loosening, and while<br />
the recital is well rehearsed, it has a few<br />
instances of unsure articulation and fingers. As<br />
a result, he never quite transcends the harmonic<br />
and rhythmic chaos, and his performance<br />
of the beautiful Del Tredici is rough<br />
around the edges. Hirshfield is a highly skilled<br />
and flexible artist who digs into the thorny<br />
passages, yet renders the handful of special<br />
moments with wonderful touch and sincerity.<br />
HANUDEL<br />
Jonathan Wintringham, sax<br />
Hindemith, Chambers, Djupstrom, Lynch,<br />
Nagao<br />
with Timothy McAllister, sax; Erika Tazawa,<br />
Michael Djupstrom, p<br />
Equilibrium 98—70 minutes<br />
In his first release, New Jersey native and University<br />
of Arizona graduate Jonathan Wintringham<br />
invites his teacher Timothy McAllister,<br />
Japanese pianist Erika Tazawa, and Philadelphia-based<br />
pianist and composer Michael<br />
Djupstrom for a recital of contemporary saxophone<br />
music that concludes with Wintringham’s<br />
arrangement of the Hindemith Viola<br />
Sonata, Opus 11:4. The rest of the program<br />
consists of Japanese composer June Nagao’s<br />
La Lune en Paradis (1995), written for Nobuya<br />
Sagawa; Djupstrom’s Walimai (2005), based<br />
on a short story by the Chilean-<strong>American</strong><br />
author Isabel Allende; University of Michigan<br />
composition professor Evan Chambers’s Deep<br />
Flowers (1992) for solo alto saxophone and<br />
Greensilver (1990) for two alto saxophones;<br />
and British composer Graham Lynch’s Spanish<br />
Café (2004), written for the London group<br />
Tango Volcano.<br />
Wintringham has been a major force in the<br />
saxophone world for several decades. He has a<br />
nice and resonant sound; he boasts an excellent<br />
set of fingers and articulation; he phrases<br />
with an artistic awareness well beyond his<br />
years; and he tackles the postmodernist content<br />
of his program with extreme volume<br />
shifts, daring color changes, and a deft command<br />
of glissandos and slap tongue. Still, he<br />
has room to grow. His timbre can be a little<br />
reedy; his high register can be a bit thin; his<br />
low register could use more clarity; and his<br />
intonation sometimes goes awry at the loud<br />
end. His vibrato is thoughtfully rendered,<br />
always warm and well placed; but even so, it<br />
could use more subtlety. Tazawa is a superb<br />
collaborator, boldly undertaking the demanding<br />
keyboard parts with boundless technique,<br />
dynamic range, and expressive understanding.<br />
HANUDEL<br />
Hermann Baumann Collection<br />
Telemann, Haydn, Pokorny, Mozart, Czerny,<br />
Beethoven, Rossini, Krufft, Strauss,<br />
Gliere, Saint-Saens, Chabrier, Dukas, Weber<br />
Leonard Hokanson, p; Folkwang Horn Ensemble;<br />
German Natural Horn Soloists; Academy of St<br />
Martin in the Fields/ Iona Brown; St Paul Chamber<br />
Orchestra/ Pinchas Zukerman; Gewandhaus<br />
Orchestra/ Kurt Masur<br />
Newton 8802035 [7CD] 396 minutes<br />
I don’t remember when I first heard of Hermann<br />
Baumann (b 1934), but I do remember<br />
hearing the Weber Horn Concertino one day in<br />
the mid-1980s and wondering, Who is that?! I<br />
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was captured by the sheer artistry: the refined<br />
tone with its subtle vibrato, the steely strength<br />
of his high notes, the dazzling technical skill,<br />
and the cadenza with his startling multiphonics.<br />
And so it was a special treat to find that<br />
wonderful recording in this boxed set. Each of<br />
the seven discs reprises an earlier release. The<br />
Weber, for instance, is mere filler between<br />
blockbusters—the two Strauss horn concertos—on<br />
an amazing 1983 album with Kurt<br />
Masur and the Gewandhaus Orchestra. The<br />
same team is heard again in a 1985 collection<br />
with the Gliere Horn Concerto, Saint-Saens’s<br />
‘Morceau de Concert’, Chabrier’s Larghetto,<br />
and Dukas’s ‘Villanelle’. I find that something<br />
of a letdown, though, because Baumann’s<br />
vibrato is a fairly constant quiver—sometimes<br />
subtle but too often distracting.<br />
Baumann twice collaborated with Iona<br />
Brown and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-<br />
Fields. A 1984 collection deals with music by<br />
Telemann, offering vigorous readings of the<br />
Horn Concerto, plus four works for two or<br />
three horns, strings, and continuo (with horn<br />
players Timothy Brown and Nicholas Hill). In a<br />
1988 recording, Baumann and Brown are<br />
heard again in Haydn’s 2-horn Concerto. But<br />
the piece most worth hearing on this album is<br />
Haydn’s Horn Concerto 1, if only because of<br />
Baumann’s remarkable technical skills—the<br />
fat low notes; the soaring, sustained high notes<br />
in II; and what has to be the fastest lip trills<br />
ever. Also on this disc is the Haydn-like Horn<br />
Concerto by Frantisek Pokorny (1729-94), not<br />
heard often but recently given a fine reading<br />
by Radek Baborek (Sept/Oct 2010: 265).<br />
The four Mozart horn concertos are from<br />
1984, performed with Pinkhas Zukerman and<br />
the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. I appreciate<br />
how differently Baumann approaches the<br />
Haydn (it’s rambunctious) and Mozart (elegant<br />
and beautifully shaped). The sonics are<br />
excellent—all voices natural, clear, and in balance.<br />
I always love to hear the sweet contributions<br />
of the clarinets in Concerto 3, for<br />
instance, and they are easily heard but not too<br />
prominent here. This is my first exposure to<br />
Karl Marguerre’s completion of the Rondo (II)<br />
of Concerto 1. Is it good? Well, sure, but so are<br />
the ones by Sussmayr and Humphries and<br />
Levin. It’s just that none of them really sound<br />
like Mozart. We don’t know how Mozart would<br />
have written it.<br />
Baumann and pianist Leonard Hokanson<br />
offer a recital of 19th-Century works in Disc 4<br />
(1986). Carl Czerny’s Andante e Polacca is<br />
given a buoyant reading, the virtuoso piano<br />
part handled deftly. The Beethoven Horn<br />
Sonata and Nikolaus von Krufft’s Horn Sonata,<br />
cut from the same cloth, are played aggressively.<br />
Rossini’s Prelude, Theme et Variations is<br />
delivered with aplomb, while Strauss’s little<br />
Andante is given an emotional reading where<br />
Baumann’s vibrato is all a-quiver.<br />
Over the years, I have reviewed a number<br />
of albums by hunting-horn ensembles. This<br />
collection includes one of the best (May/June<br />
1992: 165), where the Folkwang Horns and<br />
German Natural Horn Soloists team up with<br />
Baumann and other horn soloists. It all takes<br />
place in a big, resonant church with a wonderful<br />
organ. ‘Marche d’entrée’ is a great example<br />
of the strange yet stirring sound of massed<br />
hunting horns: throaty tone that is by turns<br />
deep and rather fragile, intonation that is by<br />
turns beautiful and weird (because of the halfstep<br />
sharp 11th overtone). And then, after so<br />
much magnificent noise, the ending fades<br />
away.<br />
Hermann Baumann is one of the great<br />
horn soloists of our time—maybe not revered<br />
like Dennis Brain, but surely in the same<br />
league as Barry Tuckwell. He suffered a serious<br />
stroke in 1996, but he has apparently recovered<br />
and is playing again. This marvelous collection<br />
captures some of his best work.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
Best of Malte Burba<br />
BACH: Air; BURBA: Voyage II; NEWMAN:<br />
Syphilis; HESPOS: Iosch; HEYDUCK:<br />
Alphorn Solo; GOEBBELS: Nachtstuck II;<br />
RIERMEIER: Circle III: SEIL: Super Paradise;<br />
HOLSZKY: WeltenEnden<br />
Thorofon 2575—63 minutes<br />
It’s been a very long time since I laughed at<br />
Malte Burba’s absurd Tears of Brass album<br />
(Jan/Feb 1992: 149), a Cagean collection of<br />
blips and bloops and long silences. While it<br />
might have been amusing to some, it seemed a<br />
waste of time and money to me. So, was this a<br />
mistaken conclusion based on too little evidence?<br />
Born in Frankfurt in 1957, Herr Burba is a<br />
renowned trumpet pedagogue, has collaborated<br />
with many composers in the development<br />
of new works, and has made many recordings.<br />
Seven are excerpted here. Burba’s former student<br />
Chris Walden is the arranger of Bach’s<br />
familiar Air, where Burba plays the melody<br />
with lovely tone on piccolo trumpet while all<br />
manner of wacky sound is synthetically produced<br />
by Walden. At first and again later, the<br />
accompaniment is Bach’s but sounds like<br />
something from the old Switched-On Bach<br />
album from the 1960s. The middle section has<br />
a completely free-form harmonization on synthesizer<br />
keyboard with a stream of strange<br />
sound effects.<br />
Burba says that his own Voyage II “combines<br />
train sounds with reminiscences of brass<br />
music classics to create an irritating collage”.<br />
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Well said! It doesn’t really sound like that,<br />
though—it’s more like we’re sitting under a<br />
waterfall while listening to someone play<br />
trumpet snippets. Except for a moment when<br />
Burba imitates a beginner, we can tell he is a<br />
fine player.<br />
The next work (‘Syphilis’) begins without<br />
pause. Why Chris Newman called it that is not<br />
explained, nor can it be discerned by listening,<br />
since it is simply a collection of random<br />
sounds. The big piece, Hans-Joachim Hespos’s<br />
iOSCH is a montage where seven pieces are<br />
superimposed in seemingly abstract fashion.<br />
Burba makes all manner of sound on several<br />
instruments, standard and non-, including a<br />
lovely belch. Nikolaus Heyduck’s ‘Alphorn<br />
Solo’ begins with airy sounds, adds ones that<br />
might be the plucking of a comb’s teeth, and<br />
then has Burba making sounds on alphorn.<br />
Each of these is electronically looped, and<br />
some are quite triadic and lovely.<br />
And so it goes through the remaining<br />
works.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
Horn Constellation<br />
Bujanovsky, Scriabin, Strauss, Barboteu,<br />
Fuchs, Arban, Shaw, Marais<br />
Jacek Muzyk; Grace Chu, Caterina Domenici,<br />
Casey Robards, p; Angela Baranello, fl;<br />
JoAnn Falletta, g; Sebnem Mekinulov, s;<br />
Suzanne Thomas, hp; Michal Muzyk, hn<br />
Summit 563—47 minutes<br />
You don’t have to be a horn player to fall in<br />
love with this recital by Polish-born Jacek<br />
Muzyk, who is the principal horn of the Buffalo<br />
Philharmonic and recently also assumed the<br />
associate principal post with the Houston<br />
Symphony.<br />
The recital includes two works by Vitaly<br />
Bujanovsky (1928-93), former principal horn of<br />
the Leningrad Philharmonic and a leading<br />
light in the Russian school of wind playing. His<br />
philosophy was that technique is essential, but<br />
only as tool to prove that the horn can be as<br />
expressive as any other solo instrument. From<br />
Muzyk’s performances here, it is obvious that<br />
he buys into Bujanovsky’s credo. His technique<br />
is so secure that he makes everything<br />
sound easy. Even on repeat hearings I was<br />
more impressed by the sinuous fluidity of his<br />
lines and his immaculate sense of phrasing.<br />
This is apparent in the opening work,<br />
Bujanovsky’s 1977 ‘Espana’ for solo horn. It<br />
requires stunning virtuosity. But as the piece<br />
progresses from its blazingly fanfarish flourishes<br />
and whispered responses, one quickly<br />
senses that it is not just a showpiece, but is<br />
highly expressive musically as well. And Muzyk<br />
delivers it to you with a pristine but command-<br />
ing natural lyricism. It is, quite simply, riveting<br />
listening.<br />
Later, Bujanovsky’s four-movement sonata<br />
for solo horn is a further exposition of the horn<br />
as a purveyor of nuanced and deftly phrased<br />
lyricism. Although there are many difficulties,<br />
they don’t stand out vividly but appear as<br />
inside stuff, such as tortuous figures played at<br />
pianissimo level, triple-tongued phrases,<br />
buzzed textures, and even a passage where the<br />
player sounds one tone and simultaneously<br />
hums another. The lingering memory of<br />
Muzyk’s performance, however, is primarily of<br />
extremely expressive music played as naturally<br />
as you and I breathe, and only secondarily as a<br />
potential nightmare for the horn player.<br />
Elsewhere the recital offers a number of<br />
delightful rarities such as Scriabin’s 1890<br />
‘Romance’ for horn and piano and Richard<br />
Strauss’s almost unknown 1878 ‘Alphorn’ for<br />
soprano, horn and piano, with a poem by<br />
Justinus Kerner about magic and mystery of<br />
that Alpine instrument’s resounding, echoing<br />
ambience. The performance is slightly diminished<br />
by soprano Mekinulov’s wide, excessive<br />
vibrato.<br />
In other unusual ensemble works, the<br />
horn-flute-harp sonorities in Georges Barboteu’s<br />
1940 ‘Esquisse’ cast impressionist images<br />
reminiscent of the more intimate works of<br />
Pierne or Fauré, while the just as private but<br />
more contemporary ‘Evensong’ by <strong>American</strong><br />
composer Kenneth Fuchs pair the horn’s probing<br />
meditations with wandering guitar underpinnings<br />
played by noted <strong>conductor</strong> JoAnn<br />
Falletta.<br />
The only work smacking of warhorse literature<br />
is Jean-Baptiste Arban’s variations on<br />
‘Carnival of Venice’, transcribed from the original<br />
setting for cornet. But even here Muzyk<br />
manages to leave behind more memories of<br />
the horn’s capacity for pliant phrase shaping<br />
and clean articulation than for showy display.<br />
Two true miniatures close the recital. Lowell<br />
Shaw’s ‘Bippery No. 1’ has Muzyk in a 40second<br />
horn duet with his 11-year old son<br />
Michal, and Marin Marais’s well known ‘Le<br />
Basque’, a favorite encore piece of Dennis<br />
Brain, winds things up with lyrical elegance<br />
and a wonderful closing upsweep as an exclamation<br />
point.<br />
One might quibble over the 47-minute<br />
playing time, but it left me with the feeling that<br />
Muzyk had said just enough.<br />
TROTTER<br />
Athletics are a symbol of a society whose values<br />
are bankrupt—not only a reinforcement<br />
of an unsound value system, but also one of<br />
the main ways young people are socialized<br />
into that system, coerced into conformity.<br />
—from <strong>American</strong> Values<br />
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Act I<br />
CASTEREDE: Sonatine; PUCCINI: Arias;<br />
DONIZETTI: Una Furtiva Lagrima; UBER:<br />
Romance; MOLINEUX: Manipulations;<br />
TOMASI: Trombone Concerto; PRYOR: Starlight;<br />
Blue Bells of Scotland<br />
Weston Sprott, trb; Hanako Yamagata, p<br />
WS 1—72 minutes (503-595-3000)<br />
Weston Sprott is a member of the Metropolitan<br />
Opera Orchestra. What a life that trombone<br />
section must lead, waiting through interminable<br />
rests until called on to play at the big<br />
moments. But they get to listen to great singers<br />
during those rests, and that would be quite an<br />
education. You can hear that influence in<br />
Sprott’s readings of five arias by Puccini and<br />
Donizetti. While I’m never completely happy<br />
with instrumental renditions of vocal works—<br />
repeated notes can be very boring without text,<br />
to name just one reason—it is clear that Sprott<br />
knows these inside and out. He feels the emotion<br />
of every note and phrase, which is exactly<br />
what they need. David Uber’s ‘Romance’ fits<br />
well with these beautiful vocal works.<br />
The program opens with Jacques Casterede’s<br />
Sonatine, a wonderful but vexing work,<br />
and one without a recording that seems just<br />
right. This might come closest. Everyone does<br />
fine with the lovely II, but the lively outer<br />
movements demand lightness and the right<br />
tempos for the sake of clarity in the fiendish<br />
piano accompaniments. In I, Sprott captures<br />
the breezy, French folk-song quality perfectly.<br />
The tempo is just fast enough to be lively while<br />
allowing the excellent pianist Hanako Yamagata<br />
to handle the metric and contrapuntal complexity.<br />
In II, Sprott takes his time and plays<br />
very tenderly; but in III, although clarity is<br />
once again superb, the tempo seems just a bit<br />
slow. Also from the core repertory, and also<br />
played superbly, is Henri Tomasi’s Trombone<br />
Concerto.<br />
I had to go to the web to learn that Allen<br />
Molineux was born in 1950 and teaches at<br />
Claflin University in Orangeburg SC. His fiveminute<br />
‘Manipulations’ for solo trombone<br />
reminds me of Leslie Bassett’s Suite for Unaccompanied<br />
Trombone. Molineux has the<br />
soloist shift abruptly from contemplation and<br />
scampering and back, but he asks for no<br />
extended playing techniques.<br />
Sprott and Yamagata end the program with<br />
two turn-of-the-20th-Century works by<br />
Sousa’s trombone virtuoso Arthur Pryor.<br />
‘Starlight’ is a lively, often sentimental waltz;<br />
and ‘Blue Bells of Scotland’ is a renowned<br />
showoff piece. Sprott gives it plenty of stylistic<br />
variety, adds his own touches to the cadenzas,<br />
handles the considerable technical demands<br />
with ease, and maintains excellent intonation<br />
and beautiful tone at all times. It is an exemplary<br />
ending to an outstanding recording.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
After a Dream<br />
Carsten Svanberg, trb; Birgit Marcussen, org<br />
Danacord 710—54 minutes<br />
A lovely-melodies recording with the beautiful<br />
tone qualities of trombonist Carsten Svanberg<br />
and Birgit Marcussen on the 1993 Gunnar<br />
Husted organ in Denmark’s Egebjerg Church.<br />
Some of the melodies are quite familiar: Purcell’s<br />
‘Trumpet Tune’, Parry’s ‘Jerusalem’,<br />
Grieg’s ‘Song of Solveig’, Schumann’s<br />
‘Traumerei’, Brahms’s ‘Lullaby’, Rossini’s<br />
‘Cujus Animam’, and ‘Ravel’s ‘Apres un Reve’.<br />
Others are probably known by Scandinavians.<br />
Several works for organ solo are also heard,<br />
including one of my all-time favorites, Oskar<br />
Lindberg’s beautiful and melancholy ‘Gammal<br />
Faboldpsalm’.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
Best of Guy Touvron<br />
Trumpet concertos by HAYDN, L MOZART,<br />
HUMMEL; BELLINI: Oboe Concerto; AR-<br />
BAN: Carnival of Venice; Cavatine et Variation;<br />
Traviata Fantasia; BACH: Suite 3;<br />
SCHUBERT: Ave Maria; SCHUMANN:<br />
Reverie; MOZART: Queen of the Night Aria;<br />
MASSENET: Meditation; RACHMANINOFF:<br />
Vocalise; GAUBERT: Cantabile et Scherzetto;<br />
RAVEL: Pavane<br />
Nelly Cottin, p; Olivier Vernet, org; I Soloist<br />
Veneti/ Claudio Scimone; Prague Chamber<br />
Orchestra—Ligia 105220 [2CD] 139 minutes<br />
French trumpeter Guy Touvron turned 60 last<br />
year, so Ligia has released this collection compiled<br />
from seven 1990s albums. The selections<br />
I enjoy most are three sets of variations by<br />
19th-Century cornet virtuoso Jean-Baptiste<br />
Arban. Two are on themes from the Verdi<br />
operas Nabucco and La Traviata (Jan/Feb<br />
1997: 59), but best of all is the famous ‘Carnival<br />
of Venice’—not the standard one with boring<br />
piano accompaniment, but Gilles Herbillon’s<br />
imaginative, quirky one with orchestra. Then<br />
there are the trumpet concertos. I was moderately<br />
enthusiastic when I heard Touvron play<br />
the Haydn and Hummel almost two decades<br />
ago (May/June 1992: 169), but now they strike<br />
me as uninteresting—nothing more than tone,<br />
elegance, and technical skill. It’s pretty, but the<br />
phrases lack shape and emotion.<br />
Arrangements of Bellini’s Oboe Concerto<br />
and familiar works by Schumann, Mozart,<br />
Schubert, Massenet, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel<br />
are lovely vehicles for Touvron’s beautiful<br />
tone, expressiveness, and singing style.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
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French Horn Colours<br />
STRAUSS: Andante; SCHUMANN: 3 Romances;<br />
Adagio & Allegro; ROSSINI: Prelude,<br />
Theme & Variations; FRANCAIX:<br />
Divertimento; POULENC: Elegie; KIRCHN-<br />
ER: 3 Poems<br />
Szabolcs Zempleni; Peter Nagy, p<br />
Oehms 789—65 minutes<br />
Hungarian horn player Szabolcs Zempleni (b<br />
1981) won a number of international competitions<br />
about ten years ago, and this outstanding<br />
recording shows why. He has a full, potent<br />
tone quality and the personality needed for the<br />
full range of expression. In Strauss’s little<br />
Andante, Schumann’s Adagio & Allegro, and<br />
Poulenc’s Elegie, we hear everything from<br />
warm and melting to searing and heroic.<br />
Rossini’s Prelude, Theme & Variations is tuneful<br />
and lively, Jean Francaix’s Divertimento<br />
playful.<br />
The most unusual works are Schumann’s<br />
Romances, originally for oboe (or violin) but<br />
sounding excellent on horn; and Volker David<br />
Kirchner’s Tre Poemi (1986-9), heard only once<br />
before in an excellent reading by Spanish horn<br />
player Javier Bonet (March/April 2002: 203).<br />
Among the dramatic work’s many arresting<br />
sound effects are ones involving piano strings:<br />
sympathetic vibration (horn pitches directed<br />
toward resonating strings); rumbling bass glissandos<br />
(fingers on the strings); and slow, eerie<br />
bass sounds as hammers slowly contact the<br />
vibrating strings. These are only a few of the<br />
fascinating elements in a mesmerizing piece.<br />
Truly outstanding recording. Excellent<br />
piano work by Peter Nagy.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
Viola Reflections<br />
SCHUMANN: Marchenbilder; HINDEMITH:<br />
Sonata, op 11:4; BRITTEN: Lachrymae;<br />
WAELBROECK: Sonata 2<br />
Dominica Eyckmans, va; Frederik Croene, p<br />
Pavane 7531—66 minutes<br />
Dominica Eyckmans just isn’t good enough to<br />
be a soloist. She seems to be just making it<br />
through these readings, and she doesn’t have<br />
the technique to project much of a personality.<br />
The Schumann, Hindemith, and Britten are<br />
famous works in the viola repertoire and there<br />
are several recordings of each that are much<br />
finer than Eyckmans’s.<br />
The one thing that makes this release<br />
worth acquiring is the sonata by the Flemish<br />
composer Jean-Pierre Waelbroeck. The work<br />
recalls neoclassical modernist music from the<br />
mid-20th Century. It is in four movements of<br />
traditional form: a fast sonata form movement,<br />
a scherzo, a slow movement, and a moderate<br />
finale. While I wouldn’t count it a masterpiece,<br />
it is engaging and I think could make a fine<br />
effect in the hands of a more accomplished<br />
player.<br />
MAGIL<br />
Songs for a Lonely Heart<br />
Emanuel Borok, v, Cullan Bryant, p<br />
Eroica 3448—61 minutes<br />
This recording includes the usual array of lovethemed,<br />
expressive violin encores by Kreisler,<br />
Massenet, Rachmaninoff, Elgar, Sarasate,<br />
Brahms, Paganini, and Tchaikovsky that young<br />
violinists study, perform, and record; but there<br />
is a great deal of difference between the way<br />
young musicians play this music and the way a<br />
truly seasoned musician like Emanuel Borok<br />
plays it. His experience is reflected in every<br />
note and every phrase, and his musical sincerity<br />
makes even the most over-played and overrecorded<br />
pieces sound fresh and compelling.<br />
Borok has the rare ability to play with his heart<br />
on his sleeve without ever sounding inappropriately<br />
sentimental. This might be due, in<br />
part, to his impressive sense of the long<br />
phrase—something that makes me want to listen<br />
to Elgar’s ‘Salut d’Amour’ over and over<br />
again.<br />
Emanuel Borok recently retired from his<br />
position as the concertmaster of the Dallas<br />
Symphony (1985-2010), and before that he<br />
spent 11 years as the assistant concertmaster<br />
of the Boston Symphony. Borok and his superb<br />
accompanist, Cullan Bryant, also include<br />
music by a handful of less-likely suspects on<br />
this recording, including Robert Schumann’s<br />
‘Romance’ from the F.A.E. Sonata, Josef Suk’s<br />
‘Love Song’, Carlos Gardel’s ‘Por Una Cabeza’,<br />
and the vocalise from the end of Richard<br />
Strauss’s Daphne that the title character sings<br />
after she is transformed into a tree. What a fitting<br />
way to end a superb recording of violin<br />
music.<br />
FINE<br />
Mosaic<br />
Lavry, Bloch, Perlman, Chajes, Goldfaden,<br />
Bonime, Saminsky, Dobrowen, Ravel, Warshawsky<br />
Orsolya Korcsolan, v; Judit Kertesz, p<br />
Solo Musica 150—58 minutes<br />
This is music of Jewish character by mostly<br />
Jewish composers. Most of the works collected<br />
here are quite short, and the longest is Ernest<br />
Bloch’s Baal Shem Suite from 1923. The Three<br />
Jewish Dances of 1951 by Marc Lavry (1903-67)<br />
are very energetic, appealing pieces. Another<br />
work of Bloch’s here is the Abodah, a Yom Kippur<br />
melody he wrote for Yehudi Menuhin in<br />
1929. ‘Dance of the Rebbitzen’ by George Perlman<br />
(1897-2000) is a movement from his Suite<br />
Hebraique. The Chassid of 1939 by Jacques<br />
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Chajes (1910-85) is a soulful prayer. ‘Raisins<br />
and Almonds’, a lullaby, is the best-known<br />
song by Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908), the<br />
father of Yiddish drama, and is taken from<br />
Shulamith, his most famous work for the<br />
stage.<br />
Danse Hebraique by Josef Bonime (1891-<br />
1959), the pioneering music supervisor of CBS<br />
radio, is one of his few works that draw on his<br />
Jewish heritage. The Hebrew Rhapsody by the<br />
Ukrainian Lazare Saminsky (1882-1959) was<br />
written for the <strong>American</strong> violinist Helen<br />
Teschner Tas shortly after he arrived in the<br />
USA. ‘Melodie Hebraique’ was written by Issay<br />
Alexandrovitch Dobrowen (1891-1953), who<br />
made a career as a <strong>conductor</strong> first in the Soviet<br />
Union, then in Germany, and finally in Scandinavia.<br />
‘At the Fireplace’ by Mark Warshawsky<br />
(1840-1907) is believed by many Jews to be an<br />
actual folk song. The only work here by a non-<br />
Jewish composer is the arrangement of the<br />
Kaddish by Maurice Ravel. Ravel and Bloch are<br />
by far the two most accomplished composers<br />
represented here.<br />
Mostly, this is a collection of rather homely<br />
pieces, all quite good, some very folk-like.<br />
Orsolya Korcsolan is an excellent violinist who<br />
is based in Vienna and studied under Dorothy<br />
Delay and Itzhak Perlman, and these performances<br />
are very polished. She plays a violin<br />
made in 2004 by the Viennese maker Johannes<br />
Rombach.<br />
MAGIL<br />
is rare that a violinist would make a transcription<br />
from the violists’ far-smaller literature). II<br />
is also filled with the spirit of Robert Schumann,<br />
and, with the incorporation of the<br />
lower-register viola pitches into the piano part,<br />
requires very little in the way of octave<br />
changes. III sounds much more humoresquelike<br />
on the violin than it does on the viola,<br />
because of the violin’s comparatively quick<br />
response.<br />
FINE<br />
4 Strings Only<br />
BLOCH: Solo Violin Suites; BACH: Sonata 2;<br />
BEN-HAIM: Sonata in G; BERIO: Sequenza 8<br />
Herwig Zack, v<br />
Avie 2189—77 minutes<br />
This is a program that fits together remarkably<br />
well. Between all of the modern works’ relationships<br />
to Big Daddy Bach and the Jewish<br />
origin of both Bloch and Ben-Haim there is a<br />
lot to listen for. Another plus for this listener is<br />
that both of the Bloch suites are included.<br />
The suites by Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) are<br />
some of his last works, written in 1958. They<br />
are quite Bachian in sound as his late pieces<br />
tend to be, less outwardly Jewish than his earlier<br />
compositions. They surround the Bach<br />
sonata happily and are none the worse for the<br />
association. Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984) is<br />
more overtly ethnic in style, full of energy and<br />
imaginative ideas with a touch of klezmer<br />
about some of them. Luciano Berio’s Sequenza<br />
is modeled on the great Bach Chaconne in<br />
Brahms & Friends 6<br />
many ways and is by no means the dissonant<br />
BRAHMS: Sonata 2; REINECKE: 3 Fantasy piece that one might expect it to be. It is a work<br />
Pieces; JENNER: Sonata 2<br />
of depth, and it dies out under the influence of<br />
with Rainer Schmidt, v: Saiko Sasaki-Schmidt, p a practice mute that is called for in the music.<br />
Divox 29604—54 minutes<br />
Of course, all of this is secondary to the<br />
quality of Zack’s playing. That is another plus:<br />
Rainer Schmidt and Saiko Sasaki-Schmidt<br />
he is a remarkably smooth technician and full<br />
made this excellent recording in 1996. It’s the<br />
of feeling and evident love for the music he<br />
sixth volume of a series called “Brahms and<br />
plays. The recording itself has a remarkably<br />
Friends”. I love their reading of the Brahms A-<br />
clean and natural sound, making it a pleasure<br />
major Sonata, and its proximity to the sonata<br />
to hear and to recommend to you.<br />
by Brahms’s faithful student Gustav Uwe Jen-<br />
D MOORE<br />
ner (1865-1920) shows the influence it had on<br />
his Second Sonata. These performers take the<br />
Manto & Madrigals<br />
Jenner for the fine student imitation of Brahms<br />
that it is. Perhaps these musicians, who play<br />
Thomas Zehetmair, v; Ruth Killius, va<br />
the piece with a great deal of attention to<br />
ECM 15573—49 minutes<br />
detail, feel protective of Jenner, in much the You are what you eat, musically speaking, and<br />
way Brahms might have.<br />
Zehetmar and Killius are very much at home<br />
Carl Reinecke was a decade older than with the technical demands of later 20th Cen-<br />
Brahms, and he wrote his Fantasy Pieces quite tury music (microtones, complex rhythms,<br />
early in his career. He also wrote them for the odd timbres, and extended techniques). It<br />
viola. The piano part remains in the original seems that the more conventional music on<br />
octave in this transcription, and everything this recording, like the Martinu Madrigals,<br />
remains in the original keys. I is a particularly lacks the kind of warmth that I normally asso-<br />
beautiful take on the ‘Hymn of Thanksgiving’ ciate with it, but their reading of the Madrigals<br />
that Robert Schumann used in his Second Vio- is precise, and it fits together vertically like the<br />
lin Sonata, and it sounds lovely on the violin (it gears in a Swiss watch.<br />
<strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> 209
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I am not able to judge the accuracy of the<br />
microtones in some of this music (anything<br />
smaller than a half step is a quarter tone to<br />
me), but from the accuracy of the conventionally-pitched<br />
music I can assume that the<br />
microtones are played as they should be.<br />
I really like Rainer Killius’s setting of an<br />
ancient Icelandic folk song, ‘O min flaskan<br />
frido’ (love song to a bottle), but it’s difficult<br />
for me to grasp Giacinto Scelsi’s ‘Manto’, a<br />
piece for solo viola where the violist (who<br />
needs to be a woman or a man with a high<br />
voice) sings. In addition to microtonal intervals,<br />
Scelsi calls for an unconventional tuning,<br />
which is further disorienting. I imagine that<br />
the point of the piece is to be disorienting.<br />
Heinz Holliger wrote his Drei Skizzen in<br />
2006 for use as an encore following a performance<br />
of the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante.<br />
Killus and Zehetmair wanted an encore that<br />
would not require retuning the viola after the<br />
Mozart (a piece in the key of E-flat that violists<br />
find preferable to play with the viola tuned half<br />
a step higher, so that it feels like playing in D<br />
major). The resulting sound quality of two<br />
instruments resonating in two different sound<br />
spectrums is truly unusual.<br />
There’s some Bartok here, but it doesn’t<br />
sound at all like normal Bartok. It’s a piece he<br />
wrote in 1902 as an imitation of Mozart’s<br />
‘Table Music for Two’ (the music is placed on a<br />
table, and the violinists read the music from<br />
either side—one plays it upside-down and<br />
backwards, while the other plays it rightsideup<br />
and forwards). Peter Maxwell Davies’s<br />
‘Midhouse Air’ (1996) sounds more like Bartok<br />
than the Bartok, though the folk inspiration is,<br />
as to be expected, from Orkney.<br />
Nikos Skalkottas’s 1938 Duo is a real virtuoso<br />
work for both instruments, and grows in<br />
excitement as the piece progresses; and<br />
Johannes Nied’s ‘Zugabe’ is kind of serial<br />
hocket that uses only a few pitches and divides<br />
them between the two instruments, requiring<br />
precise divisions of beats. It resembles the<br />
sound of a pitched game of ping pong, but<br />
without the predictability.<br />
FINE<br />
Yes, very. These Finnish players have been<br />
together for more than a decade, and in this<br />
album they offer serious music by three composers.<br />
Arctic Hysteria (Woodwind Quintet 2,<br />
2006) by Atso Almila (b 1953) deals with the<br />
disadvantages of living where darkness and<br />
winter last so long. In six movements, the 20minute<br />
work is by turns somber and lively; the<br />
harmonic language, while dissonant, is by no<br />
means atonal. The formidable technical challenges<br />
are handled with seeming ease by all,<br />
and there are some astonishing sounds—especially<br />
when both horn and bassoon are playing<br />
very low notes.<br />
Pehr Nordgren (1944-2008) contributes<br />
two works. In The Good Samaritan (2007) he<br />
tries to depict the story’s events in the music:<br />
opening quietly, becoming first violent (when<br />
the traveler is beaten) and then somber (when<br />
passersby avoid him), then turning optimistic<br />
(when the Samaritan does his good deed). The<br />
work is marked by poignant sonorities, and the<br />
playing is sensitive and secure. Nordgren<br />
wrote his three-movement, 16-minute Quintet<br />
2 in 1975 after living in Japan for three years.<br />
Opening with an interesting horn sound effect,<br />
I then becomes insistent. II is quite dissonant<br />
and includes shakuhachi-like pitch-bending<br />
by all of the instruments. III begins with alto<br />
flute (again evoking traditional Japanese<br />
music), then gives solos to each instrument.<br />
The work ends pensively.<br />
Joonas Kokkonen’s four-movement Quintet<br />
(1973) packs much meaning and challenge<br />
into its mere 11 minutes. I is a pensive, anxiety-ridden<br />
Andante; II a spritely Allegro Vivace<br />
where fleet lines are passed around the group.<br />
III is breezy with moments of repose, and IV<br />
scampers brightly.<br />
Excellent ensemble, program, and recorded<br />
sound.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
Petite Patisserie<br />
Trio d’Anches Cologne—Telos 162—63 minutes<br />
Arctic Hysteria<br />
Almila, Nordgren, Kokkonen<br />
Arktinen Hysteria Wind Quintet<br />
Alba 307—57 minutes<br />
This program of French Wind Trios shows how<br />
expansive repertoire for the woodwind trio has<br />
become. Though its title is silly and the program<br />
notes mere afterthoughts, the assembly<br />
of music from early classical to contemporary<br />
is satisfying. They weave Bozza with Bach,<br />
Piazzolla with Haydn and Leopold Mozart, and<br />
“Despite its name, the Quintet’s attitude to a couple short ragtime works by Ingo Luis with<br />
music-making...is anything but hysterical.” So Errol Garner’s ‘Misty’.<br />
say the notes, and it’s good to know, but then In the first half of the program, while most<br />
the Arktinen Hysteria Wind Quintet says about of the pieces reveal a strong and disciplined<br />
itself that it “sings, growls, echoes, screams, blend, there was a weakness that caught my<br />
muses, crows, and warbles like virtuosos...with ear too often. The Haydn London Trio reveals<br />
oodles of vim and vigour and jolly harmony”. their delightful tone and their sense of propor-<br />
They seem to be a fun-loving group of young tion, but it was a bit disappointing that Bozza’s<br />
woodwind players. Are they any good?<br />
little trio didn’t have the same sense of propor-<br />
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tion. Instead, it lacked dynamic contrast. And<br />
while their performance of the Bach inventions<br />
was technically impeccable, it also lacked<br />
contrast. A common trap when playing Bach’s<br />
music is relying too heavily on its gracious harmonic<br />
structure to communicate shape to the<br />
listener rather than crafting it.<br />
The second half falls into a different category.<br />
Though they sound sometimes like fish<br />
out of water bending pitches and relaxing<br />
rhythms, they do eventually warm up to the<br />
idea of having a good time. In Piazzolla’s Four<br />
Seasons, for example, they finally achieve that<br />
dynamic contrast missing from the first half;<br />
and the clarinetist actually lets a bit of vibrato<br />
creep in during the unaccompanied ‘Misty’.<br />
Overall, it’s clear that they’re top quality<br />
musicians who enjoy what they’re doing, and<br />
so it doesn’t really matter that there may be<br />
performers who can bend pitches with greater<br />
ease or let their hair down more.<br />
SCHWARTZ<br />
Woodwind Quintets<br />
Pirmin Grehl, fl; Florian Grube, ob; Johannes Zurl,<br />
cl; Dmitry Babanov, hn; Bence Boganyi, bn<br />
Profil 8063—63 minutes<br />
Each musician of the Quintet Chantily holds a<br />
position in an orchestra in Munich or Berlin. A<br />
few years ago the ensemble released a recording<br />
on the same label with a Beethoven quintet<br />
and a few works by Mozart (9002). While that<br />
recording did not promote works outside the<br />
standard repertoire, this release has three of<br />
the finest examples from the woodwind quintet’s<br />
19th and 20th Century literature: Paul<br />
Taffanel’s quintet, Samuel Barber’s Summer<br />
Music, and Carl Nielsen’s quintet. Many quintets<br />
have recorded Summer Music, and even<br />
more have recorded Carl Nielsen’s beloved<br />
quintet. But fewer ensembles have recorded<br />
the Taffanel.<br />
Their performance of the Taffanel is well<br />
proportioned. The first movement ebbs and<br />
flows gently, executed with a good sense of<br />
balance between effect, articulation, dynamics,<br />
and color. The horn solo that makes up the<br />
substance of II is very well done and with a<br />
sturdy tone. While I first thought the tempo of<br />
I was too slow, the brisk vivace of III gives the<br />
whole piece better balance that way. In this<br />
issue (under DANZI) we review a Crystal<br />
<strong>Record</strong>s re-release of the Soni Ventorum quintet’s<br />
1978 performance. Since then, not many<br />
other recordings have emerged.<br />
Samuel Barber’s Summer Music has only<br />
been in the quintet repertoire for a little over<br />
50 years, yet it has endeared itself to performers<br />
and audiences. The ensemble very effectively<br />
manages the transition points between<br />
its 11 sections. Their grasp of the music is very<br />
intuitive, and their style and phrasing is natural.<br />
Best on their program is the Nielsen, with<br />
its great solos and ingenious textures and combinations.<br />
This performance gets a lot of things<br />
right. They give it a genuine grandeur without<br />
pomposity and an innocence that is honest<br />
and respectable.<br />
SCHWARTZ<br />
Fanfare, Capriccio & Rhapsody<br />
NELSON: Kennedy Center Fanfare; Medieval<br />
Suite; TULL: Tudor Psalm Sketches; Rhapsody;<br />
BARKER: Capriccio; BOYSEN: Wind &<br />
Percussion Symphony 1<br />
Vince DiMartino, tpt; Chicago Saxophone Quartet;<br />
Indiana State University Faculty Winds &<br />
Wind Orchestra; Kent State University Wind<br />
Ensemble/ John Boyd—Naxos 572528—72 mins<br />
A compilation of old recordings by three concert<br />
bands, John Boyd conducting. The Indiana<br />
State Faculty Winds gave a good account<br />
in 1999 of Ron Nelson’s ‘Kennedy Center Fanfare’.<br />
The Kent State Wind Ensemble is heard<br />
in 1984 readings of Fisher Tull’s ‘Sketches on a<br />
Tudor Psalm’, ‘Rhapsody for Trumpet’, and in<br />
Nelson’s Medieval Suite. These recordings<br />
have been re-released before—I could not help<br />
but comment on the terrible recorded sound<br />
then (Jan/Feb 2000: 221). Trumpeter Vince<br />
DiMartino delivers an impassioned reading of<br />
‘Rhapsody’, but tinny recorded sound again<br />
undermines the effort.<br />
Two works by Warren Barker sound better,<br />
though still not great. The Capriccio for saxophone<br />
quartet and band is heard in a fine 1994<br />
reading by the Chicago Saxophone Quartet<br />
with the Indiana State University Wind<br />
Orchestra, and that band sounds very good in<br />
the Symphony 1 for Winds and Percussion.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
Marquee Mojo<br />
NELSON: Hour of Sunrise Fanfare; BERN-<br />
STEIN: On the Waterfront Suite; LABOUN-<br />
TY: How Deep the Father’s Love for Us;<br />
GOLDSMITH: The Wind and the Lion; SUL-<br />
LIVAN: Mikado Suite; MOZART: Magic Flute<br />
Overture; BROUGHTON: Silverado Overture;<br />
KING: Barnum & Bailey’s Favorite<br />
March UNLV Wind Orchestra/ Thomas Leslie<br />
Klavier 11185—60 minutes<br />
Thomas Leslie makes consistently good<br />
recordings with his University of Nevada at Las<br />
Vegas Wind Orchestra—this is at least the seventh<br />
such to pass my way, and his band<br />
sounds terrific. The program is something of a<br />
hodgepodge, but film music seems to be the<br />
main theme.<br />
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The Suite from Bernstein’s On the Waterfront<br />
(arranged by Guy Duker) is the big piece,<br />
and Frederic Stone’s excellent horn solo sets<br />
the tone for a reading marked by dramatic<br />
moments, secure solos, fine intonation, and<br />
ensemble precision. Jerry Goldsmith’s music<br />
from the historical drama Wind and the Lion<br />
(arranged by Michael Davis, 1975) has power<br />
and sweep, intimate moments, and virtuoso<br />
lines that are handled very impressively by<br />
clarinets, trumpets, and saxophones.<br />
The very familiar music from Arthur Sullivan’s<br />
Mikado—four movements arranged for<br />
the UNLV band by David Irish—is given a<br />
wonderful, technically precise reading. Bruce<br />
Broughton’s Overture from Silverado,<br />
arranged by J Morsch, sounds suitably spectacular.<br />
And while it is not from a film, the<br />
Overture to Mozart’s Magic Flute (arranged for<br />
band by Teresa Stewart) sounds great, with<br />
beautifully blended chords and lively playing.<br />
In a different vein is Anthony LaBounty’s<br />
setting of the hymn ‘How Deep the Father’s<br />
Love for Us’. LaBounty, UNLV’s assistant<br />
director of bands, composed the work in memory<br />
of his colleague Leslie’s father. The program<br />
opens with a Ron Nelson barnburner,<br />
‘Fanfare for the Hour of Sunrise’, and ends<br />
with Karl King’s wild ‘Barnum & Bailey’s<br />
Favorite March’.<br />
Recent recordings make the case that the<br />
quality of many <strong>American</strong> university wind<br />
ensembles is improving by leaps and bounds. I<br />
am hearing, in recordings like this one, sounds<br />
and skills that were once the sole province of<br />
the best conservatories.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
Psallat Ecclesia—Medieval Norway<br />
Schola Solensis/ Halvor J Osttveit<br />
2L 70 [SACD] 47 minutes<br />
Liturgical sequences were sung between the<br />
Alleluia and the Gospel in the Catholic mass.<br />
They probably originated in the practice of fitting<br />
words to the lengthy melismas of the<br />
Alleluia chants, but eventually they took on a<br />
life of their own. In the Middle Ages the repertory<br />
of sequences reached the thousands. The<br />
Council of Trent purged all but four of them<br />
from the Roman liturgy.<br />
The present recording presents 11 of the<br />
111 sequences preserved in the archives of the<br />
Norwegian archbishopric of Nidaros. They<br />
include sequences for various feasts of the<br />
church year as well as for the feasts of saints<br />
who were patrons of important Norwegian<br />
cathedrals. In some instances related chants<br />
are given along with the sequences: for example,<br />
the Introit and Alleluia for the feast of St<br />
Agatha (February 5). Included in the program<br />
is one of the sequences retained by the Council<br />
of Trent: ‘Victimae Paschali Laudes’ for<br />
Easter Day.<br />
Schola Solensis, an ensemble of women’s<br />
voices, was founded in 1995 by Halvor J<br />
Osttveit in connection with the consecration of<br />
Sola Ruin Church, built on the site of a 12th-<br />
Century foundation. That church is their home<br />
base. The booklet lists nine singers besides a<br />
soloist. The singing is at once flowing and restful<br />
with a unanimity of movement and phrasing<br />
that can only come when an ensemble<br />
sings this repertory together for a considerable<br />
time and the singers learn to merge their individual<br />
voices self-effacingly into the unison<br />
choral tone. The recorded sound is warm but<br />
clear.<br />
GATENS<br />
Mors et Resurrectio<br />
Requiem Mass; Easter Sunday Mass<br />
Ronald Greene, cantor; Ensemble Torculus/ Haig<br />
Mardirosian—Centaur 3028—52 minutes<br />
The program includes complete recordings of<br />
both the Proper and Ordinary chants for the<br />
Requiem and Easter Masses, plus the<br />
‘Asperges’ chant ‘Vidi Aquam’ sung in Eastertide.<br />
The singers prefer the traditional method<br />
of singing chant over the more highly nuanced<br />
style now in vogue. That is, they like the unwavering<br />
tone and smooth cadence of melody<br />
one associates with “the sound of Gregorian<br />
(i.e. Roman) chant”, and not the sliding and<br />
ornamental practice that sounds like middleeastern<br />
chant. They show sensitivity to text<br />
phrasing, and use dynamics to illustrate the<br />
strong and weak cadences. They are also sensitive<br />
to the medieval practices of alternation in<br />
antiphonal and responsorial chants. We hear<br />
Ronald Greene’s clear tenor voice in the intonations<br />
and psalms of the responsorial chants;<br />
but the antiphonal chants are left to the entire<br />
chapter of singers. The recording comes without<br />
notes. Texts are in English.<br />
LOEWEN<br />
L’Orient des Troubadours<br />
Ensemble Beatus—Ad Vitam 110115—57:27<br />
Ensemble Beatus on this recording includes<br />
only two performers. Jean-Paul Rigaud, who<br />
sings and plays hurdy-gurdy, has been a member<br />
of a number of other medieval ensembles<br />
(such as Diabolus in Musica and Ensemble<br />
Organum) for more than 20 years. Jasser Haj<br />
Youssef, a much younger performer in styles as<br />
varied as traditional music from the Maghreb,<br />
medieval music, later classical music, and jazz,<br />
plays viola d’amore.<br />
This anthology of troubadour song ranges<br />
from a reconstruction by Rigaud of the melody<br />
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for ‘Farai un vers’ by Guillaume IX (1071-1126),<br />
who was at the very beginning of the traditions<br />
of secular song in Occitan, to Jaufre Rudel’s<br />
‘Lanquan li jorn’, Peire Vidal’s ‘Pois tornatz’,<br />
and Gaucelm Faidit’s ‘Lo gent cors onratz’,<br />
which have all been recorded before. I know of<br />
no earlier recordings of the songs by Rigaud de<br />
Barbezieux (‘Atressi cum Persavaus’) and Uc de<br />
Saint Circ (‘Tres enemics’). In between the<br />
songs, Youssef offers instrumental interludes,<br />
some based on traditional melodies from<br />
North Africa and some his own improvisations.<br />
The use of a viola d’amore is rather unusual<br />
since most medieval groups use modern<br />
reconstructions of medieval-style vielles; but<br />
the tonal color of this baroque musical instrument<br />
is not that different, especially when<br />
played in a more folk-like manner by Youssef.<br />
While most other recordings I know that combine<br />
a singer with a single instrument in this<br />
repertoire have rather restrained accompaniments<br />
(I am thinking of Brice Duisit, Mar/Apr<br />
2006, and the Duo Trobairitz, Nov/Dec<br />
2007:246), the support Youssef offers is rather<br />
more prominent. In a few places I found this<br />
distracting when it felt as if the song was<br />
accompanied by a medieval version of a Bach<br />
unaccompanied sonata or in songs where the<br />
hurdy-gurdy offers a simple drone and Youssef<br />
sounds like Ravi Shankar playing sitar. In other<br />
songs the accompaniments are subdued and<br />
subtle. While I find this variety of accompaniment<br />
styles distracting, it does make for a<br />
more interesting recording. The deciding factors<br />
are the sensitive performances by Rigaud<br />
and the repertoire.<br />
BREWER<br />
The Sacred Bridge<br />
Boston Camerata/ Joel Cohen<br />
Warner 69895—65:24<br />
This recording, first released in 1990 (Erato<br />
45513), remains a fascinating attempt to document<br />
in sound the complex and controversial<br />
theories of how Jewish music and musical traditions<br />
influenced the Christian traditions<br />
both in antiquity and the Middle Ages. The<br />
title of this collection is taken from Eric Werner’s<br />
1959 book that examined some of the documentation<br />
and conjectures. In the decades<br />
that followed its publication, scholarship continued<br />
to examine, expand, and refine some of<br />
his conclusions. Joel Cohen and The Boston<br />
Camerata had already released in 1979 a significant<br />
collection of Jewish baroque music by<br />
Salamone Rossi, Louis Saladin, and Carlo<br />
Grossi (Harmonia Mundi 1901021, which also<br />
deserves to be reissued) and this later recording<br />
opened a sonic window into the even more<br />
complex musical and cultural interrelationships<br />
in the Middle Ages.<br />
The repertoire is derived from many<br />
sources. Most prominent is music from oral<br />
traditions, including the cantillation of biblical<br />
texts and the folksong tradition of the<br />
Sephardic Jews who had been expelled from<br />
Spain in 1492. Those selections are often<br />
paired with similar music from the Christian<br />
traditions. Cohen has also recorded secular<br />
songs by Jewish musicians that were destined<br />
for the entertainments at court, including a<br />
song by the trouvere Matthieu le Juif and a<br />
German song by Suesskint von Trimberg<br />
(though in this case Cohen had to borrow a<br />
melody from another Minnesinger, Der wilde<br />
Alexander).<br />
The two high points of the recording are<br />
both sung by John Fleagle: Psalm 137 from the<br />
Sephardic tradition of Jerusalem and a reconstruction<br />
of a 12th Century eulogy to Moses by<br />
Obadiah the Proselyte, a Norman convert to<br />
Judaism.<br />
The performers often add instrumental<br />
drones and improvised interludes to the original<br />
melodies, but even after two decades they<br />
seem restrained and tasteful. The disc includes<br />
only minimal information. Texts, translations,<br />
and essential historical commentary scanned<br />
from the original booklet are available online.<br />
This is an essential recording both in terms of<br />
the significant repertoire and effective performances.<br />
BREWER<br />
Sancte Deus: Renaissance<br />
Sacred Polyphony<br />
New College Choir/ Edward Higginbottom<br />
Warner 67541—71 minutes<br />
This is a re-release of recordings of Renaissance<br />
polyphony made by the Choir of New<br />
College, Oxford in 2000. The program draws on<br />
nearly every region of Europe: Tallis and Byrd<br />
from England; Lassus from Germany; Ugolini<br />
and Palestrina from Italy; Victoria, Guerrero,<br />
Lobo, and Cardoso from Spain; Gombert from<br />
Austria; and Josquin from the Netherlands. It<br />
is an impressive cast of some of the greatest<br />
masters of the era. There are neither notes nor<br />
texts.<br />
LOEWEN<br />
A Meeting Place<br />
Munir Nurettin Beken, ud; August Denhard, lute<br />
Sono Luminus 92133—50 minutes<br />
Most people probably know that an ud (perhaps<br />
more often spelled oud) is a Middle Eastern<br />
stringed instrument; what they may not<br />
know is how much it sounds like a lute or that<br />
the two instruments most likely started out<br />
from a common ancestor and then developed<br />
differently in the East than in the West. In this<br />
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magnificent program, the musicians play each<br />
piece together, and it is difficult to distinguish<br />
one instrument from the other.<br />
The mix of songs is quite unusual, and I<br />
was unfamiliar with many of the pieces. The<br />
program starts out with ‘Greensleeves’, but<br />
then I recognized only one other tune. Much<br />
of the music is quite lively, and all is expertly<br />
played. Especially delightful are two pieces by<br />
composer Joanambrosio Dalza, an Italian<br />
lutenist and composer who is known to have<br />
been alive in 1508. The final piece does not<br />
belong to either time represented here but is<br />
rather a 20th Century work by Mutlu Torun<br />
that is based on a medieval Turkish instrumental<br />
form that is similar to a rondo.<br />
The sound is excellent, the playing superb.<br />
This program is a cut above an ordinary lute<br />
program in both quality and interest.<br />
CRAWFORD<br />
The Renaissance Album<br />
Lute Songs from the English Renaissance<br />
Robin Tritschler, t; Janne Malinen, g<br />
Pilfink 70—66 minutes<br />
This release from Finland presents some of the<br />
most familiar songs from renaissance composers,<br />
including Philip Rosseter, John Dowland,<br />
Robert Johnson, Robert Jones, and Francis<br />
Pilkington. About half of the songs are from<br />
Dowland. The notes present only information<br />
about the composers, in English and Finnish.<br />
Texts for the songs are in English only.<br />
Janne Malinen is a talented young Finnish<br />
guitarist who, having graduated from the<br />
Sibelius Academy with a master’s degree in<br />
music, now teaches there. Robin Tritschler,<br />
another young musician, graduated from the<br />
Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Royal<br />
Academy of Music in London. He has established<br />
an international singing career, performing<br />
in every venue from recitals to operas.<br />
The performances here are very warm and<br />
nuanced. This duo works together extremely<br />
well and has produced one of the finest programs<br />
of renaissance songs I’ve heard recently.<br />
Since some of the most familiar songs are<br />
included here, this would be a good introduction<br />
for a newcomer.<br />
CRAWFORD<br />
Venezia<br />
String Sonatas by Rosenmuller, Legrenzi,<br />
Stradella<br />
Rare Fruits Council/ Manfredo Kraemer<br />
Ambronay 28—82 minutes<br />
Originally from Germany, Bergamo, and Tuscany,<br />
Johann Rosenmuller (c 1619-84), Giovanni<br />
Legrenzi (1626-90), and Alessandro<br />
Stradella (1644-82) were all active in Venice<br />
around 1677. Their writing for strings drew on<br />
different traditions, advanced the evolution of<br />
string chamber music, and further cemented<br />
the violin’s ascendant position as a solo and<br />
ensemble instrument.<br />
This is excellent in all ways. The seven players<br />
in The Rare Fruits Council (founded in 1997<br />
by director and violinist Manfredo Kraemer)<br />
are very adept and imaginative. The ensemble<br />
is tight and agile, with rapid changes of direction<br />
spot on. In Legrenzi’s Sonata 3 for two violins<br />
and viola da brazzo the lines are nicely<br />
shaped, with a sweet languor in the slower passages.<br />
The contrapuntal character of Rosenmuller’s<br />
pieces allows the players to draw out<br />
the taste-filled sourness of chromatic lines (as<br />
in Sonata 11) and to balance dramatic contrasts<br />
and meter changes. The three sinfonias<br />
here by Stradella—a generation younger—give<br />
even more complex music to the solo players.<br />
In Sinfonia 11 the many soft and delicate violin<br />
passages are played with effortless grace, and<br />
the very active bass line is poised and precise.<br />
Even in extremely fast passages, the music<br />
is never graceless, never at all in the “speeding<br />
bullet” school of Ardella Crawford’s taxonomy<br />
of interpretive approaches to Vivaldi (J/A 2011,<br />
p 213), and the well-sequenced program is<br />
endlessly refreshing to hear. One of the many<br />
ways The Rare Fruits Council builds its color<br />
palette is to use organ both as part of the continuo<br />
and also as a “flute” in the melodic texture<br />
(as in Rosenmuller’s Sonata 2 for two violins<br />
and Legrenzi’s Sonata 6).<br />
John Barker (Biber sonatas, Astree 8630,<br />
S/O 1999) and Ardella Crawford (Naive 8840,<br />
J/F 2004, p 229) have high praise for this<br />
ensemble. All three composers have small<br />
discographies, especially for their instrumental<br />
works. After you have bought this, Peter<br />
Loewen’s top rating for Rosenmuller’s psalm<br />
concertos (Christophorus 77333, J/A 2011) will<br />
spur you beyond the instrumental music into<br />
the polychoral Venetian style.<br />
C MOORE<br />
Dancing in the Isles<br />
Musica Pacifica Baroque Ensemble<br />
Solimar 101—75 minutes<br />
(CD Baby: 800-BUYMYCD)<br />
This rather unusual collection of music is<br />
assembled to demonstrate the wide variety of<br />
musical styles in the British Isles in the 17th<br />
and 18th centuries and also to show the influence<br />
of folk tunes on classical music in that<br />
period. The program begins with a set of<br />
dances from John Playford’s English Dancing<br />
Master and then presents parts from an English<br />
court masque. Sonatas by James Oswald<br />
and Matthew Locke demonstrate the influence<br />
of English folk tunes. A short medley of traditional<br />
Scottish tunes follows, along with some<br />
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airs by Nicola Matteis. The program concludes<br />
with another medley, this time of Irish tunes,<br />
part of a sonata by Veracini that is a set of variations<br />
on a Border ballad called ‘Tweed Side’,<br />
and a short work by Henry Purcell.<br />
This is a lively program, played with plenty<br />
of joy and verve. It’s easy enough to find complete<br />
programs of either folk tunes or classical<br />
music from this time period, but not so easy to<br />
find a combination of the two, skillfully intertwined.<br />
The notes are quite thorough and the<br />
sound excellent.<br />
CRAWFORD<br />
Treasury of German Baroque<br />
Bach, Buxtehude, Fasch, Lubeck, Pachelbel,<br />
Quantz, Telemann<br />
Hanoverian Ensemble—MSR 1380—64 minutes<br />
Trio sonatas and a flute duet are interspersed<br />
with short organ pieces, all by major composers<br />
of the day. The trio sonatas use flute<br />
and recorder with cello and harpsichord; this<br />
is a period instrument performance. Tempos<br />
are sprightly and playing is spirited.<br />
The first organ selection is a brawny and<br />
impressive Buxtehude Prelude in C; I just had<br />
to hear it again before going on. This performance<br />
has lots of pomp, and I say this having<br />
recently attended a Cameron Carpenter concert.<br />
The last chord of the Buxtehude alone is<br />
worth mention: a particularly bold statement.<br />
The power of this organ music certainly contrasts<br />
with the flute and recorder selections.<br />
The sound is clear and direct, and everything<br />
in the manuals and pedals comes across,<br />
including the flourishes. The Pachelbel that<br />
concludes the program offers a tour of the<br />
organ’s stops.<br />
The Hanoverian Ensemble is a group of<br />
accomplished New York players that has six<br />
other recordings on MSR: two of Telemann<br />
(1309, Sept/Oct 2009; 1113, Jan/Feb 2006), one<br />
of Michel de La Barre (1191, not reviewed), and<br />
three collections (two reviewed: 1087,<br />
Sept/Oct 2003: 218; 1099, Sept/Oct 2005: 181).<br />
There are 3-1/2 pages of notes in English,<br />
plus biographies of the players and two photos<br />
of the baroque organ (by Fritts, at Vassar College).<br />
Flutists might enjoy this release more for<br />
the organ pieces and vice versa.<br />
GORMAN<br />
Kingdoms of Castille<br />
Spanish, Italian, Latin <strong>American</strong> Baroque<br />
Castellanos, Falconieri, Handel, Zipoli<br />
El Mundo/ Richard Savino<br />
Sono Luminus 92131—74 minutes<br />
Spain’s baroque Empire spread Spanish culture<br />
to many parts of the world, and this program<br />
brings together music from Italy and<br />
Latin <strong>American</strong>, two places where the artistic<br />
links are the strongest. There are 11 composers:<br />
two Spaniards active in the Hapsburg<br />
court (Marin and Hidalgo); five—Spanish and<br />
Italian—from Rome and Naples (Domenico<br />
Scarlatti, Falconieri, Mazzocchi, Manelli,<br />
Aranes); one each from Germany (Handel in<br />
Naples), Peru (Aparicio), and Guatemala<br />
(Castellanos); and Domenico Zipoli, an Italian<br />
by birth who joined the Jesuits in Spain (1716)<br />
then went with the Order to Paraguay, spending<br />
most of the rest of his life in Argentina.<br />
The El Mundo ensemble demonstrates an<br />
engaging assertiveness (for example, the full<br />
sound and nice swagger in Falconieri’s ‘Ciaconna’),<br />
and solo violin and baroque guitar<br />
shine in the intricate figuration of the anonymous<br />
instrumental ‘Folia’. Accompanying<br />
forces vary in color and size and support the<br />
singers very well, with guitar, tambourine, and<br />
castanets used effectively. There is some<br />
raggedness in ensemble and tuning in the<br />
excerpt from the opening of Zipoli’s opera San<br />
Ignacio, which may be caused by performing<br />
forces too small to fit the music.<br />
Soprano Nell Snaidas sings with vivid color<br />
and abandon in the Castellanos homage to<br />
Mary (‘Oygan Una Xacarilla’) and animates<br />
Hidalgo’s stophic song ‘Esperar Sentir Morir’<br />
with suave and passionate seduction. Soprano<br />
Jennifer Ellis-Kampani sings the Handel cantata<br />
expressively; it is one of the few pieces in<br />
Spanish by Handel, and the only one specifying<br />
guitar accompaniment. In the bass solos<br />
(such as Marin’s ‘Coracon Que En Prision’)<br />
Paul Shipper—who also plays guitar and percussion—sounds<br />
rather dry in the higher and<br />
lower registers; but his voice is better suited to<br />
the Aranes ‘Parten Las Galeras’, a solemn<br />
reflection on departure, pain, pleasure, and<br />
sadness.<br />
Compositions fit the theme well, and very<br />
fine booklet notes by director and guitarist<br />
Richard Savino explain the context and stylistic<br />
connections. The program has fine variety<br />
and contrasts, but not all performances are on<br />
a high level. Fewer performers and composers<br />
might be better: for example, more of Handel’s<br />
Spanish-language pieces, music for sopranos,<br />
and no Zipoli.<br />
John Barker liked two discs by El Mundo<br />
(of music by Duron, Dorian 92107, S/O 2010<br />
and by various composers, Koch 7654, M/A<br />
2006, p 227). There are now many recordings<br />
of Latin <strong>American</strong> baroque music. Mr Barker<br />
and Ardella Crawford have very high praise for<br />
the series by Ex Cathedra conducted by Jeffrey<br />
Skidmore on Hyperion (67600, J/A 2008, p 243<br />
& 67524, J/F 2006, p 264) and I am among several<br />
ARG reviewers who applaud many releases<br />
on the K617 label, which led the way in<br />
recording this repertory. William Gatens covered<br />
three fine ones (S/O 2002, p 218, K617<br />
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120, 121, 123) and Charles Brewer another<br />
(139, M/J 2003, p 187). Mr Barker liked two<br />
Jesuit “operas” by Kapsberger and Zipoli conducted<br />
by James David Christie (Dorian 93243,<br />
S/O 2003), and I liked Zipoli’s San Ignacio Vespers<br />
conducted by Gabriel Garrido (K617 027,<br />
S/O 1993) but not the Zipoli cantatas by the<br />
same performers (K617 037, S/O 1994). As you<br />
collect discs of colonial Spanish music, note<br />
that there is almost no repertoire duplication<br />
among them. Notes, bios, texts, translations.<br />
Il Giardino Armonico<br />
Warner 63264 [11CD] 11:18<br />
When I first opened this boxed set, compiled<br />
from the Teldec recordings of Il Giardino<br />
Armonico, my first thought was that I was<br />
again meeting a number of good old friends,<br />
some of whom I had not encountered for some<br />
time. Along with these old friends, I also<br />
noticed some new “faces” that I had not seen<br />
before. Among the old friends were two<br />
C MOORE recordings of Vivaldi (double and triple concertos,<br />
Nov/Dec 1995 and chamber concertos,<br />
Sept/Oct 1993), and the new faces included<br />
Come to the River<br />
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and his concertos for<br />
An Early <strong>American</strong> Gathering<br />
lute and mandolin. Also among the old friends<br />
Apollo’s Fire/ Jeanette Sorrell<br />
were Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos (Mar/Apr<br />
Avie 2205—65 minutes<br />
1998) and an unusual recording pairing Biber’s<br />
Apollo’s Fire, the period performance ensem- Battalia with Matthew Locke’s incidental<br />
ble based in Cleveland, has taken a break from music for The Tempest (July/Aug 1999). Also<br />
the baroque and classical eras. Director new to me (but not ARG) were three collec-<br />
Jeanette Sorrell and her harpsichord are joined tions: Christmas concertos (Nov/Dec 1992:<br />
by flutist Kathie Stewart, sopranos Sandra 266), Baroque “chestnuts” (Pachelbel’s Canon<br />
Simon and Abigail Lennox, Tina Bergmann on et al., Mar/Apr 2002: 214), and Neapolitan<br />
the hammered dulcimer, and other players to Chamber Music (Sept/Oct 1994: 255). A com-<br />
investigate our country’s 19th Century folk trapletely new “face” to me (and ARG) was a very<br />
ditions. The result of their collaboration is a good collection of Italian instrumental music<br />
vibrant <strong>American</strong> sampler that is one of the from the early 17th Century (including compo-<br />
most joyous releases to have crossed the ARG sitions by Tarquinio Merula, Dario Castello,<br />
choral desk in some time.<br />
Giovanni Battista Riccio, Salomone Rossi, and<br />
The program is divided into thirds: Marco Uccellini). A number of these record-<br />
Appalachian Wagon Train, Love and Death, ings have held up well over the years. The four<br />
and Revival Meeting. The classification scheme original recordings of the Vivaldi chamber<br />
had me scratching my head once or twice concertos (represented in this collection by a<br />
(Irish dances at a prayer meeting?); but there’s single disc) are still among the best interpreta-<br />
no arguing that this is a well-chosen, welltions of these works; and while there are some<br />
paced anthology that holds the interest.<br />
idiosyncratic performance decisions in Biber’s<br />
Special touches abound as these artists<br />
Battalia, it is still an enjoyable interpretation,<br />
evoke the spirit of a rural <strong>American</strong> gone by. In<br />
and if you wish, the Sonata Representativa has<br />
selections like ‘Swinging on a Gate’, ‘Ways of<br />
its captions read by the lutenist. Other discs<br />
the World’, and ‘Glory in the Meetinghouse’,<br />
(including the Brandenburg Concertos and the<br />
Tina Bergmann’s hammered dulcimer conveys<br />
various baroque anthologies) contain good<br />
the gratitude of people intoxicated by the<br />
interpretations, if not necessarily first choices.<br />
sheer joy of being alive. (She plays the thing,<br />
My sole surprising disappointment was<br />
by the way, like Horowitz played the piano.)<br />
that the interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Sea-<br />
Matters of the spirit are raised with affecting<br />
sons is rather bland, especially compared with<br />
tenderness in soprano Abigail Lennox’s ‘Way-<br />
the inventiveness the performers demonstratfaring<br />
Stranger’ and in a moving choral<br />
ed on their other Vivaldi recordings. While in<br />
arrangement of ‘Down In the River to Pray’.<br />
some cases (the Vivaldi chamber concertos) I<br />
Vivid story-telling in such varied offerings as<br />
wished for more, this is a suitable selection<br />
‘Oh When Shall I See Jesus?’, ‘The Fox Went<br />
from some of the best recordings made by this<br />
Out on a Chilly Night’ and ‘The Three Ravens’<br />
ensemble in their formative period.<br />
turns the program into musical time travel.<br />
BREWER<br />
Sorrell’s accompaniments from the harpsichord<br />
and her sensitive handling of a set of<br />
Rose of Sharon<br />
dances from the Old World and the New aren’t 100 Years of <strong>American</strong> Music (1770-1870)<br />
run of the mill either. Brilliant engineering Linda Brotherton, s; Deborah Rentz-Moore, mz;<br />
clinches the deal. Maybe if we could tap into Timothy Leigh Evans, t, perc; Joel Frederiksen, b,<br />
the communal wisdom of our musical past, g; Ensemble Phoenix Munich/ Joel Frederiksen<br />
our national values would be better.<br />
Harmonia Mundi 902085—72 minutes<br />
GREENFIELD In the Early <strong>American</strong> Gathering hosted by<br />
Apollo’s Fire (above) you can easily lose the<br />
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historical impetus and just surrender to the<br />
Appalachian folk idiom in all its glory. Here,<br />
the music is on historical display and you<br />
never quite forget it. The songs are keyed to<br />
the <strong>American</strong> Revolution, “Singing Schools”<br />
where itinerant Christian singers traversed the<br />
fledgling nation teaching the faithful to read<br />
music, Shakerism, and the Civil War. There’s<br />
also a set of three songs by William Billings,<br />
America’s first composer of note. But while<br />
everything pretty much remains in “museum<br />
mode” as the eras roll by, it’s an attractive<br />
exhibit and quite an interactive one at that.<br />
It seems odd to be taught <strong>American</strong> history<br />
by an ensemble based in Munich; but one<br />
gathers from the heading that the main singers<br />
aren’t German—certainly not director Joel<br />
Frederiksen, who trained in New York and<br />
Michigan and was a member of the Waverly<br />
Consort and the Boston Camerata before<br />
founding his ensemble. He has a flair for music<br />
history, and there are all sorts of interesting<br />
things here that will be new to most of us.<br />
‘The Death of General Wolfe’ is a sad tribute<br />
to the English commander who perished<br />
on the Plains of Abraham in the French and<br />
Indian War. (The Brits, you’ll recall, were on<br />
our side in that one.) In Singing School, the<br />
public learned that military men could be a<br />
philandering lot (‘The Gentlemen Soldiers’);<br />
that evil must surely be punished (‘Captain<br />
Kidd’), and that the Savior’s love is a liberating<br />
force easily celebrated while dancing a jig<br />
(‘Leander’). This anthology also offers a welcome<br />
introduction to William Billings’s ‘God Is<br />
the King’, which is complex enough to<br />
approach mini-cantata form and is accompanied<br />
by instruments to boot. (Why did I think<br />
all of his choral stuff was a cappella?) The<br />
female singers are more engaging than the<br />
men, who are a mite stuffy from time to time. I<br />
also can’t shake the feeling that Frederiksen’s<br />
basso is maybe a bit too profundo for this<br />
music, especially in the SATB selections, where<br />
his pungent timbre is tough for the others to<br />
match. He’s more affecting as a guitarist, <strong>conductor</strong>,<br />
and as the historical mind who put the<br />
whole thing together.<br />
I can’t remember a Harmonia Mundi<br />
release that didn’t sound terrific, and this one<br />
is no exception. What I don’t like is the annotation<br />
design, where full notes, bios, and translations<br />
are spread across two booklets in multiple<br />
languages. Matching the correct track<br />
with its translation and commentary amid all<br />
the checking and cross-checking you have to<br />
do could turn you into a bit of a historian yourself.<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
Cantus Sollemnis<br />
Divina Musica/ Juha Pesonen<br />
Pilfink 51—38 minutes<br />
Divina Musica is a Finnish ensemble consisting<br />
of four female singers—Heidi Monanen,<br />
soprano; Jaana Ravattinen, alto; and Kirsi Hirvonen<br />
and Susanna Karjalainen, mezzosopranos.<br />
Their program offers considerable variety:<br />
chant, sacred polyphony from the Renaissance<br />
and romantic periods; and contemporary<br />
sacred and secular songs from Finland and<br />
Georgia. The artistic purpose behind the program<br />
strikes me as more about the “sound” of<br />
the music than the substance—no texts and<br />
translations for any of the works.<br />
I like the sound of the ensemble, though it<br />
is enhanced by reverb. I’m a little more concerned<br />
about the undifferentiated style of the<br />
singing. They appear to like warm, rich chords.<br />
Why not? It sounds terrific. But it all sounds<br />
the same, whether they’re singing Hildegard,<br />
modern Finnish or Georgian songs, or Victoria.<br />
The notes tell us that the purpose of the<br />
release is to “compose the listener to prayer”.<br />
The secular songs are meant to sound “soothing”.<br />
Indeed, the music does sound soothing;<br />
but I would like to know what they are singing<br />
about. Brief notes are in English.<br />
LOEWEN<br />
Choral Anthology<br />
HASSLER: Deus Noster Refugium; Verbum<br />
Caro Factum Est; O Admirabile Commercium;<br />
Cantate Domino; Jubilate Deo; O Domine<br />
Jesu Christe; O Sacrum Convivium;<br />
CORNELIUS: Liebe, Dir Ergeb’ Ich Mich; Ich<br />
Will Dich Lieben, Meine Krone; Thron der<br />
Liebe, Stern der Gute; BRUCKNER: Tantum<br />
Ergo; LISZT: O Salutaris Hostia<br />
Exon Singers/ Christopher Tolley<br />
Priory 5042—53 minutes<br />
Joy is the operative word here—joy in the<br />
music and joy in the bright, fresh singing of the<br />
28 English men and women entrusted with the<br />
task of bringing that music to life. The Renaissance<br />
motets of Augsburg’s Hans Leo Hassler<br />
(1562-1612) couldn’t be lovelier or livelier.<br />
Peter Cornelius (1824-74), the notes tell us,<br />
was a friend and disciple of Berlioz, Liszt, and<br />
Wagner whose most famous work is an opera<br />
called The Barber of Baghdad. All I know about<br />
him first-hand is that he wrote these three<br />
handsome, deeply-felt songs, which are sung<br />
with palpable affection by the female sopranos<br />
and male everything elses of this choir from<br />
Britain’s southwest.<br />
Poised, devout Bruckner and Liszt make up<br />
the remainder of the program. I love everything<br />
about this: the music, the singing, the<br />
engineering (clear, warm sound), and the<br />
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cover art. The latter is a lovely photo of the<br />
grand interior of Peterborough Cathedral, one<br />
of my favorite haunts in England. We lived 30<br />
miles south of Peterborough during our Fulbright<br />
year in Britain, and the city’s train station<br />
was our jumping-on point for several trips<br />
north. We strolled the cathedral every chance<br />
we got. Walk a bit down that left aisle you see<br />
pictured and you can step—reverently, one<br />
would hope—on the grave of Catherine of<br />
Aragon. What an amazing place, and what an<br />
uplifting program!<br />
Strid<br />
Oslo Chamber Choir/ Hakon Daniel Nystedt<br />
2L 73 [SACD] 57 minutes<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
The title Strid (Norwegian for “struggle”) sums<br />
up the spirit and (partial) intent of this very<br />
unusual and oddly fascinating effort from the<br />
excellent Oslo Chamber Choir. Over the past<br />
25 years, the ensemble has made a specialty of<br />
Norwegian folk music.<br />
But don’t let the choir’s folk specialty mislead<br />
you. This is a first-rate group, capable of<br />
singing just about anything well. And they<br />
prove it in four pieces that superimpose tradi-<br />
O Vos Omnes<br />
tional Norwegian sacred folk songs over unal-<br />
Ganymede/ Yvan Sabourin<br />
ATMA 2631—56 minutes<br />
tered classical choral movements and motets<br />
by Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Bruckner, and<br />
Tchaikovsky. At first, these numbers tend to<br />
Ganymede is a Montreal-area male choir that strike the ear as musically incongruous—such<br />
grew out of the local gay community. Here classical treasures heard mostly as background<br />
they offer us a pleasant assortment of 17 beneath the plain-voiced folk soloists as they<br />
arrangements and original works for men’s intone their much simpler hymns, complete<br />
voices; most selections are from the Renais- with the unique vocal swoops and inflections<br />
sance era and modern times, with a light that are the hallmark of the traditional Norwe-<br />
sprinkling from in between. Of the modern gian style of singing.<br />
composers, Canadians are favored—most of<br />
whom you’re not likely to know.<br />
And it is in the listener’s sometimes vain<br />
attempts to reconcile such stylistic conflicts<br />
It soon becomes apparent to the fussy lis- that the “struggle” suggested by the title is<br />
tener that this is a choir of average amateur found. But, on repeated listening, a certain<br />
voices. Bless them, for just such voices are the sweet confluence became apparent to my<br />
backbone of everyday choral singing world- ears—at least in most of these “odd-couple”<br />
wide. But director Sabourin has made a fairly pairings—mainly owing to the apparent care<br />
competent ensemble of them. Everything here that was taken in matching the moods and<br />
is a cappella, and the singers generally stay on sacred sentiments of the otherwise disparate<br />
pitch well; their collective diction is excellent, musical elements. After a while, my ear began<br />
whether in French, German, or English. I par- to adjust to the coolly melancholy, spiritually<br />
ticularly enjoyed their lovely renditions of sincere Scandinavian voices washing over<br />
Schubert’s ‘Die Nacht’ and Morten Lauridsen’s familiar choral masterpieces. I was particularly<br />
ubiquitous ‘O Magnum Mysterium’.<br />
taken by ‘O, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus’,<br />
But their lack of professional refinement is drifting atop the exquisite Bruckner motet,<br />
heard in some minor technical flaws: I noted ‘Locus Iste’. And ‘My Heart Always Dwells’,<br />
occasional ragged entrances and cutoffs, plus underscored by the ‘Cherubic Hymn’ from<br />
slightly awkward vocal execution in some of Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy, turned out to be a rare<br />
the trickier passages. Sabourin seems to culti- treat.<br />
vate a smoothly subdued, even bloodless interpretive<br />
approach, unlike the overtly macho<br />
swagger you hear from most male ensembles.<br />
For example, their rendition of Pablo Casals’s<br />
famous ‘O Vos Omnes’ (the title piece)—a<br />
work of agonized sacred passion and power—<br />
sounded sweetly insipid to me. Their rather<br />
amorphous, bottom-heavy sonic textures didn’t<br />
help, either (they could use a few more<br />
tenors); I was often hard-pressed to distinguish<br />
between the various sections. While I<br />
enjoyed many of their individual numbers, listening<br />
to the entire album at one sitting left an<br />
overall impression of blandness. <strong>Record</strong>ing<br />
quality is quite good, and the booklet is complete.<br />
The album’s eight remaining selections are<br />
devoted exclusively to traditional folk material.<br />
Some of the pieces—probably intended for<br />
congregational singing in rural churches—<br />
sound like Norway’s equivalent to America’s<br />
Sacred Harp or Shape-note traditions, with the<br />
entire choir singing in simple folk style. In others,<br />
the original solo (or unison choral)<br />
melodies are delivered over more sophisticated<br />
background arrangements. One of the more<br />
complex and effective examples is ‘Hallelujah,<br />
our Struggle Ends’. I took particular delight in<br />
‘The Lost Sheep’: a touching sacred song—<br />
arranged by <strong>conductor</strong> Nystedt—that begins<br />
with a protracted episode of raucous, cunningly<br />
overlapped herding calls from three differ-<br />
KOOB ent Norwegian regions.<br />
But perhaps the greatest pleasure offered<br />
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by this recording is the sheer sonic alchemy of<br />
its engineering. I’ve had the pleasure of covering<br />
several of 2L’s previous SA hybrid releases<br />
(also playable in standard stereo), and they all<br />
make for unforgettable listening. Here the<br />
evenly-spaced choir is recorded in the round<br />
in a church, as if surrounding the congregation;<br />
the incredibly rich and detailed sound<br />
comes at you from every angle—and the effect<br />
is truly magical. The booklet will tell you everything<br />
you need to know.<br />
Not everybody will go for this music. But<br />
choral fans blessed with adventurous ears and<br />
broad musical minds should enjoy it<br />
immensely—particularly the SACD sound.<br />
KOOB<br />
Otto Voci: Bleu de Lune<br />
HOSTTETTLER: Le Rouge-Gorge; Songe<br />
d’une Nuit d’Ete; Sable; Le Coquelicot; La<br />
Rose; GAUDIBERT: Intermezzo; FALQUET:<br />
Hirondelles; D’une Tourterelle; L’oiseau-<br />
Prophete; RICOSSA: 3 Madrigali Crepuscolari;<br />
KODALY: 3 Madrigali Italiani; PART: 2<br />
Beter; Peace Upon You, Jerusalem<br />
Gallo 1313—57 minutes<br />
Otto Voci is eight voices, all women. They hail<br />
from Switzerland and this is their first CD. It’s<br />
an impressive debut; the voices are youthful<br />
and attractive, and technical matters are<br />
attended to with commendable skill. Not only<br />
do the voices blend nicely, but there’s a flair<br />
for communication in evidence through a variety<br />
of musical styles. The freshness of Michael<br />
Hostettler’s quartet of 4-part songs reminds<br />
me of Hindemith’s Six Chansons. The Voci<br />
attend to their shifting moods with breezy<br />
assurance. Best of all are Kodaly’s madrigals,<br />
which are lush, rich, and full of fun. Expressive<br />
story-telling is on display in Part’s ‘Peace<br />
Upon You, Jerusalem’, which is as feisty as it is<br />
holy. Alas, ‘Zwei Beter’, Part’s evocation of the<br />
Book of Luke 18, is interval spinning and not<br />
much more. The dissonances that pile up in<br />
some of the other works grow wearisome as<br />
well.<br />
In the future the group needs to work on<br />
the production values of their releases. Luca<br />
Ricossa’s madrigal set is marred by some audible<br />
clicking in the background—an electronic<br />
goof that should not have been allowed on an<br />
internationally distributed release. The program<br />
notes are vague, pretentious blather that<br />
is of no help to the listener. And while the<br />
annotation is printed in German, French, and<br />
English, the texts are given in their original<br />
languages only. Only Part’s ‘Jerusalem’ and<br />
one stanza from Gaudibert’s ‘Intermezzo’ are<br />
in English.<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
Our Lady<br />
LANGLAIS: Mass, Salve Regina; Ave Maria;<br />
Ave Maris Stella; DURUFLE:Tota Pulchra es,<br />
Maria; HADLEY: I Sing of a Maiden;<br />
GORECKI: Totus Tuus; BINGHAM: Ancient<br />
Sunlight; BIEBL: Ave Maria; BRITTEN:<br />
Hymn to the Virgin; PEETERS: Toccata,<br />
Fugue & Hymn on Ave Maris Stella<br />
Ruaraidh Sutherland, Thomas Corns, org; Fine<br />
Arts Brass, St Mary’s Collegiate Church Choir,<br />
Warwick/ Thomas Corns<br />
Regent 345—66 minutes<br />
This recording is a musical tribute to Mary,<br />
adoration for whom was renewed in the 19th<br />
Century; selections come from the 20th Century.<br />
It was made in St Mary’s Collegiate Church,<br />
Warwick; the choir of 18 boys, 22 girls, and 15<br />
men is supported by two organs: a 3-59<br />
Nicholson & Co. (1980) at the west end and a<br />
2-33 Davies (1969), Nicholson (1979) in the<br />
transept. The Fine Arts Brass (3 tpt, 5 trb) plays<br />
only in the Langlais mass. The combined<br />
choirs are heard only in the Gorecki. The<br />
largest single piece—Langlais’s Mass, premiered<br />
at Notre-Dame in 1954—is performed<br />
well musically but without the pomp and<br />
grandeur one really wants. The tempos are<br />
close to the ones from the Westminster Cathedral<br />
Choir (MHS 515525, M/A 2000), and both<br />
are noticeably faster than the original (and<br />
best) recording from Notre-Dame (Haydn<br />
Society 9008 or MHS 3745). It was written for a<br />
television audience on Christmas Eve, 1954.<br />
Langlais calls for congregation, two choirs, two<br />
organs, three trumpets, and five trombones. At<br />
the rehearsal before the service there were 600<br />
early participants in the congregation. Get the<br />
original if you can.<br />
The organ solos are excellent, especially<br />
the Peeters setting. I find the girl’s choir best<br />
overall, with fine balance and blend in the<br />
Duruflé and Hadley, though the enunciation<br />
should be clearer in the Hadley. The men’s<br />
choir is not uniformly balanced between parts.<br />
The tenors often stand out, and the soloist who<br />
opens the Gloria in the Langlais Mass and<br />
Biebl’s ‘Ave Maria’ has a tremolo that makes it<br />
sound as though he were new to the group and<br />
very nervous.<br />
The strangest selection is Ancient Sunlight<br />
by Judith Bingham. It is in three parts, and we<br />
are told that it calls to mind Giotto’s frescoes<br />
in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua. Hogwash. It<br />
seems to go nowhere and includes occasional<br />
low Pedal dissonances. I fail to understand<br />
why this piece was included in an otherwise<br />
quite respectable recording.<br />
METZ<br />
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Pater Noster<br />
Cherubini, Gounod, Verdi, Nicolai, Liszt,<br />
Meyerbeer, Tchaikovsky, Janacek<br />
Philharmonia Choir of Stuttgart/ Helmut Wolf<br />
Profil 11003—66 minutes<br />
This is a set of “Our Fathers”, ending with<br />
Mendelssohn’s organ variations on Martin<br />
Luther’s hymn ‘Vater Unser in Himmelreich’.<br />
It was recorded in 1988 for Calig (Sept/Oct<br />
1989: 136).<br />
There’s wonderful music from start to finish,<br />
and most of it is not well known. The two<br />
stunners are a gorgeously uplifting 8-part setting<br />
from Otto Nicolai and Janacek’s 16minute<br />
affair set for solo tenor, harp, organ,<br />
and choir. Janacek’s undertaking (sung here in<br />
German) was inspired by a set of paintings<br />
depicting laborers in worship, a jailed penitent,<br />
a family in mourning, a bountiful harvest,<br />
and the Lord’s protection of people at rest. It’s<br />
a terrific piece that turns the prayer into a discursive<br />
mini-oratorio given shape and direction<br />
by colorful writing for the soloist. His joyful<br />
eruption at “Dein Reich” is the most exciting<br />
moment here.<br />
Cherubini, Gounod, and Liszt (an excerpt<br />
from his oratorio Christus) are the other notables.<br />
The choir is very good, but not of the<br />
highest caliber. They don’t quite get the<br />
intense louds and softs required to bring off<br />
the Verdi, and there are entrances the soprano<br />
section could have used another crack at. The<br />
choir could have done a lovely job with<br />
Stravinsky’s ‘Pater Noster’. I wonder why it<br />
wasn’t included, along with one of the towering<br />
readings of the ‘Otce Nas’ from the Eastern<br />
church. (Maybe Rachmaninoff’s from his<br />
Liturgy?) Tchaikovsky’s 2-minute work is sung<br />
in German and sounds more western than<br />
eastern.<br />
Well, enough quibbling about what isn’t<br />
here. This is definitely worth acquiring for<br />
what is. Brief English notes are included, along<br />
with the text of the prayer in Latin, German,<br />
and Italian.<br />
GREENFIELD<br />
The Winchester Tradition<br />
WESLEY: Ascribe unto the Lord; Thou Wilt<br />
Keep him in Perfect Peace; WEELKES:<br />
Hosanna to the Son of David; DYSON:<br />
Morning Service in D; Lauds; Magnificat &<br />
Nunc Dimittis in C minor; ARCHER: Mass,<br />
Omnes Sancti; Domum, Dulce Domum;<br />
CLARKE:O Jesu, King Most Wonderful;<br />
HUMPHREY: I Sing of a Maiden; PROVOST:<br />
Jubilate Deo; COLE: A Heart Alone<br />
Paul Provost, org; Winchester College Choir/ Malcolm<br />
Archer—Regent 331—71 minutes<br />
Here’s a collection of music written by composers<br />
associated with Winchester College<br />
from the late 16th Century to the late 20th. The<br />
college itself was founded in 1382. Extensive,<br />
mostly biographical liner notes for each composer<br />
are included along with the texts for<br />
every piece. The 41-voice male choir (14-7-9-<br />
11) includes one Miss Coralie Ovenden (alto).<br />
Winchester has a remarkable history as an<br />
ecclesiastical center since the seventh Century<br />
A.D. The quality of composers who worked or<br />
composed for the choirs may be judged from<br />
the names above.<br />
The quieter pieces—Wesley’s ‘Thou Wilt<br />
Keep him’, Dyson’s Nunc Dimittis, and the<br />
Agnus Dei from Archer’s Missa Omnes—are<br />
especially well done and sound most like the<br />
traditional English choir. The other selections<br />
tend to be sung forcefully. The choir is the<br />
loudest I have heard, and whether the reason<br />
is dry acoustics or too close miking, I wish they<br />
had toned down their enthusiasm.<br />
This disc includes the first recordings of<br />
Provost’s own Jubilate Deo and arrangement<br />
of Clarke’s O Jesu, pieces by Humphrey and<br />
Cole, and Archer’s Domum.<br />
METZ<br />
Shakespeare Inspired<br />
Elgar, Gurney, Parry, Quilter<br />
Michelle Breedt, mz; Nina Schumann, p<br />
Two Pianists 1039077—67 minutes<br />
Here are 28 songs about Shakespeare or settings<br />
of his texts from 18 composers, most of<br />
them well-known 20th Century British composers.<br />
Only a few of the songs are really great<br />
(‘Sleep’ by Ivor Gurney, ‘Silent Noon’ by<br />
Vaughan Williams, ‘The Poor Sat Sighing’ by<br />
Stuart Findlay) but all of them are good to hear<br />
and many are seldom heard (e.g. ‘Who is<br />
Sylvia’ by Eric Coates, ‘I Know a Bank’ by Julius<br />
Harrison, and ‘Homing’ by Teresa del Riego).<br />
Several strikingly different paired settings of<br />
texts make for engaging listening (‘Under the<br />
Greenwood Tree’ by Walton and Mervyn<br />
Horder and ‘Take, O Take Those Lips Away’ by<br />
Parry and Rubbra).<br />
Breedt is a South African singer with good<br />
technique that relies heavily on letting phrases<br />
trail off, a touch that most of the time works in<br />
the service of the song. She has excellent vocal<br />
agility, shimmering soft singing, and a wonderful<br />
ability to float high notes. Her diction is<br />
clear, though some of her “sh” pronunciation<br />
sounds like she studied elocution with Sean<br />
Connery. Schumann’s accompaniment is<br />
excellent, and the recorded sound is very present<br />
but not too immediate. Here is a chance<br />
to discover rare repertoire that will be familiar<br />
in style; it’s a well-planned program performed<br />
with great elegance.<br />
Notes by Breedt and texts included.<br />
R MOORE<br />
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Gre Brouwenstijn<br />
BEETHOVEN: Ah, Perfido; Arias from Freischutz,<br />
Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Dutchman,<br />
Don Carlo, Trovatore, Forza<br />
Newton 8802061—70 minutes<br />
The Dutch soprano Gre Brouwenstein (1915-<br />
99) was one of those singers whom audiences<br />
and record collectors truly seemed to love. I<br />
hope Newton’s reissue of an old Philips recital<br />
will win her some new fans. She seemed personally<br />
involved in everything she did, even<br />
Beethoven’s strange excursion into Italian<br />
opera aria—this anonymous protagonist might<br />
well be a character one can sympathize with.<br />
She was perhaps best known for her lyric Wagner<br />
roles (though she recorded only Sieglinde).<br />
The arias here allow her to return repeatedly to<br />
the warmest, loveliest part of her voice, and<br />
the Tannhauser and Lohengrin excerpts are<br />
about as beautiful as you’ll ever hear.<br />
The Verdi arias are also stunning, despite<br />
some weakness on the bottom. She never had<br />
a Tebaldi-like lower range, but her top is<br />
secure and radiant, and she knows exactly how<br />
to phrase the music. The original recordings<br />
were made in the 1950s, with <strong>conductor</strong>s Van<br />
Otterloo and Moralt, and still sound fine; and<br />
there’s more where this came from, so perhaps<br />
we can look forward to future reissues.<br />
Brouwenstijn seldom visited the recording studio—we<br />
know her primarily from a slew of<br />
bootleg performances—and what she did<br />
should be preserved. Newton supplies notes<br />
but no texts.<br />
LUCANO<br />
The Very Best of Placido Domingo<br />
Mozart, Handel, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Massenet,<br />
Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Boito, Mascagni,<br />
Wagner, Verdi, Strauss Jr, Zeller, Lehar,<br />
Guerrero, Sorozabal, Alonso, Rodrigo, J<br />
Gade<br />
EMI 48676 [2CD] 149 minutes<br />
Considering the staggering number of Domingo<br />
recordings, the very best must surely<br />
include far more than what is on these discs!<br />
Domingo is quite a versatile artist. Everything<br />
here is handsomely sung, and the best tracks<br />
demonstrate what all the fuss has been about.<br />
1971-2002 are the years covered.<br />
The first six tracks are Mozart and Handel,<br />
composers Domingo doesn’t sound quite<br />
comfortable with. But if you like Domingo the<br />
“baritone”, the ‘La ci darem’ duet with Susan<br />
Graham will please you. (Domingo can sing<br />
baritone roles without key changes, but he<br />
doesn’t sound like the real McCoy.) The<br />
French selections fare better, and Lensky’s aria<br />
in passable Russian is lovely. The Puccini and<br />
Verdi arias are for the most part beautifully<br />
done.<br />
The zarzuela arias and Spanish songs are<br />
splendid. Domingo began his performing<br />
career in zarzuela; he really has it in his blood.<br />
I enjoyed the Viennese excerpts purely as<br />
singing, yet Domingo lacks a natural feel for<br />
this repertory. In a clever piece of tape editing,<br />
the tenor conducts himself in the Night in<br />
Venice aria that ends the collection.<br />
There’s plenty Grade A Domingo here—<br />
enough to indicate what makes him so special.<br />
Domingo buffs will want this even if they own<br />
most of the recordings the tracks are taken<br />
from. No texts or translations.<br />
MARK<br />
Jardin Nocturne<br />
Songs by Poulenc, Halphen, Massenet,<br />
Chausson, Fauré, Hahn<br />
Isabelle Druet, s; Johanne Ralambondrainy, p<br />
Aparte 13—68 minutes<br />
The relative newcomer Isabelle Druet is no<br />
slouch, given her credentials and the awards<br />
she has racked up. So why does she sound like<br />
such a slouch in this interesting program of<br />
French songs?<br />
Part of it is her approach. She sings Poulenc as<br />
if he were Palestrina. Her voice comes off as far<br />
too thin, far too “white”, for the music at hand.<br />
Sometimes she really comes through, but it<br />
doesn’t happen enough.<br />
Part of it, too, is the uncomplimentary<br />
recording venue, which colors everything with<br />
a brassy, metallic tinge. No one could sound<br />
her best under such conditions, though her<br />
accompanist, Johanne Ralmbondrainy, comes<br />
off splendidly, her piano sounding rich and<br />
full.<br />
There must be more to Ms Druet than<br />
meets the ear on this album. Let’s hope we<br />
hear it on her next one.<br />
BOYER<br />
The Ballad Singer<br />
Beethoven, Loewe, Schubert, Schumann,<br />
Brahms, Wolf, Mahler<br />
Gerald Finley, bar; Julius Drake, p<br />
Hyperion 67830—71 minutes<br />
Here are 14 songs, nine by the leading 19th<br />
Century German masters and five less-often<br />
heard (aside from Sullivan’s ‘Lost Chord’).<br />
Defining what exactly constitutes a “ballad” is<br />
not easy, but Richard Wigmore in his excellent<br />
notes points out that the genre originated in<br />
the Middle Ages as a dance-song sung by street<br />
musicians that dealt with sensational, ghoulish,<br />
and supernatural themes and evolved into<br />
how it is generally understood today: “simply a<br />
popular song in (usually) a slow tempo. Sentiment<br />
still rules.”<br />
There are so many extraordinarily fine<br />
baritones singing today that it is impossible to<br />
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name one as “best”, but clearly Finley is in the<br />
handful of the elite—and one of the three or<br />
four baritones most desirable for this literature.<br />
He delivers a highly dramatic reading of<br />
Loewe’s ‘Edward’ that surpasses the settings of<br />
either Schubert or Brahms. He captures both<br />
the energy and the mystery of the text in Wolf’s<br />
‘Der Feuerreiter’, and Drake brings great fire<br />
and drama to the song. In Schubert’s ‘Erlkonig’<br />
he does not offer very subtle distinction<br />
between voices, though it is still a fine performance.<br />
The emotional investment in these<br />
songs is very convincing without going over<br />
the top, whether it is in the humor of<br />
Beethoven’s song of the flea (‘Aus Goethe’s<br />
Faust’), Cole Porter’s sardonic ‘The Tale of the<br />
Oyster’, Mahler’s haunting setting of a girl’s<br />
encounter with the specter of her soldier<br />
sweetheart (‘Wo die Schonen Trompeten<br />
Blasen’) or Stanford’s setting of ‘La Belle Dame<br />
Sans Merci’ of Keats. The oddest item here is<br />
Cyril Scott’s arrangement of ‘Lord Randall’<br />
that sets an altered version of the text leading<br />
to some odd pronunciation, with “my” sometimes<br />
pronounced “mah”.<br />
The team of Finley and Drake continues to<br />
produce some of the finest recordings of<br />
songs. Both artists are at the top of their game.<br />
Hyperion’s characteristically fine sound and<br />
intelligent program notes add to the picture.<br />
Texts and translations.<br />
R MOORE<br />
Mirella Freni<br />
Adriana, Boheme, Tosca, Turandot, Carmen,<br />
Manon, Aida, Figaro, Onegin<br />
Munich Radio Orchestra/ Kurt Eichhorn,<br />
Vladimir Ghiaurov<br />
BR 900303—60 minutes<br />
Nicolai Ghiaurov<br />
Faust, Jolie Fille de Perth, Sadko, Life for the<br />
Tsar, Aleko, Boris, Boccanegra, Don Carlo,<br />
Barber, Much Ado About Nothing<br />
Munich Radio Orchestra/ Georges Pretre, Alfredo<br />
Antonini<br />
BR 900304—56 minutes<br />
The Munich Radio Orchestra began its series<br />
of Sunday concerts in 1952, and at first they<br />
played mostly “light classics”. With the coming<br />
of <strong>conductor</strong> Kurt Eichhorn, the emphasis<br />
shifted more toward opera, and in the past six<br />
decades there was no shortage of great singers<br />
willing to perform in Munich. The Freni collection<br />
comes from three concerts, given in 1971,<br />
1983, and 1987. The program begins and ends<br />
with Adriana’s ‘Io Son l’Umile Ancella’, first<br />
from 1971 and then from 1987, and it’s a marvel<br />
that the voice remained so consistent over<br />
the years. The earlier performances are of<br />
more lyrical material: Puccini, and arias for<br />
Micaela and Manon. In later years, Freni tack-<br />
led heavier roles, like Aida, and she also (with<br />
the encouragement of Ghiaurov, her second<br />
husband) turned to the Russian repertory.<br />
Tatiana’s 14-minute letter scene must have<br />
been the centerpiece of the 1987 broadcast.<br />
Fans of Freni will already be familiar with her<br />
recordings of this and the other items here, so<br />
there’s really nothing new, but it’s still a pleasure<br />
to hear her, even in such familiar fare.<br />
Ghiaurov’s programs (1966, 1969) were a<br />
little more adventurous. In 1966 he sang the<br />
full Coronation Scene from Boris, with chorus;<br />
and in 1969, arias from Sadko, A Life for the<br />
Tsar, and Aleko, sung in Russian to an audience<br />
that most likely had been unfamiliar with<br />
the music. The Sunday concerts had clearly<br />
come a long way. Ghiaurov leavened his programs<br />
with more popular arias from Faust (a<br />
very extroverted Mephistopheles), Boccanegra,<br />
and Don Carlo, and a really hammy ‘La Calunnia’<br />
from Barber—he seemed to enjoy playing<br />
to the Munich audience. A real rarity is an aria<br />
by the Russian composer Tichon Khrennikov<br />
(1913-2007), a drinking song from the opera<br />
Much Ado About Nothing. It was apparently an<br />
encore, and the audience loved it. Ghiaurov<br />
was at his best in the 60s, though he sometimes<br />
seemed to be all voice and no heart.<br />
Audiences would bring out the best in him,<br />
and he really does seem involved in the Faust<br />
arias and the Aleko monolog, though the<br />
heartbreak of the great arias for Fiesco and<br />
King Philip is rather muted and impersonal.<br />
Still, what a voice this was, and what a pleasure<br />
to hear it in its prime!<br />
The sound is of excellent broadcast quality<br />
for both programs, and the audiences are<br />
remarkably quiet. Applause intrudes only once<br />
or twice.<br />
LUCANO<br />
Fete Galante<br />
Fauré, Ravel, Debussy, Poulenc, Honegger,<br />
Vuillermoz<br />
Karina Gauvin, s, Marc-Andre Hamelin, p<br />
ATMA 2642—66 minutes<br />
One of Canada’s most accomplished sopranos<br />
is joined by one of that country’s most remarkable<br />
pianists in this lovely collection of French<br />
song. One could have wished for a slightly<br />
more prominent role for Mr Hamelin, considering<br />
the importance of the piano parts and<br />
his talents, but the balances are more than<br />
acceptable. There can be no question of Ms<br />
Gauvin’s stunning singing, which, from the<br />
most powerful fortissimo to the most delicately<br />
spun pianissimo, is all that anyone could<br />
hope or wish for. In a crowded field of French<br />
songs albums, this one stands out.<br />
BOYER<br />
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Long Island Songs<br />
CIPULLO: Long Island Songs; BRUNNER: 3<br />
Japanese Songs; PHILLIPS: 4 Broadway<br />
songs; MCLEER: 3 Light Pieces; Longing<br />
Eternal Bliss<br />
Monica Harte, s; Tom Cipullo, Noby Ishida, Anne<br />
Dinsmore Phillips, Christian McLeer, p<br />
MSR 1310—48 minutes<br />
Halte’s voice seems disconnected from its<br />
core—sometimes it sounds as if she’s trying to<br />
force it to make up for its light weight; her diction<br />
is mushy in the classical pieces and her<br />
phrasing square, though in Tom Cipullo’s<br />
‘Invocation’ the dynamics are well done. She’s<br />
often flat. Cipullo’s Long Island Songs are pretty<br />
good, and George Brunner’s settings are<br />
exquisite and sad, though the sparse textures<br />
in Western settings of Asian poetry is becoming<br />
a predictable gimmick.<br />
Anne Dinsmore Phillips’s four songs are<br />
musically shallow (I suppose some would call<br />
them simple and melodic, but I’ve heard more<br />
intricate Southern Gospel songs); there’s much<br />
better Broadway stuff out there—Jason Robert<br />
Brown’s Last Five Years, for instance. In the<br />
first of Christian McLeer’s Three Light Pieces,<br />
there is a narrated part about someone’s<br />
brother’s butt catching on fire on a camping<br />
trip—the dad trying to put it out with his beer<br />
and the sibling comparing it to a firefly are<br />
hilarious, especially the childish whispering of<br />
the word “butt”—but even here, her diction is<br />
too vague. Notes and texts are in English; passable<br />
sound.<br />
ESTEP<br />
Come Away, Death<br />
Korngold, Plagge, Sibelius, Ratkje, Finzi,<br />
Moussorgsky<br />
Marianne Beata Kielland, mz; Sergei Osadchuk, p<br />
2L 64 [SACD] 64 minutes<br />
Here is a recording that really reaches out and<br />
grabs you. With state-of-the-art sound and<br />
challenging programming, this is a deeply satisfying<br />
album. The title comes from Shakespeare’s<br />
‘Come Away, Death’ sung by the<br />
clown in Twelfth Night, and it includes three<br />
very different settings of the text (Korngold,<br />
Sibelius, Finzi). Wolfgang Plagge’s riveting<br />
Sodergrang Songs (1960) makes demands on<br />
the artists as well as the listeners. The most<br />
unusual and thorny work is HVIL (Rest) composed<br />
in 2008 by Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje<br />
and Aasne Linnesta, an avant-garde plea from<br />
the earth to humanity to slow down and care<br />
for this fragile planet. The text, untranslatable<br />
into English, is a guttural cry of anguish and<br />
despair that speaks to the soul at a level deeper<br />
than its curious words (e.g. “Cu cu mu lus<br />
humilis cumulus hum... Solkasterbranner<br />
...Hvil. Alt. Er”). It is as though the whole earth<br />
speaks with one voice that draws syllables<br />
from various tongues. This work makes<br />
extreme demands on the singer and pianist.<br />
The program concludes with Moussorgsky’s<br />
Songs and Dances of Death.<br />
Kielland sang the premiere of HVIL at the<br />
Nordlande Musikkfestuke, Bodo in 2008 and<br />
gives a bravura performance here of this challenging<br />
20-minute work. Her voice has enough<br />
of a Slavic timbre to sound right for the Moussorgsky<br />
songs, and she sings them with considerable<br />
authority. She is a strong interpreter of<br />
18th Century music (e.g. her Naxos 557621<br />
recording of Bach cantatas), and she made me<br />
wonder the first time I heard her recording of<br />
Wiederstehe doch der Sunde if I was listening to<br />
a countertenor. Her voice is very distinctive,<br />
exceptionally clear, and highly expressive.<br />
With superb sound and outstanding performances<br />
this most imaginative program is a<br />
remarkable tour-de-force and deserves a wide<br />
audience. Notes in English, texts in Norwegian,<br />
English, and transliterated Russian.<br />
R MOORE<br />
Paul Martyn-West<br />
Warlock, Moeran, Stern<br />
Nigel Foster, p<br />
Diversions 24152—69 minutes<br />
Here are 37 songs by three 20th Century<br />
British composers—13 by Ernest John Moeran,<br />
16 by Warlock, and seven by Geoffrey Stern<br />
(1935-2005). Warlock’s songs are the best of<br />
the lot.<br />
The program begins with Moeran’s<br />
arrangements of Six Folksongs from Norfolk<br />
(1923) and continues with Seven Poems of<br />
James Joyce (1929) including ‘Strings in the<br />
Earth and Air’, the title used to market this<br />
program. Warlock’s Candlelight—A Cycle of<br />
Nursery Jingles (1923) is a collection of 12 little<br />
gems, most of them less than a minute long.<br />
His Three Songs (1916-17) and ‘The Fox’ (1930)<br />
are particularly delicious. Stern was a friend of<br />
Martyn-West, and the style of the songs heard<br />
here (Three Wordsworth Songs of 1953 and<br />
Four Songs of James Joyce of 2001-5) is very<br />
much in the tradition of Moeran and Warlock.<br />
Martyn-West’s voice is a classic—almost<br />
generic—English choir tenor, closer to the<br />
sound of Gilchrist and Kennedy than Padmore;<br />
it’s a sweet, gentle voice without much variety<br />
of color or dynamics from song to song—other<br />
than mimicking the voice of an old woman in<br />
Warlock’s ‘There Was an Old Woman” and he<br />
never really sings louder than (mf). It is, nevertheless,<br />
a truly lovely voice that is well suited to<br />
these songs. Foster is an able and responsive<br />
collaborator.<br />
Notes and texts included.<br />
R MOORE<br />
<strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> 223
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Aga Mikolaj<br />
Cosi, Figaro, Don Giovanni, Capriccio, Ariadne;<br />
4 Last Songs<br />
Cologne Radio/ Karl Sollak<br />
CPO 777 641—67 minutes<br />
This appears to be a transcription of a radio<br />
broadcast by Radio Cologne. Aga Mikolaj is a<br />
native of Poland and a new name to me. After<br />
initial studies in Posen, she was accepted in<br />
the master classes of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in<br />
Austria. But, unlike her mentor’s many recordings,<br />
her diction here is poor. In the Four Last<br />
Songs she sings the notes well but lacks expression<br />
and color. These wonderful songs have<br />
been, I dare say, over-recorded, with the result<br />
that a young singer like Mikolaj has very little<br />
to say about them that Schwarzkopf, Della<br />
Casa, Fleming, Te Kanawa, and others haven’t<br />
already said, with deeper insights and greater<br />
expressivity as well as more beautiful voices.<br />
This also applies to the four Mozart arias;<br />
these are some of the best known of that composer’s<br />
prodigious output. Mikolaj sings them<br />
well; but, again, her performances don’t stand<br />
out in a crowded field. The least known selection<br />
here is the final scene from Strauss’s<br />
Capriccio—also a Schwarzkopf specialty.<br />
Mikolaj is evidently familiar with her recording,<br />
and she does fairly well in her own way;<br />
but Schwarzkopf, Te Kanawa, and others have<br />
colored the words better, with more insight<br />
and deeper emotional involvement.<br />
The WDR Orchestra, directed by Karl Sollak<br />
(also a new name to me) supports the<br />
soloist well. Texts and translations.<br />
MOSES<br />
Camilla Nylund<br />
Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Walküre, Tristan,<br />
Arabella, Daphne, Ariadne, Salome<br />
Tampere Philharmonic/ Hannu Lintu<br />
Ondine 1168—73 minutes<br />
Camilla Nylund is a Finnish soprano now<br />
active primarily in European opera houses<br />
who is scheduled to sing the role of Elsa in next<br />
season’s Lohengrin in San Francisco. As it happens,<br />
‘Elsa’s Dream’ is the first selection here.<br />
Her voice seems ample but it’s quite wobbly;<br />
and while she has good diction, there’s not<br />
much expression. That is true in many of the<br />
selections. Also, her voice, while strong and in<br />
some respects appealing, lacks warmth and<br />
tonal beauty. Her lack of control and steadiness<br />
appear also in Elisabeth’s two arias from<br />
Tannhäuser, at the climax of Sieglinde’s narrative<br />
‘Der Männer Sippe’ (Act 1 of Die Walküre)<br />
and even at the beginning of Isolde’s<br />
Liebestod. Clearly, Nylund has little control<br />
over this flaw in her singing.<br />
The longest excerpt here is the final scene<br />
from Salome, starting with ‘Es ist kein Laut zu<br />
vernehmen’. Nylund has the vocal strength for<br />
the music but she still struggles in a few spots.<br />
The Tampere Philharmonic sounds<br />
impressive, and Lintu’s conducting is quite<br />
competent. Texts and translations.<br />
MOSES<br />
Apres un Reve<br />
Strauss, Fauré, Mendelssohn, Chausson,<br />
Bouchot, Poulenc, Britten<br />
Sandrine Piau, s; Susan Manoff, p<br />
Naive 5250—59 minutes<br />
This enchanting program presents 25 songs<br />
related to the night and dreams. Notes by Agnes<br />
Terrier offer general information about the<br />
composers. An introductory comment by Piau<br />
and Manoff suggests what they have in mind:<br />
“In the beginning is the night, the cradle of our<br />
childhood terrors, peopled with creatures as<br />
fearsome as they are fascinating...in that magical<br />
region where everything is possible.”<br />
Having established herself with great distinction<br />
in early music, Piau has been expanding<br />
her repertoire—and doing so very well. The<br />
program begins with sublime readings of three<br />
Strauss songs. It is refreshing to hear them<br />
sung with such tenderness by a sylphlike voice.<br />
Spectacular technique, stunning phrasing, and<br />
spot-on tonal accuracy are evident at every<br />
turn. She captures equally well the dreaminess<br />
of Poulenc’s ‘C’ and the manic nimbleness of<br />
‘Fetes Galantes’.<br />
The most unusual and welcome inclusion<br />
here is Vincent Bouchot’s setting of Morgenstern’s<br />
demented Galgenlieder (Gallows Songs)<br />
with its surreal images (e.g. “The Man and<br />
Woman in the Moon lie howling on their knees,<br />
howling to show their teeth to the sulphurous<br />
hyena”). The program concludes with three<br />
Britten songs, where her English, with its slighting<br />
of consonant sounds, is almost understandable<br />
without following the texts. Her singing of<br />
‘The Salley Gardens’ is wonderful, but the<br />
album ends enigmatically with the nearly unaccompanied<br />
‘I Wonder as I Wander’.<br />
The one low point of the program is her<br />
singing of the title song ‘Apres un Reve’, Fauré’s<br />
magical setting of an anonymous poem<br />
translated by Romain Bussine about a dream<br />
of meeting a dead lover in heaven and wishing<br />
to return to this dream state after waking. At<br />
2:07—possibly the fastest reading on record—<br />
it feels rushed and misses the magic.<br />
Nearly everything here is first rate. Manoff<br />
is Piau’s frequent accompanist and is also<br />
excellent. The recorded sound is outstanding,<br />
with just the right resonance. This is one of the<br />
most engaging vocal releases of recent years. I<br />
can hardly wait for her recital in Boston this<br />
season that will include much of this music.<br />
Texts and translations.<br />
R MOORE<br />
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Mostly <strong>American</strong>a<br />
Jennifer Poffenberger, s; Lori Piitz, p<br />
Enharmonic 12—66 minutes<br />
What a pity that this album, which can boast<br />
Ms Poffenberger’s clear, lyric soprano and an<br />
attractive program of <strong>American</strong> music that<br />
includes several lovely songs by <strong>American</strong><br />
<strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong>’s own Mark Lehman, is so badly<br />
let down by the engineering. The sound is distant,<br />
tubby, hiss-filled, and marred by different<br />
perspectives from the various recording sessions.<br />
Even the finest voice singing the greatest<br />
music could not overcome sound this bad.<br />
BOYER<br />
Hermann Prey<br />
Cornelius, Pfitzner, Fortner, Brahms, Strauss<br />
Günther Weissenborn, p<br />
Hänssler 93713—54 minutes<br />
Timothy Richards<br />
Traviata, Rigoletto, Ballo, Macbeth, Tabarro,<br />
Boheme, Turandot, Forza, Tosca<br />
Minsk Orchestra/ Wilhelm Keitel<br />
MDG 909 1664—[SACD] 51 minutes<br />
Welsh tenor Timothy Richards’s performances<br />
of well-known arias face loads of stiff CD competition.<br />
He has a noticeable baritonal timbre,<br />
especially in mid-range. The voice is certainly<br />
attractive, but there’s not much variety of<br />
expression to his singing. Each of the tracks is<br />
pretty much like the others, and the sluggish<br />
conducting is no doubt partly responsible.<br />
Keitel’s takes on the Traviata and Macbeth<br />
preludes and the Forza overture are more of<br />
the same. No texts or translations.<br />
MARK<br />
This documents Prey’s recital at the Schwetzingen<br />
Festival on May 15, 1963. The program<br />
is an interesting one: four songs from Cor-<br />
Storyteller<br />
Mary Elizabeth Southworth, s; Philip Amalong, p<br />
Southworth 0—58 minutes<br />
(CD Baby, 800-BUYMYCD)<br />
nelius’s Lord’s Prayer cycle; four Eichendorff People who attend faculty concerts in the<br />
settings by Pfitzner; four Hölderin songs by regions outside our largest cities know there<br />
Wolfgang Fortner; and finally three of Brahms are many accomplished musicians (and actors,<br />
and two of Strauss. The last five are well for that matter) who have never, and will<br />
known; the others are not. But the rarities never, become famous. There are many rea-<br />
make a fine impression. The Cornelius pieces sons for that, though it probably comes down<br />
are warmly romantic, while Pfitzner’s are often to the limited number of reasonable, full-time<br />
dark and expressive, in style more like Wolf positions compared to the remarkable pool of<br />
than Pfitzner’s 20th Century contemporaries. available talent.<br />
The Hölderin songs are early works of Fortner The citizens of Cincinnati are probably<br />
(1907-87); they were composed in 1933-34, familiar with one such case, soprano Mary<br />
before he was drawn into the Nazi movement. Elizabeth Southworth, heard here in a self-pro-<br />
After the war he was associated with the Darmduced concept album that is neatly described<br />
stadt group and taught at Detmold and by its creator thus: “I have always been drawn<br />
Freiburg. His style in these songs is post-tonal, to music with evocative images, emotions, and<br />
but supple and singable; they too are very stories. [...] Ordering the selections into an<br />
effective.<br />
unusual sequence [permitted]...characters<br />
Prey was in excellent voice back in 1963. [that] could be more readily defined, circum-<br />
I’ve always felt his voice sounded a bit constances more expressly detailed, and closure<br />
gested and cottony; but he sang with great created for pieces that lacked tidy endings.”<br />
authority, and his top notes could be thrilling, It’s an interesting idea, and while Ms<br />
e.g. in Strauss’s ‘Befreit’. I’ve also felt (does Southworth discusses the individual selections<br />
anyone agree with me on this?) that almost all in her notes to the album, in the end it is diffi-<br />
of his singing seemed to be on the underside of cult to say what it is that binds these songs<br />
the pitch—not really flat, but placed a hair too together. In a personal communication to the<br />
low. In any case this malady is minimal here. I author, she expressed her regret that not every<br />
don’t think I’ve heard him sound better. I do number from this program, which she has per-<br />
remember Prey as something of a rival to Fisformed many times in concert, could be<br />
cher-Dieskau, who was born in 1925, four included because of roadblocks thrown up by<br />
years before Prey. I had lost track, though, and some copyright holders. Perhaps these missing<br />
did not realize Prey died in 1998.<br />
elements would have made things clearer, but<br />
Expert accompaniments from Weis- it remains at the very least a varied and attracsenborn<br />
(though he commits a blunder in tive program. We hear songs and arias from<br />
Brahms’s ‘Wie Melodien’). The 1963 sonics are such disparate sources as Poulenc, Menotti,<br />
excellent for the period. Texts in German and and Walton; works from the stage that<br />
English.<br />
approach the operatic like Sondheim’s ‘Green-<br />
ALTHOUSE finch and Linnet Bird’; and even spoken readings<br />
from The Great Gatsby and Paul Lawrence<br />
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Dunbar’s ‘Sympathy’ (“I know why the caged<br />
bird sings”).<br />
Ms Southworth’s resume is a key to what<br />
one can expect to hear from her. She has sung<br />
Gretel in Humperdinck’s opera, as well as the<br />
solo in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Indeed,<br />
were I the <strong>conductor</strong> of an orchestra looking<br />
for a soprano who could convey the child-like<br />
sweetness needed for that work but who had<br />
the vocal heft to compete with Mahler’s<br />
orchestra, Ms Southworth would be near the<br />
top of my list. Hers is a sweet, pure, lyric voice<br />
that reminds one in many ways of Heidi Grant<br />
Murphy. Heard in the more popular numbers<br />
like the Sondheim, it is a young Joan Morris<br />
who comes to mind. Indeed, she tosses off the<br />
Sondheim and Jules Styne’s ‘I Said No’ so ably<br />
that it is she, rather than Ms Morris, the author<br />
would rather hear. Still, though she is perfectly<br />
at ease in the popular idiom, it is the field of art<br />
song and opera where one hopes future<br />
encounters with her will be made.<br />
The production is greatly aided by pianist<br />
Philip Amalong’s contributions, and by the<br />
excellent engineering that allows both to be<br />
heard to full advantage in a spacious, natural<br />
perspective.<br />
Let us not close without a few quibbles.<br />
There are no texts. Since everything is sung in<br />
clear English, that is no great loss, but they<br />
would still have been handy. Ms Southworth<br />
also announces the title of each spoken reading,<br />
which detracts from the natural flow of<br />
one number to the next. It makes the spoken<br />
readings sound slightly out of place, though<br />
they are well rendered.<br />
Finally, our soprano adopts the current<br />
trend of including extended acknowledgements.<br />
There is no harm in this, but she uses<br />
up two pages of space that might have been<br />
devoted to more extensive notes. Further, they<br />
start to get a bit personal, ending with a gush<br />
of affection for her husband and children that<br />
would inspire in any boy of seven years a distinct<br />
feeling of yuckiness—and inspires in a<br />
certain boy of 47 years just a twinge of jealousy.<br />
Ms Southworth, you see, is an exceedingly<br />
lovely woman, something made clear by the<br />
numerous photographs by Ethan Hahn that<br />
grace the booklet.<br />
BOYER<br />
WORD POLICE: Notoriety<br />
People confuse this word with "fame". In a<br />
magazine article about writers, it said, "They<br />
write because they enjoy it and because it<br />
gives them notoriety within the industry,<br />
which certainly helps with career advancement."<br />
Notoriety would not help their<br />
careers! It is a bad reputation--unfavorable<br />
fame. ("Within" is also wrong in that sentence.)<br />
Frederica Von Stade<br />
Duets<br />
Judith Blegen, s; Charles Wadsworth, p<br />
Sony 78514—42 minutes<br />
Song Recital<br />
Martin Katz, p—Sony 78516—54 minutes<br />
Italian Opera Arias<br />
National Arts Center Orchestra/ Mario Bernardi<br />
Sony 78518—51 minutes<br />
MAHLER: orchestral songs<br />
London Philharmonic/ Andrew Davis<br />
Sony 78517—41 minutes<br />
FAURE: songs<br />
Jean-Philippe Collard, p—EMI 94425<br />
Sony continues to reissue old titles from their<br />
RCA and Columbia stock at their original LP<br />
length, using the notes and album art that first<br />
accompanied them. In our last issue we discussed<br />
several 1960s era recordings of Shirley<br />
Verrett. This time we have four 1970s albums<br />
of Frederica von Stade, plus one unrelated rerelease<br />
from EMI. No texts are included for any<br />
of these releases.<br />
From 1975 we have an album of duets with<br />
soprano Judith Blegen, accompanied by<br />
Charles Wadsworth. In some ways having Ms<br />
Blegen along is to Ms Von Stade’s detriment,<br />
because she grabs our attention. Our mezzo<br />
certainly does nothing less than good, but Ms<br />
Blegen has the more lovely voice and, perhaps<br />
more important, a certain “way with a song”<br />
that her colleague lacks. Mr Wadsworth’s contributions<br />
are slightly recessed, though not<br />
uncomfortably so, and the whole effort is<br />
blessed by satisfactory sound.<br />
Two albums from 1978 follow. First is a<br />
song recital covering everything from John<br />
Dowland to Carol Hall (b 1939). The balance<br />
between the soprano and the accompanist, in<br />
this case Martin Katz, is somewhat more realistic;<br />
though the sound, which is perfectly clear<br />
for the mezzo, is for the piano rather gritty. Ms<br />
Von Stade sings beautifully, but one wishes for<br />
a bit more involvement, a bit more characterization.<br />
Of note are the editions used for Dowland’s<br />
‘Come Again’ and Liszt’s ‘Oh! Quand je<br />
Dors’. The latter has a short introduction unfamiliar<br />
to me, while the former sounds more<br />
like an 18th Century arrangement than a genuine<br />
16th Century lute song.<br />
The second entry from 1978 is an album of<br />
Italian opera arias that avoids the “best of”<br />
and “world’s favorite” cliches, instead offering<br />
lesser known fare by Rossini and Leoncavallo,<br />
as well as selections by Giovanni Paisiello<br />
(1740-1816) and Riccardo Broschi (1698-1756).<br />
Ms Von Stade is again her professional but<br />
detached self, while Mario Bernardi and the<br />
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National Arts Center Orchestra supply vigorous<br />
support.<br />
Last of the Sony recordings is a 1979 album<br />
of Mahler’s orchestral lieder in stunning analog<br />
sound. The clarity and depth is remarkable,<br />
and the engineers are to be commended for<br />
making Mahler the real star of the show rather<br />
than our singer, who comes off, to her credit,<br />
as just one more instrument at the composer’s<br />
disposal. In a note accompanying this album,<br />
our editor complained of the singer’s thin,<br />
insipid sound, though he found the five Ruckert<br />
Lieder that close the recording better. I<br />
must confess that too often Ms Von Stade does<br />
sound dull and even boring, but the Ruckert<br />
Lieder indeed come off splendidly.<br />
Finally, we have a 1982 recording of Fauré<br />
songs, accompanied by Jean-Philippe Collard.<br />
The sound is excellent, the balances realistic,<br />
and the singer seems to have matured a bit, for<br />
she sings with more conviction. Either that, or<br />
French song suits her better. Perhaps it’s a bit<br />
of both.<br />
BOYER<br />
Till Solveig...<br />
Grieg, Rangstrom, Sibelius, Debussy<br />
Karen Vourc’h, s; Susan Manoff, p<br />
Aparte 2—55 minutes<br />
Karen Vourc’h has one those biographies that<br />
makes one do a double take. Does it really say<br />
DENNEHY: Gra Agus Bas; That the Night<br />
Come<br />
Iarla O Lionaird, vocals; Dawn Upshaw, s; Crash<br />
Ensemble/ Alan Pierson<br />
Nonesuch 527063—59 minutes<br />
ROBERTS: The Avocatus Suite Part I<br />
Elisabeth Toye, s; Michael L Roberts, p<br />
Nota Bene 25—42 minutes<br />
The Newest Music<br />
Terminal Velocity<br />
GORDON: Yo Shakespeare; ANDRIESSEN<br />
arr. POKE: De Snelheid; BRYARS: The<br />
Archangel Trip; LE GASSICK: Evol; LANG:<br />
Slow Movement<br />
Icebreaker<br />
Cantaloupe 21031—75 minutes<br />
LA BERGE: Drive; Brokenheart; ur_DU;<br />
Away; 800 Speakers<br />
Anne La Berge, voice, fl, electronics; Misha Myers,<br />
Josh Geffin, Amy Walker, Stephie Buttrich, Patrick<br />
Ozzard-Low, voice; Cor Fuhler, p<br />
New World 80717—76 minutes<br />
she graduated from the Ecole Normale<br />
Superieure with a degree in physics? This is the<br />
most arresting fact about a young singer since<br />
we read that Isabel Bayrakdarian took an honors<br />
degree in biomedical engineering from the<br />
University of Toronto.<br />
In any case, Ms Vourc’h is a formidable<br />
young talent. There are performers who have<br />
such an ability to convey the best in music that<br />
they allow us to enjoy composers to whom we<br />
otherwise have little affinity. Grieg’s songs, I<br />
must confess, have always left me a bit cold,<br />
but Ms Vourc’h makes them come alive in a<br />
way that no other singer does. She makes the<br />
Nordic idiom of Grieg, Rangstrom, and<br />
Sibelius entirely her own, making one wish she<br />
had found another ten or 20 minutes of like<br />
music (which, after all, we know is there) to fill<br />
out the running time of the album.<br />
Even the five songs by Debussy that close<br />
the album, seemingly at odds with the 15<br />
Nordic songs the precede them, are sung in<br />
such a way as to make their inclusion perfectly<br />
natural.<br />
Ms Vourc’h is ably accompanied by Susan<br />
Manoff, whose contributions are captured in<br />
vivid, detailed sound.<br />
BOYER<br />
BAIN: Music of the Primes; Butterfly Effect;<br />
Chaos Game (For Nancarrow); God Does Not<br />
Play Dice!; When Inspiration Came; Language<br />
of the Angels; Strange Attractors &<br />
Logarithmic Spirals; Pi Day<br />
Centaur 3089—53 minutes<br />
GABER: In Memoriam 2010<br />
Innova 243—64 minutes<br />
Quartet for the End of Space<br />
NORT: Outer; Inner; BRAASCH: Web Doppelganger;<br />
Snow Drifts; LOPEZ: Untitled<br />
270, 273; OLIVEROS: Mercury Retrograde;<br />
Cyber Talk Pogus 21059—70 minutes<br />
(50 Ayr Rd, Chester NY 10918)<br />
LIGETI, L: Without Prior Warning; On Patterned<br />
Time; Timelessnesses; From the<br />
Ground Up; Translucent Dusk; A Hook in the<br />
Sky; Tunnels Alight<br />
Benoit Delbecq, p; Gianni Gebbia, sax; Aly Keita,<br />
balafon; Michael Manring, electric bass; Lukas<br />
LIgeti, perc, toy balafon<br />
Innova 732—56 minutes<br />
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AKIHO: Hadairo-Beige; Kiiro-Yellow; Because of the dual tunings, strange clashes<br />
Murasaki-Purple; Aka-Red; Karakurenai-<br />
Crimson; Daidai Iro-Orange; To Walk or<br />
Run in West Harlem; The Ray’s End; No One<br />
to Know One; 21<br />
Andy Akiho, steel drums<br />
Innova 801—62 minutes<br />
occur in the background, but I found them<br />
enjoyable. There are great moments where the<br />
ensemble bolsters the vocals and the melody<br />
lines soar gracefully over a tonally supportive<br />
accompaniment. The last several minutes<br />
there is a rush to a cacophonous climax with<br />
Marimba Commissions 1<br />
WUORINEN: Marimba Variations; BUR-<br />
HANS: Lullaby for Madeline; SAPERSTEIN:<br />
Marimba Solo I-III<br />
Payton MacDonald<br />
whirling winds, percussive brass, and straining<br />
strings. Dennehy’s settings of Yeats poems in<br />
the 6 movements of That the Night Come range<br />
from the lush and pastoral tones of ‘He Wishes<br />
his Beloved Were Dead’ to the eclectic, quirky<br />
Equilibrium 104—31 minutes<br />
language in ‘These are the Clouds’. ‘White<br />
BARBER, S: Chanson Rond Point; Conversatio<br />
Morum I+II; Marbles; Elvis & Annabelle I-<br />
III; Multiple Points of View of a Fanfare I+II;<br />
Quartet I; Les Mots; The Killing<br />
Lucy Schaufer, s; Stephen Barber, p; Darren Dyke,<br />
steel drums; Tosca Strings; The Boiler Makers;<br />
Meridian Arts Ensemble; <strong>American</strong> Repertory<br />
Ensemble<br />
Navona 5850—51 minutes<br />
BECK: In Flight Until Mysterious Night; Sonata<br />
2; In February; Gemini; Slow Motion;<br />
Third Delphic Hymn; September Music<br />
IonSound<br />
Innova 797—69 minutes<br />
Birds’ begins with devilish mystery but unveils<br />
its beauty in the second half as soprano Dawn<br />
Upshaw sings over several different, repeated<br />
motives. Each piece is reverent in its treatment<br />
of Yeats while exploring rhythmic punctuations<br />
and, most often, layered, repeated patterns.<br />
In 2003, Michael Roberts survived a prolonged<br />
and life-threatening illness. His distress<br />
was compounded by the passing of two dear<br />
friends as well. The Avocatus Suite Part I, his<br />
response to the events in his life, is lyrically<br />
and musically somber. The moods are dark,<br />
but more transient and humbled before the<br />
fragility of the human condition than wallow-<br />
GALBRAITH: Other Sun; Traverso Mistico;<br />
Island Echoes; Night Train<br />
Stephen Schultz, electric fl; Barney Culver, Simon<br />
Cummings, Ben Munoz, Tate Olsen, Nicole<br />
Myers, electric vc; William Yanesh, p, hpsi; Brandon<br />
Schantz, Marcus Kim, Brandan Kelly,<br />
Zachary Larimer, Andrew Wright, perc; Carnegie<br />
Mellon Contemporary Ensemble/ Walter Morales<br />
Centaur 3106—54 minutes<br />
Awake<br />
GREENSTEIN: Change; FRIAR: Velvet Hammer;<br />
MAZZOLI: Magic with Everyday<br />
Objects; DANCIGERS: Burst; CROWELL:<br />
Waiting in the Rain for Snow; BURKE:<br />
Awake<br />
NOW Ensemble<br />
New Amsterdam 29—52 minutes<br />
Pianos in The Kitchen<br />
GLASS: Third Series Part 4 (Mad Rush);<br />
MONK: Travelling; Paris; PALESTINE: Evolution<br />
of a Sonority in Strumming & Arpeggio<br />
Style (exc); DAVIS: A Walk Through the<br />
Shadow; JARRETT: Ritual for Piano (exc);<br />
BUDD: Preludes for Solo Piano (exc)<br />
Orange Mountain 70—57 minutes<br />
ing. Roberts uses a chromatic language with<br />
jazz inflections and improvisation. The block<br />
chords in ‘The Last Corridor’ intermingle with<br />
brief moments of repose and a stunning, simple<br />
vocal line at the end. Elisabeth Toye’s<br />
soprano is gentle, clear, and mournful. High<br />
voice sections as in ‘The Deserted Star’ have<br />
light accompaniment, and she is never piercing.<br />
‘Arrogance, Be My Friend’ has a distinctly<br />
different mood, its driving bass giving way to<br />
triplets. It would be the best track on the<br />
album were it not for the confused ending.<br />
‘Avocatus’, instead, is given the title for its<br />
return to the simplicity begun in the program’s<br />
opener. The harmonic language is softer, but<br />
still emotionally burdened.<br />
Icebreaker’s performances are heavy and<br />
energetic. Even Gavin Bryars’s slow-moving,<br />
tonal Archangel Trip has zest. The punch and<br />
snap of the percussion beneath the soprano<br />
saxophone in Archangel Trip are nothing compared<br />
to the romping, overblown runs in<br />
Damian Le Gassick’s Evol. Intensely syncopated<br />
and displaced lines disrupt the sense of<br />
time, and the themes are quickly passed to and<br />
between instruments. Icebreaker’s take on<br />
Donnacha Dennehy’s opening to Gra Agus Bas Michael Gordon’s Yo Shakespeare falls victim<br />
is warm and annoying at the same time. Iarla to its recording environment. The piece is too<br />
O Lionaird’s vocals are strong and clear, loud, and instruments and articulations are<br />
singing in the sean-nos tradition of Ireland, lost. The electric guitar wails but is entirely<br />
while pure and tempered scales interact apart from the ensemble and dynamics reach a<br />
around him. The Crash Ensemble busily plays plateau too early. The glacial, droning Slow<br />
around the singer, weaving motives derived Movement by David Lang is the program closer<br />
from the sung parts in with new material. and high point. The mass of sound, the jumble<br />
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of colors, and the concentration on electronic<br />
instrumentation makes for a splendid prolongation.<br />
Anne La Berge’s electronic compositions<br />
are more like stories with improvisations.<br />
Drive includes a lengthy narrative from a<br />
woman with a southern accent with rapid-fire<br />
electronic pulses in the background. Brokenheart<br />
also includes a narrative but then dives<br />
into wild oscillations and high pitches over<br />
pulsating hums. A 19-tone octave is the basis<br />
for Away, and specific instructions guide the<br />
performer in ur_DU. These facts are secondary<br />
to the actual experience of listening to the program,<br />
which was far from enjoyable for me.<br />
Reginald Bain’s program, like La Berge’s,<br />
contains many pieces using Max/MSP for its<br />
programming language. Prime numbers, the<br />
Fibonacci sequence, chaos theory, and fractals<br />
are all inspirations for him. The Music of the<br />
Primes sounds like a straightforward electronic<br />
beat with emerging pedal tones under it. Butterfly<br />
Effect has a performer interact with the<br />
equation for the Doppler effect to create<br />
changing glissando textures while soft tones<br />
ebb and flow in the background. The program<br />
finally comes alive with the third work, Chaos<br />
Game (For Nancarrow). Two musical lines<br />
weave around and through each other while<br />
undergoing constant phasing. The harmonic<br />
language shifts as well, while the rampant percussion,<br />
especially the triangle, ground the listener.<br />
Dripping faucets and the logistic equation<br />
are the basis for When Inspiration Came.<br />
It begins with promise, creating melodies from<br />
the naturally occurring sounds of faucet drips,<br />
but the faucet is given no help from other<br />
sounds except the same sort of wind-swept,<br />
washed out pedals Bain uses in every piece.<br />
Harley Gaber’s 64-minute In Memoriam<br />
2010, like Bain’s program, lacks a variety of<br />
sounds. The first 25 minutes are filled with<br />
bubbling, garbled pulses and filtered feedback<br />
that rises and falls in pitch. There isn’t enough<br />
sound for it to be a noise piece, and there is<br />
too much motion for it to fit as a drone, leaving<br />
the hour-long work an ethereal ambience<br />
where the listener follows the airy, hollow electronics<br />
through lengthy sections and a gradual,<br />
steady decrescendo.<br />
The Quartet for the End of Space comprises<br />
extensive evolutions of the four composers<br />
playing together on several different occasions<br />
both at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and<br />
the Deep Listening Institute. Doug Van Nort’s<br />
Outer and Inner are slow to emerge and reveal<br />
themselves. Inner seems to be manipulations<br />
of mostly vocal sounds, but the effects make it<br />
hard to pinpoint the source. Outer floats in a<br />
sonic bog before turning up the volume and<br />
throwing in heavy clip distortion and bit<br />
crushing. The two untitled tracks by Francisco<br />
Lopez offer more activity to the listener’s ears<br />
while retaining the same detached, underwater<br />
sound Nort uses. Electrical hisses punctuate<br />
before becoming pedals, and soft squeaks<br />
play detached themes. Mercury Retrograde by<br />
Pauline Oliveros moves much closer to traditional<br />
music because it includes many instruments<br />
and she wants the listener to be able to<br />
recognize them. This is in direct contrast to the<br />
busy, shuffling Cyber Talk. With pitch shifts,<br />
cuts, crinkles, and lots of Doppler effect, Cyber<br />
Talk is extremely busy and contains many layers.<br />
Lukas Ligeti continues to write hip percussion<br />
based music oozing with style and new<br />
sounds. The entire album explores polymetrics<br />
and, sometimes, layers of different time signatures<br />
as well. Apparently, Ligeti keeps track of<br />
where he is in extended beats and what signature<br />
he is in not by counting bars but with the<br />
choreography of his limbs. On Patterned Time<br />
is quirky, jerky, and immersive. The seemingly<br />
unconnected parts are glued together so tangentially<br />
that it can be difficult to hear the<br />
piece as one ensemble playing cohesively. All<br />
the puzzle pieces do, of course, fit somehow;<br />
and the results of this feat entranced me. The<br />
balafon and saxophone give range and color to<br />
the experimental ensemble. The thorough<br />
exploration of polymetrics and the Afro-jazz<br />
nature of the tracks means there are few<br />
straight-ahead sections to enjoy where cohesion<br />
and ensemble playing is simple. On the<br />
other hand, with the variety of rhythms, patterns,<br />
and downbeats, there is always something<br />
new to discover.<br />
I find it very difficult to listen to an hour of<br />
steel drum music. The obtrusive timbre is jarring<br />
in any ensemble, and I can rarely divorce<br />
the instrument’s sound from island images in<br />
my mind. Andy Akiho’s program is centered<br />
around it. Whole tone scales, jazzy interludes,<br />
prepared steel drums, and full ensemble<br />
accompaniment are all used in the mostly diatonic<br />
program. To Walk or Run In West Harlem<br />
is highly chromatic, with rough cello bowing,<br />
but the piece uses prepared vibraphone rather<br />
than steel drum for its mallet percussion. The<br />
compositions certainly have merit, with the<br />
trumpet, violin, steel drum trio in The Ray’s<br />
End standing out as particularly memorable<br />
with its subtle dynamic changes, ostinato, and<br />
the weaving of motives among the instruments.<br />
Super Marimba II, by Payton MacDonald,<br />
is still one of my favorite albums that I have<br />
reviewed. His latest effort, a collection of solo<br />
marimba commissions, removes the technological<br />
effects and concentrates on exploring<br />
the instrument’s wooden sounds. His performance<br />
is strong and he displays a large range<br />
of dynamics and impeccable rhythmic preci-<br />
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sion. Lullaby for Madeline, by Caleb Burhans,<br />
is filled with gently rolled chords and expressive<br />
arpeggios that push and pull the tempo.<br />
Rolls dominate I of David Saperstien’s Marimba<br />
Solo, becoming points of return after rising<br />
lines as well as slow, separated pieces of a<br />
melody. The finale’s quickness points out<br />
MacDonald’s dexterity with some extremely<br />
fast runs that he absolutely nails. Wuorinen’s<br />
Marimba Variations is the low point of the<br />
record. It, like Finnegans Wake, starts and ends<br />
mid-sentence. The numerous tempo changes<br />
supply a disjointed listening experience that<br />
estranged me.<br />
A highly eclectic composer, Stephen Barber;<br />
gives us serialism and frozen register,<br />
chromatic language, Renaissance flair, standard<br />
chord progressions, and sweeping,<br />
romantic melodies. The confusion in Multiple<br />
Points of View of a Fanfare is brimming with<br />
robust energy and round, tight articulations<br />
from the brass. Elvis and Annabelle II is touching<br />
and lush. The mix of muted brass, dark<br />
strings, and the saxophone creates a thick,<br />
warm sound. The short string quartet spreads<br />
chromatic themes across the ensemble and<br />
uses small motives as building blocks for its<br />
angular lines. Conversatio Morum I has the<br />
energy of a rousing Copland with the sound of<br />
a flowing, but unrelenting, piece for Asian ballet.<br />
Like any Navona release, all sorts of extras<br />
are packed on this varied but solid disc.<br />
Jeremy Beck’s program, performed by Ion-<br />
Sound, is filled with light-hearted, tonal chamber<br />
works. In Flight Until Mysterious Night has<br />
warmth and spunk. The clarinet floats through<br />
and with the cello while a surprising marimba<br />
lends it a soft timbre. The quick, syncopated<br />
melody is pop-like. In February, a quartet for<br />
soprano, violin, clarinet, and piano, expresses<br />
complex emotions lyrically, but stagnates in a<br />
musical mood of pastoral, flowery longing.<br />
Slow Motion is actually rather quick, but the<br />
interplay between the vibraphone and piano is<br />
best in calm passages. Beck seems more adept<br />
at writing the slower sections.<br />
Continuing with programs with new chamber<br />
ensemble configurations, Nancy Galbraith’s<br />
Other Sun combines an electric<br />
baroque flute with electric cellos, percussion,<br />
and a harpsichord. The opening, ‘Journey’,<br />
won me over with its minimalist tilt and poplike<br />
chord progression. The piece’s contented<br />
mood continues in the lyrical ‘Between Stars’.<br />
The light percussion refuses to mesh with the<br />
ensemble, and the metallic hits seem like<br />
cameos. Island Echoes is a percussion ensemble<br />
piece for three players. It is a nice break<br />
from the flute, and the light timbres of the keyboard<br />
percussion are refreshing, but some of<br />
the playing isn’t clean. Night Train has more<br />
confident, brash passages than any of the<br />
other pieces. The amplification of the flute in<br />
some sections takes it into dangerous territory<br />
where it loses its charm. Galbraith’s compositions<br />
are tonal, but the harmonic language she<br />
uses combined with the timbre of the electric<br />
flute leads the listener specifically toward<br />
Native <strong>American</strong> dances.<br />
NOW Ensemble’s new album begins with<br />
the fantastic Change by Judd Greenstrein. The<br />
minimalist opening is filled with excited energy<br />
as it builds. Forward motion undergoes its<br />
own development section as the electric guitar<br />
enters, completely altering the sonic landscape.<br />
In a couple of minutes, however, a rousing,<br />
charged piece gounded by piano and<br />
pushed by the flute and clarinet erupts. Mark<br />
Danciger’s Burst employs circular rhythms and<br />
pentatonic melodies with classical sensibilities.<br />
The pedals affecting the guitar make it<br />
sound like incidental background music from<br />
an 80s movie, but it meshes much better in the<br />
return of the introductory figures when the<br />
flute and clarinet become much more active.<br />
The lengthy figures in David Crowell’s Waiting<br />
in the Rain for Snow are dark and motive. Just<br />
as rain under certain conditions can transform<br />
into white flakes, the material undergoes shifts<br />
and changes. Pedal tone shifts usher in minor<br />
mode treatments of motives while other<br />
major, pop chord progressions float above.<br />
The coexisting harmonics add great depth to<br />
the quick, syncopated piece.<br />
Volume 5 of “From the Kitchen Archives”<br />
celebrates piano performances from 1976<br />
through 1983. Philip Glass’s haunting, sonorous<br />
Third Series IV (Mad Rush) opens the program<br />
with its steady pulse and repeated patterns.<br />
Anthony Davis’s Walk Through The<br />
Shadow is a darker piece, with temporally disjointed<br />
motives, some loud trills, and ascending<br />
figures. Meredith Monk’s Travelling is the<br />
sole performance with more than piano. Her<br />
voice chants more than sings, and there are no<br />
lyrics. She shrieks and wails above a simple<br />
accompaniment while humming little ditties<br />
and sounding off as if she were a pioneer<br />
about to tackle the Oregon Train. The excerpt<br />
from Keith Jarrett’s Ritual for Piano is tonally<br />
based, with a gospel chord progression. The<br />
melody is tender, with simple motion at midtempo.<br />
Unexpected notes and short passages<br />
that sound like errors crop up, but they fold<br />
seamlessly back into cadential material.<br />
LAMPER<br />
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Newest Music 2<br />
MCLEAN: Caverns of Darkness, Rings of<br />
Light; Desert Voices; Cries and Echoes;<br />
Xakaalawe<br />
James Gourlay, tuba; Jonathan Aceto, midi violin;<br />
Ronald Feldman, vc; Charlie Tokarz, woodwinds;<br />
Priscilla McLean, voice<br />
MLC 0—74 minutes<br />
(55 Coon Brook Rd, Petersburgh NY 12138)<br />
MUHLY: Seeing Is Believing; Motion; By All<br />
Means; Step Team;<br />
BYRD: Miserere Mei; Bow Thine Ear, O Lord;<br />
GIBBONS: This Is the <strong>Record</strong> of John<br />
Thomas Gould, elec v; Aurora Orchestra/ Thomas<br />
Gould<br />
Decca 4782731—72 minutes<br />
On the Nature of...<br />
ICHIYANAGI: Portrait of Forest; NORGARD:<br />
I Ching; DRUCKMAN: Reflections on the<br />
Nature of Water; DI SANZA: Concerto for<br />
Darabukka & Percussion<br />
Anthony Di Sanza, darabukka; Jason Richins, Tim<br />
Russell, Jamie V Ryan, Cindy Terhune, perc<br />
Equilibrium 99—66 minutes<br />
Songs & Cycles<br />
DIEMER: Strings in the Earth & Air; The<br />
Caller; One Perfect Rose; Shall I Compare<br />
Thee to a Summer’s Day?; RAHN: Vicarious;<br />
Shore Grass; FREIBERGER: The Coffee-Pot<br />
Songs; Winter Apples; LARSEN: Songs from<br />
Letters; Calamity Jane to her Daughter Janey;<br />
AUSTIN: Sonnets from the Portuguese<br />
Linda McNeil, Kathy McNeil, s; Stephanie<br />
Shapiro, ob; Carolyn True, p<br />
Leonarda 357—76 minutes<br />
(808 West End Ave Suite 508, NY 10025-5305)<br />
RICHTER: Riders to the Sea; Kyrie<br />
Melissa Maravell, a; Susan Holsonbake, Julie<br />
Nord, s; Anna Tonna, mz; Aram Tchobanian,<br />
William George, t; Judith Mendenhall, Jill Sokol,<br />
fl; Ingrid Gordon, perc; Susan Jolles, hp; William<br />
Schimmel, acc; Tali Kravitz, Aleeza Wadler, Kelly<br />
Hall-Tompkins, v; Anoush Simonian, va; Ellen<br />
Rose Silver, Rubin Kodheli, Maxine Neuman, vc;<br />
Pawel Knapik, db/ Daijiro Ukon<br />
Leonarda 358—67 minutes<br />
ASENJO: The Batrachomyomachia; Palm-ofthe-Hand<br />
Tales; Basile’s Pentameron<br />
Slovak Symphony/ Kirk Trevor<br />
Albany 1259—59 minutes<br />
NIEMINEN: Il Viaggio del Cavaliere...<br />
(Inesistente); In Mirrors of Time...; La<br />
Serenissima<br />
Erkko Palola, v, va; Anni Kuusimaki, hp; Pori Sinfonietta/<br />
Jukka Iisakkila<br />
Pilfink 79—71 minutes<br />
TICHELI: An <strong>American</strong> Dream; MCLOSKEY:<br />
Prex Penitentialis<br />
Leilah Dione Ezra, Andrea Fullington, s; Frost<br />
Symphony/ Zoe Zeniodi; HGNM Chamber<br />
Orchestra/ Brad Lubman—Albany 1258—64 mins<br />
SHAPEY: Violin Sonatas; Solo Violin Sonata<br />
1; Adagio & Allegro; 4 Etudes<br />
Miranda Cuckson; Blair McMillen, p<br />
Centaur 3103—60 minutes<br />
ARAUCO: Envoi; Ritorno; Fantasy-Quartet;<br />
Cello Sonata; Piano Quartet; Meditation<br />
Hirono Oka, v; Burchard Tang, va; John Koen, vc;<br />
Paul Demers, cl; Matthew Bengtson, Charles<br />
Abramovic, p—Albany 1249—54 minutes<br />
CHILD: Songs of Bidpai; Pantomime; Promenade;<br />
Viola Sonata; Rilke Songs<br />
Olivia Robinson, s; Rebecca Lodge, mz, Lontano/<br />
Odaline de la Martinez—Lontano 131—66 mins<br />
<strong>American</strong> Percussion 1<br />
TOWER: DNA; SANDLER: Pulling Radishes;<br />
HIGDON: Splendid Wood; RODRIGUEZ: El<br />
Dia de los Muertos; SCHULLER: Concerto for<br />
Percussion and Keyboards<br />
New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble/<br />
Frank Epstein, Gunther Schuller<br />
Naxos 559683—67 minutes<br />
LIANG: Ascencion; Winged Creatures; Journey<br />
into Desire; Yuan; Lake; Harp Concerto;<br />
Milou<br />
Meridian Arts Ensemble; Takae Ohnishi, hpsi;<br />
Kate Hatmaker, Jeff Zehngut, v; Chia-Ling Chien,<br />
vc; Pablo Gomez, g; Radnofsky Quartet; John<br />
Fonville, Jane Rigler, fl; June Han, hp; Manhattan<br />
Sinfonietta/ Jeffrey Milarsky; New England Conservatory<br />
Chamber Singers/ Tamara Brooks;<br />
Lenny Breton, Eric Hewitt, Conrad Kline, Shyen<br />
Lee, Samuel Lorber, Greg Ridlington, sax; Christopher<br />
DeChiara, Jeremy Friedman, Phillip Kiamie,<br />
Matthew Masie, Eric Millstein, Mei-Ying Ng, Gary<br />
Wallen, perc; Van Weng, elec g; Jon Sakata, p; Lei<br />
Liang, hpsi—New World 80715—69 minutes<br />
Commissions & Concertos<br />
ENGEBRETSON: Wind Symphony; SAPIE-<br />
YEVSKI: Trumpet Concerto; HIDAS: Rhapsody;<br />
MAYAZUMI: Percussion Concerto;<br />
BOELTER: Mountains & Mesas<br />
SUNY Fredonia Wind Ensemble/ Paula Holcomb<br />
Albany 1252—62 minutes<br />
Light & Shadow<br />
WORTHINGTON: Tracing a Dream; OS-<br />
WALD: Finding the Murray River; Sleep,<br />
Child; ALBERT: Boundaries; Interiors;<br />
RUSSO: Family Voices; LOMBARDI: Tonisadie;<br />
PERTTU: Light & Shadow in the<br />
Yosemite Valley<br />
Russian Philharmonic/ Marinescu; Moravian<br />
Philharmonic, Pilsen Philharmonic/ Vit Micka;<br />
Ohio State University Symphony/ Marshall Haddock<br />
Navona 5847—52 minutes<br />
<strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> 231
Sig08arg.QXD 7/22/2011 4:52 PM Page 232<br />
Priscilla McLean has long been a part of the<br />
new music scene, in association with her husband<br />
Barton McLean. This DVD shows off her<br />
video artistry as well as four pieces of music<br />
composed by her. The music is full of extended<br />
techniques and often uses electronic manipulation,<br />
and it is obvious she knows very well<br />
how to make interesting and beautiful sounds<br />
from a number of instruments. Caverns of<br />
Darkness, Rings of Light is for tuba, Desert<br />
Voices for midi violin, and Cries and Echoes is<br />
for cello. These are all recorded in concert, but<br />
the fourth piece is a studio work, Xakaalawe<br />
(Flowing) for woodwinds and voice, with<br />
McLean herself performing the vocals. They<br />
are all very interesting musical explorations<br />
and performed very well.<br />
The video art that accompanies each work<br />
is not as good. From a slow slide-show of landscape<br />
photos to meagerly manipulated lowquality<br />
video of the instruments in close-up<br />
(and the performers’ hands), these visuals all<br />
share one thing in common—they just aren’t<br />
very interesting. They are sometimes blatantly<br />
bad. This very interesting music—and these<br />
very good performances of it—would have<br />
been better served by an audio release.<br />
Seeing Is Believing, the title track on the<br />
recording of works by Nico Muhly, is a piece for<br />
six-string electric violin and orchestra. Muhly<br />
gets some attractive sounds from the orchestra,<br />
and the whole has some moments of beauty—<br />
but these alternate with longer sections of less<br />
interest. The work seems longer than its 25<br />
minutes. In Muhly’s other works recorded here,<br />
his interest in English vocal music is very evident,<br />
which is driven home by the interspersal<br />
of three English works in arrangement—two by<br />
Byrd and one by Gibbons. Step Team is in<br />
many ways the most interesting, with precise<br />
rhythmic articulation and occasional brief<br />
moments of hesitation. The Aurora Orchestra<br />
here performs exceptionally well.<br />
On the Nature of... is a collection of percussion<br />
pieces performed by Anthony Di Sanza<br />
and others. The short work by Ichiyanagi is<br />
aimless and derivative, but there are two excellent<br />
works on the program—the astoundingly<br />
difficult (and seminal) I Ching of Norgard,<br />
which charted his exploration of the infinity<br />
row in a non-pitched context, and the beautiful<br />
Reflections on the Nature of Water by<br />
Druckman—both performed very well by Di<br />
Sanza. The last work on the program is by Di<br />
Sanza himself, a Concerto for Darabukka and<br />
Percussion Quartet. The Darabukka is a middle-eastern<br />
goblet-shaped drum. With it (and<br />
his quartet) he creates a fascinating work of<br />
many facets, influenced by middle-eastern<br />
music (of course) and Japanese drumming.<br />
A compilation of songs (mainly with piano)<br />
by “contemporary <strong>American</strong> women com-<br />
posers”, Songs and Cycles is marred by harsh<br />
vocals with nearly epileptic vibrato. With the<br />
best recording imaginable these performances<br />
would be severely compromised, but on top of<br />
this the mix is heavily in favor of the voice. Most<br />
of the songs are mediocre at best in any case.<br />
With a libretto taken from John M Synge’s<br />
play of the same name, Riders to the Sea by<br />
Marga Richter is about loss and the cruelty of<br />
the sea, and about life in rural Ireland. The<br />
music fits the text well—sometimes heavy,<br />
sometimes somewhat folksy, often tender and<br />
melancholic. The vocal performances are<br />
somewhat lackluster, but there are some interesting<br />
moments musically. Also, there is a<br />
short Kyrie for string quartet and double bass<br />
that is very accessible and songful. Lyrical<br />
melodic passages lie on low drones in the bass<br />
and create a lush, beautiful effect.<br />
Asenjo’s Batrachomyomachia is a work for<br />
orchestra based on the ancient Greek work of<br />
the same name, a parody of the Iliad. Lyrical<br />
sections are often interrupted by short declamations<br />
and chords, and it has an interesting<br />
mix of colors. Palm-of-the-Hand-Tales is a collection<br />
of 10 pieces—incidental music to ten of<br />
the Palm-of-the-Hand-Stories by Yasunari<br />
Kawabata. They are less interesting than the<br />
first piece—an amalgam of cliched phrases<br />
without much aim, often sounding saccharine.<br />
Basile’s Pentameron is again based on literature,<br />
this time on (you guessed it) the Pentameron<br />
by Giambattista Basile. The Pentameron<br />
is a source for some of the stories<br />
later found in the tales of the Grimm brothers<br />
and Perrault—and the stories themselves are<br />
more interesting than these musical episodes.<br />
Il Viaggio del Cavaliere...(Inesistente) is a<br />
concerto for violin and orchestra based on<br />
Cervantes’s Don Quixote. It is quite colorful,<br />
and the solo writing is sometimes very beautiful.<br />
The first movement is especially attractive—a<br />
quicksilver shifting of moods and colors.<br />
In Mirrors of Time... (through Colours of<br />
Autumn) is a piece for orchestra dedicated to<br />
the memory of Nieminen’s colleague Lasse<br />
Eerola. It is appropriately meditative, and he<br />
makes good use of the orchestra—even if he is<br />
slightly too obvious with the harp sometimes.<br />
His viola concerto, La Serenissima, is an evocation<br />
of the mystique of Venice. The viola part is<br />
very interesting and performed very well.<br />
[More of Nieminen’s music and playing are<br />
reviewed from Pilfink releases in Collections.]<br />
Frank Ticheli’s <strong>American</strong> Dream is a “symphony<br />
of songs for soprano and orchestra”<br />
with texts by Philip Littell. His aim with this<br />
work was to express the anxiety felt in America<br />
at the close of the previous century. The songs<br />
are expertly constructed, sometimes (appropriately<br />
and subtly) disturbing, and the texts<br />
are rich and evocative. The third song, ‘Out-<br />
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side in the night, a woman cried out’ is espe- This recording of <strong>American</strong> Music for Percially<br />
good. Leilah Dione Ezra sings with style cussion collects works by five composers. Joan<br />
and character. Lansing McLoskey’s Pres Peni- Tower’s DNA is a listenable representation of<br />
tentialis is a work for soprano and orchestra the physical structure of DNA. Felicia Sandler’s<br />
with text excerpted from two works of Petrar- Pulling Radishes—the title comes from a short<br />
ch—Canzoniere and Pres Penitentialis. A more Japanese poem, translated in the booklet as<br />
introverted work, it has a soaring vocal line “The man pulling radishes pointed the way<br />
accompanied with restraint by the orchestra. It with a radish” comprises small rhythmic<br />
is an ethereal and beautiful piece, performed motives and interesting color changes, and is<br />
very well here by Andrea Fullington.<br />
one of the most effective works on the record.<br />
Ralph Shapey is called a “radical tradition- Splendid Wood, by Jennifer Higdon, is called<br />
alist”. His grounding in the western classical by the composer “a celebration of the splendor<br />
tradition was firm, and this recording shows his of the marimba”. And that it is—the beautiful<br />
music at its most characteristic—tightly con- sound of the instruments (three marimbas)<br />
structed, rich with ideas, modernist but expres- takes center stage, though the piece is well<br />
sive. It also shows another aspect of his music: written and Higdon knows how to exploit the<br />
it is difficult to listen to very much of it at once. instruments’ idiosyncrasies. Robert Xavier<br />
There is an ineffable monochromatic element Rodriguez’s El Dia de los Muertos is inspired by<br />
that makes an entire program of his music the Mexican “day of the dead”. It is a work for<br />
something of a trial, no matter how fantastic eight percussionists that evokes a somber<br />
the performers. And these performers show a mood. Gunther Schuller’s Grand Concerto for<br />
technical mastery and musical sensibility of the Percussion and Keyboards is the least interest-<br />
highest class. Still, the three sonatas are very ing piece presented. It is a long work (almost<br />
well constructed pieces, and anyone interested 26 minutes) for huge forces (over 100 percus-<br />
in high modernism would do well to listen. sion instruments, plus piano, harp, and<br />
With a harmonic language heavily influ- celeste) and quite sparse.<br />
enced by the Second Viennese School, the Milou, a varied program of music by Lei<br />
works by Ingrid Arauco are both atonal and Liang, opens with Ascension for brass quintet<br />
harmonically complex. The influence doesn’t and percussion. It combines glissandos and<br />
end there, however—the way her ideas and deep rumblings—among other things—into a<br />
motives evolve reminds one of Schoenberg rather conversational whole. Winged Crea-<br />
and, especially, Berg. These are attractive tures—A Cadenza for Harpsichord is an espe-<br />
works and well performed, but finally sound cially beautiful and delicate work for harpsi-<br />
derivative. The Fantasy-Quartet is an exciting chord and strings, where the harpsichord<br />
demonstration of writing for dissimilar instru- improvises on the shape of the Chinese charments<br />
and one of the most effective pieces on acter for “flight”. In this performance Takae<br />
the program. The cello sonata, more tonal Ohnishi uses the inside of the harpsichord as<br />
than the other works, borders on trite in the much as the keyboard—rubbing the strings<br />
first movement—but II is a lyrical slow move- with her palm, plucking them with her fingerment.<br />
The Piano Quartet has five short movenails, etc. All of this is accompanied beautifully<br />
ments, each very different from the other. It is by the strings and makes for a lovely piece. A<br />
an effervescent romp—light and airy.<br />
Journey into Desire for guitar, based on the<br />
The texts of Peter Child’s Songs of Bidpai Dream of the Red Chamber (one of the “Four<br />
are from Libyan poet Muhammad al-Faituri Great Classical Novels” of China), is an inter-<br />
and are something of hybrid of western modesting work that gets distinctly Asian sounds<br />
ernism and an Islamic aesthetic. This is in a from the guitar using accents and pitch bends.<br />
way appropriate; these songs were written Lake is a piece for two flutes, delicate and<br />
with the attacks on the World Trade Center in beautiful. The title piece is for chorus, percus-<br />
mind. They are extroverted and rhythmically sionists, saxophonists, electric guitar, piano,<br />
very inventive, and performed expertly by and harpsichord. It opens with an imitation of<br />
Olivia Robinson. Pantomime: Seven Lyric Beijing opera recitation by a saxophonist<br />
Scenes for Oboe Quartet is a playful work, excit- vocalizing through a mouthpiece and contains<br />
ing and exuberant. The Viola Sonata is a well- many interesting sounds and colors—but it<br />
written dialog between the viola and the suffers from a lack of direction, and many of<br />
piano, changeable in mood and rich in ideas. the vocalizations end up sounding contrived<br />
In almost direct opposition to the opening and empty of meaning.<br />
song cycle, the program closes with Child’s Commissions and Concertos is a compila-<br />
Rilke Songs—a set of seven introverted and tion of wind ensemble music performed by the<br />
beautiful songs for mezzo-soprano and SUNY Fredonia Wind Ensemble. They range<br />
ensemble on short poems by Rilke. Rebecca from Mark Engebretson’s Symphony for<br />
Lodge has some pitch problems, but the songs Winds, a four-movement work for large<br />
are satisfying.<br />
ensemble, to the short Mountains and Mesas<br />
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by Karl Boelter. Little stands out as exceptional,<br />
except perhaps the excellent performance,<br />
by Randall Hawes, of Frigyes Hidas’s Rhapsody<br />
for Bass Trombone and Wind Band. The works<br />
in general sound rather pedestrian, but they<br />
are performed well.<br />
The high point of the Navona <strong>Record</strong>s<br />
release Light and Shadow would have to be<br />
Having seen the Collegiate Chorale’s revival of<br />
the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson musical<br />
Knickerbocker Holiday this past January, I was<br />
happy to hear it was recorded, as this would<br />
give me a chance to appreciate the score more<br />
fully. (Ghostlight 84450). The Anderson book<br />
remains ponderous and political, and the<br />
lyrics are not easy to assimilate, But at least<br />
half of the score (the first act) is truly<br />
admirable. The huge chorus and the excellent<br />
orchestra conducted by James Bagwell are<br />
marvelous, and the recording offers many<br />
chances to appreciate Weill’s gorgeous orchestration.<br />
The style is operetta-ish, a combination of<br />
something like Der Kuhhandel and a touch of<br />
Gilbert & Sullivan; but the book, instead of<br />
being primarily comic, is so concerned with<br />
proto-facism and Rooseveltism that is sinks<br />
under its own weight in Act II. But the numbers<br />
in Act I are sensational, especially on a<br />
recording, where you aren’t bothered with<br />
most of the dull dialog. ‘There’s Nowhere to<br />
Go but Up’ has delightful twists and turns,<br />
ending rapturously. ‘It Never Was You’ is wonderfully<br />
sung by Ben Davis and Kelli O’Hara,<br />
and what an enchanting melody it is. The tune<br />
to ‘How Can You Tell an <strong>American</strong>?’ is memorable,<br />
and the lyrics are appropriately pithy.<br />
Then comes the entrance of the Governor<br />
Pieter Stuyvesant, and his songs, first ‘One<br />
Touch of Alchemy’, then ‘All Hail the Political<br />
Honeymoon” with its fascist ‘Strength<br />
Through Joy’ refrain. Then the charmingly pattery<br />
‘One Indespensable Man’ and finally the<br />
famous ‘September Song’. Victor Garber may<br />
have had his nose in the script during the performances,<br />
but on the disc he gets away with<br />
most of these numbers nicely—and with a certain<br />
gusto—not quite with the raffish, scowling<br />
style of the original Stuyvesant, Walter Huston,<br />
with his patented, devilish charm, but with his<br />
own Garberish charm. (I wasn’t too impressed<br />
with ‘The Scars’—that came off less well.)<br />
There are other pleasant diversions, like<br />
the waltz chorus ‘Young People Think about<br />
Love’, the lesser love duets like ‘Will You<br />
Adrienne Albert’s Boundaries, a consciously<br />
repetitive and well-performed short orchestral<br />
work. The Russian Philharmonic under Ovidiu<br />
Marinescu performs Rain Worthington’s Tracing<br />
a Dream with a beautiful, lush sound, but<br />
most of the rest of the recording leaves much<br />
to be desired.<br />
Classical Broadway<br />
BYELICK<br />
Remember Me?’, quite Germanic, and the<br />
Latin-sounding ‘We Are Cut in Twain’. Finally<br />
we have a complete recording of this 1938<br />
score, and it is to be cherished. It doesn’t yet<br />
have the more fully Broadway style of later<br />
works like Lady in the Dark or One Touch of<br />
Venus, but there lies its fascination. It is Kurt<br />
Weill slowly leaving Europe for the USA.<br />
The revival of How to Succeed in Business<br />
Without Really Trying is doing excellent business<br />
on Broadway, mainly, one would suppose,<br />
because of Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe<br />
playing the role originated in 1961 by<br />
Robert Morse. The last Broadway revival, with<br />
Matthew Broderick, was a sorry affair that<br />
added no luster to this fabled show.<br />
The current production (Decca Broadway<br />
15645) uses an orchestra of about 14, probably<br />
half the original, and has been reorchestrated,<br />
as usual these days, this time by Doug Besterman.<br />
There’s a conscious effort to approximate<br />
the lounge-y style of the the 1960s, to go<br />
with the look and feel of Mad Men, the hit TV<br />
series. That’s fine, but I do prefer the original<br />
glorious orchestrations by Robert Ginzler,<br />
which were supremely theatrical.<br />
In the recording, Mr Radcliffe sounds<br />
earnest and agreeable, with an approximation<br />
of an <strong>American</strong> accent. No problem there. But<br />
I miss some of the original supporting cast. (I<br />
haven’t seen this production yet.) The most<br />
missed is Charles Nelson Reilly, as Bud Frump;<br />
the new actor, Christopher J Hanke, has no<br />
discernable comedic sound. John Larroquette<br />
sounds OK as the magnate, and the girls all<br />
sound agreeable.<br />
The nice thing about this recording is that<br />
you get expanded versions of many of the<br />
songs, with reprises, and things that went<br />
unrecorded in 1961, in the dear old days of the<br />
LP. Examples include the narrator’s spiel at the<br />
beginning done by Anderson Cooper, items<br />
like ‘Martini Time’, the Act I finaletto, the<br />
music accompanying the bows at the end of<br />
the show, and even the orchestral exit music.<br />
Plus an extended version of the Pirate Dance,<br />
part of a TV quiz show sequence.<br />
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But the great ensembles still retain their<br />
mythic glory: ‘The Company Way’, ‘Been a<br />
Long Day’, ‘Paris Original’, and the executive<br />
washroom scene, with the singing businessmen<br />
and ‘I Believe in You’. ‘Coffee Break’ falls<br />
flat here, but the secretarial ‘Cinderella Darling’<br />
sounds just spiffy, with its typing or tapdancing,<br />
or both. 1The Brotherhood of Man’<br />
looked rather busy on the Tony Awards TV<br />
broadcast.<br />
The London Palladium, which started as a<br />
vaudeville house, is now in the business of<br />
mounting spectacular musicals. A new version<br />
of The Wizard of Oz, based on the 1939 Hollywood<br />
film classic, is the current occupant<br />
(Decca 15692). I remember seeing another<br />
stage mounting of this by the Royal Shakespeare<br />
Company earlier—it was not memorable.<br />
The production, from the booklet photos,<br />
looks cheesily-spectacular British, though I<br />
have no doubt there are spectacular effects,<br />
this being the Palladium.<br />
This version adds unnecessary songs by<br />
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to the<br />
classics by Harold Arlen and EY Harburg. They<br />
BACH: Partita 1; Italian Concerto; English<br />
Suite 2; Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue<br />
Wanda Landowska, hpsi<br />
Paradizo 9—74 minutes (with DVD)<br />
Concert performances from 1935-36, recorded<br />
at her own concert hall in Saint-Leu-la-Foret<br />
and remastered in 2010. The interpretations,<br />
as always, are stunning; I’m amazed in particular<br />
at the variety of touch in the third movement<br />
of the Italian Concerto and her grand<br />
sense of expressive planning in the Sarabande<br />
from the Partita. It’s easy, indeed, to see why<br />
Landowska made and continues to make such<br />
an impression on enthusiasts of early music;<br />
her approach, strange to say, remains highly<br />
relevant today.<br />
The release includes a DVD-ROM that contains<br />
almost 200 photographs of Landowska,<br />
her teaching, letters, and other important documents.<br />
These materials have largely been<br />
available only by permission of the owners in<br />
whose archives they are stored. No Landowska<br />
devotee will want to be without this release,<br />
and most lovers of early music performance in<br />
general will be very pleased to own it as well.<br />
HASKINS<br />
Archives<br />
are completely out of character with the charm<br />
of the old ones, and are sung in a modern,<br />
drawly, power-ballad style that has nothing to<br />
do with the originals. The problem is compounded<br />
with a synthesizer-ish band that<br />
wreaks havoc with the original, glorious MGM<br />
orchestrations.<br />
The songwriters dare to add a new introduction<br />
to ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’:<br />
anathema! The attempt to musicalize scenes in<br />
the film that were perfectly good with dialog is<br />
another miscalculation. One, for the nominal<br />
star Michael Crawford, as Professor Marvel, is<br />
a model of syrupy world-gazing.<br />
The wit of Harburg’s brilliant rhymes<br />
endure, and although the arrangements have<br />
accretions by David Cullen, the songs left (relatively)<br />
alone come off best. The new ‘Red<br />
Shoes Blues’ has clever lyrics, if not much of a<br />
tune, and there’s a new sentimental anthem to<br />
take Dorothy back to her Kansas farm. But the<br />
film is so perfect, that the only reason I can see<br />
redoing this for the London stage is to bring in<br />
new generations of children.<br />
TRAUBNER<br />
BARTOK: Violin Concerto; 2 Portraits; Cantata<br />
Profana; Music for Strings, Percussion,<br />
& Celeste; Dance Suite; Divertimento for<br />
Strings; Rhapsody; Piano Concertos 1+2<br />
Tibor Varga, v; Geza Anda, Louis Kentner, Andor<br />
Foldes, p; Helmut Krebs, t, Dietrich Fischer-<br />
Dieskau, bar, RIAS Symphony/ Ferenc Fricsay<br />
Audite 21407 [3CD] 3:04<br />
The 1950s was the great decade for Bartok performances—would<br />
that the composer had<br />
been still alive! It was a remarkable recovery<br />
considering the comparative obscurity of his<br />
last years. But the 1950s were also a dicey<br />
decade for the interpretation of 20th Century<br />
works, because success came at the cost of<br />
homogenizing performance practices that<br />
deracinated some of the more exciting elements<br />
in modern music. Ferenc Fricsay, much<br />
admired then and since, was both a champion<br />
of Bartok and of the mode of conducting then<br />
displacing the more spontaneous mode associated<br />
that earlier Hungarian <strong>conductor</strong>, Artur<br />
Nikisch. These museum-friendly performances,<br />
made in 1950-53, lack the warmth<br />
and rubato one might expect in “authentic”<br />
Bartok. Fritz Reiner is much racier in the Concerto<br />
for Orchestra.<br />
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The RIAS Symphony doesn’t help: they are<br />
competent in what must have been unfamiliar<br />
repertoire, but they certainly come across as<br />
Berliners: their sound is smooth and attractive<br />
but lacking in earth tones. That said, Fricsay’s<br />
soloists, Hungarian compatriots all, supply the<br />
necessary ingredients to make Bartok sing.<br />
The concertos are all wonderful, particularly<br />
Tibor Varga in the violin concerto and<br />
Geza Anda in the Third Piano Concerto. Conceding<br />
that Bartok performances can work<br />
even in the mode of high-modernist abstraction,<br />
I much prefer the color and inflection<br />
that typified central European music-making<br />
in the composer’s lifetime. Since Bartok concertos<br />
are not heard so often now as in the<br />
1950s, and since this collection has been<br />
admirably produced from original sources<br />
(studio and broadcast) it is well worth seeking<br />
out.<br />
RADCLIFFE<br />
BEETHOVEN: Missa Solemnis; VERDI:<br />
Simon Boccanegra, Act I, Scene 1<br />
Elisabeth Rethberg, Marion Telva, Giovanni Martinelli,<br />
Ezio Pinza; Schola Cantorum; NY Philharmonic/<br />
Arturo Toscanini; Metropolitan Opera/<br />
Ettore Panizza<br />
Immortal Performances 1011 [2CD] 125 minutes<br />
Here is a brief overview of Toscanini and Missa<br />
Solemnis. Working backward, we have 1953<br />
with the NBC Symphony with Marshall, Merriman,<br />
Conley, and Hines as soloists. This is the<br />
performance most of us know—fast, incisive,<br />
and in pretty good sound. In 1940 we have the<br />
same orchestra, but with generally superior<br />
soloists: Milanov, Castagna, Bjoerling, and<br />
Kipnis. A year earlier Toscanini conducted the<br />
work in Queen’s Hall, London with the BBC<br />
Orchestra and Milanov, Thorborg, Von Pataky,<br />
and Moscona. And finally we have the present<br />
recording from 1935. This was made from AM<br />
radio and was released by Eddie Smith in 1957<br />
and has been around in various forms, always<br />
with very poor sound and lots of pitch problems.<br />
Now Richard Caniell has undertaken the<br />
task of setting things right: patching together<br />
various sources, re-equalizing phrase by<br />
phrase, removing ticks and pops, and using<br />
gentle noise suppression to make this performance<br />
more listenable.<br />
And the performance is worth it. It is the<br />
slowest of the four recordings—monumental,<br />
powerful, and deeply expressive. The sound is<br />
still not very good. The level and type of noise<br />
vary often, and you have to screen out the haze<br />
to get to the music. But if you already know the<br />
piece fairly well, you can zero in on a fantastic<br />
performance of Beethoven’s masterpiece. If<br />
you’re not deeply into the Toscanini “thing”,<br />
you may prefer one of the later performances<br />
in better sound (the BBC one recently<br />
appeared in the BBC legends series). The 1935,<br />
then, will be of particular interest to followers<br />
of the soloists.<br />
The second disc is filled out with half an<br />
hour of Simon Boccanegra with three of the<br />
Mass soloists plus Lawrence Tibbett. This<br />
comes from the Met broadcast of February 16,<br />
1935, only two months before the Mass performance.<br />
It gives the opportunity, then, to hear<br />
these legendary soloists in repertory they were<br />
generally associated with. The performance<br />
itself is wonderful, and the sound, aided by<br />
four splices from the 1939 broadcast with the<br />
same performers, is quite listenable. In addition<br />
we have two interviews—three minutes<br />
with Rethberg, seven with Martinelli—that<br />
include reminiscences of Toscanini.<br />
So, many thanks to Immortal Performances<br />
for preserving such a wonderful part<br />
of our heritage.<br />
ALTHOUSE<br />
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto 5; Sonata 28<br />
Robert Casadesus, Concertgebouw Orchestra/<br />
Hans Rosbaud<br />
Newton 8802050—56 minutes<br />
The Emperor was recorded in 1961 and<br />
released in the US on the budget label<br />
Odyssey. It reappeared on a Philips CD, and<br />
later as part of box sets dedicated to Casadesus<br />
(Sony France) and Rosbaud (DG). It’s not a<br />
revelatory reading—the outer movements are<br />
played well enough, and II flows along at a dispassionate<br />
pace that’s brisker than the norm.<br />
Casadesus is sensitive and poetic, but some<br />
degree of brio and bravado would help. The<br />
Concertgebouw doesn’t sound like its usual<br />
self—the strings are shrill, the ensemble doesn’t<br />
blend properly, and the acoustics are flat<br />
and dry. The sonata, recorded in concert<br />
(1978), is not stereo but it’s better on all counts<br />
except for the inevitable audience noises.<br />
KOLDYS<br />
HAYDN: Il Mondo della Luna<br />
Cesare Curzi (Ecclitico); Ernst Gutstein (Ernesto);<br />
Oskar Czerwenka (Buonafede); Anneliese Rothenberger<br />
(Flaminia); Vienna Philharmonic/ Bernhard<br />
Conz—Melodram 50076 [2CD]<br />
This recording has been around about forever.<br />
It was a Melodram LP set long ago and is now<br />
reissued in adequate monaural sound. The<br />
performance comes from the 1959 Salzburg<br />
Festival and is a good middle-European cast<br />
performing a good Haydn opera. There have<br />
been more recent recordings in infinitely better<br />
sound by Dorati and Harnoncourt, but this<br />
has its charms.<br />
Haydn’s opera is about a scheming<br />
astronomer who wants to trick credulous peo-<br />
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ple into believing that they have been trans- not a saint. The fanatical neighbors believe<br />
ported to the moon. The credulous person in implicitly in Annina’s sanctity. The two ideas<br />
our story is an old man with two daughters collide in a dramatic scene in Act I, where, on<br />
whom he wants to marry off to rich suitors. Good Friday, she re-enacts the crucifixion of<br />
The daughters have other ideas. The fool is led Jesus and is given the stigmata. The neighbors<br />
to believe that he has been transported to the are driven out of the house by Michele. To add<br />
moon and winds up tricked into consenting to more complications, Michele is in love with<br />
(and funding) the marriages of his daughters the prostitute Desideria. She is jealous of<br />
to men they really care for. It’s slight stuff, and Michele’s love for Annina and accuses him of<br />
Haydn’s music is lovely, but not terribly specif- loving Annina—implying incest. Michele stabs<br />
ic. It’s hard to imagine that he believed the her and she dies in the arms of Annina, who<br />
piece would be performed twice.<br />
tries to sooth Desideria’s fears and teaches her<br />
The singers are all fine. The conducting is to pray. Although she is seriously ill, Annina is<br />
OK; and the VPO, in its guise as the pit orches- accepted as a nun. The opera ends in one of<br />
tra at Salzburg, makes it clear that it has some the most harrowing scenes in all opera, the<br />
experience playing Haydn. There is no special religious rite as Annina is made a nun. She dies<br />
reason to buy this instead of one of the more just before the ring is slipped on to her finger.<br />
recent ones.<br />
The opera has been condemned by some<br />
CHAKWIN as too melodramatic, too emotional. But isn’t<br />
that what opera is all about? Each act ends<br />
MENOTTI: The Saint of Bleecker Street; The<br />
Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore<br />
Gabrielle Ruggiero (Annina), David Poleri<br />
(Michele), Gloria Lane (Desideria), Maria Di Gerlando<br />
(Carmela), Leon Lishner (Don Marco);<br />
Chorus & Orchestra/ Thomas Schippers<br />
Naxos 111360 [2CD] 156 minutes<br />
with dramatic intensity. Few operas have such<br />
an emotional shattering as the Saint’s Act I<br />
Festival of San Gennaro. It is celebrated with a<br />
procession carrying a statute of the saint.<br />
Michele is brutally beaten and chained to a<br />
fence as Annina is forcefully carried away to<br />
join the procession as a living saint.<br />
It is said that the Saint was Menotti’s favorite This recording was originally made by RCA<br />
of all his operas. Certainly it reflects his per- Victor in February and March 1955 with the<br />
sonal life, his inmost feelings. As a little boy original cast in the opera’s run on Broadway.<br />
growing up in Italy Menotti was a sincere Schippers was an advocate of Menotti’s music<br />
believer in the teaching of the Roman Catholic and a sincere interpreter as well. The dramatic<br />
Church. When he moved to Milan to study, tension is stunning. The unidentified chorus<br />
that simple faith was shaken by the complica- and orchestra are presumably from the Broadtions<br />
of modern life. In 1928 he moved to way production.<br />
Philadelphia for further study at the Curtis There is no doubting the sincerity of the<br />
Institute, and there his faith was even more singers. While not the greatest singers in the<br />
shaken.<br />
world, they more than fulfill their assignments.<br />
Menotti was a success. His first operas There is much beauty in Ruggiero’s singing, a<br />
were well received. Yet at the same time the rich, fruity voice and a heartfelt portrayal.<br />
young composer was consumed by feelings of Poleri’s unique voice borders on the ugly; but<br />
guilt and sin a growing disbelief in sanctity. In the ferocity, the power of his singing is over-<br />
1951 he paid a visit to a real-life saint, Padre whelming. Michele’s savage aria ‘I know that<br />
Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo. Padre Pio was you all hate me’ is raw drama. Lane’s sumptu-<br />
blessed (suffered) from the stigmata, bleeding ous Desideria and Lishner’s solemn priest are<br />
from both his hands. But the priest drove the best singing.<br />
Menotti away, claiming that the composer was There is another recording. (Chandos,<br />
driven by nothing more than curiosity. It Nov/Dec 2002). Richard Hickox leads a power-<br />
sounds like the Tannhäuser story in modern ful performance actually superior to the Naxos<br />
times. Menotti was severely shaken, and out of recording in every way except one: the Annina<br />
his confusion and pain grew his opera The is totally inadequate. That disqualifies the<br />
Saint of Bleecker Street.<br />
Chandos.<br />
The opera combines the two themes that Filling out the recording is Menotti’s rarely<br />
so haunted him: the feeling of exclusion and of performed madrigal fable The Unicorn, the<br />
religious fervor. This is a potent combination Gorgon, and the Manticore. It is part masque,<br />
and made for a dramatic opera. It is set in New part ballet, and part chamber music. It is three<br />
York’s Little Italy. First generation <strong>American</strong>s, stages in the life of an eccentric poet, symbol-<br />
Annina and her brother Michele, must deal ized by the allegorical animals of the title. Its<br />
with the daily events of urban alienation and tender beauty is well realized by Schippers.<br />
traditional religion. Annina is believed by the There is no libretto for the opera, but the text<br />
locals to truly be a saint. Her skeptical brother of the madrigal fable is included.<br />
rejects any religious belief. His sister is ill, but<br />
<strong>American</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />
PARSONS<br />
237
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MOZART: The Marriage of Figaro<br />
Cesare Siepi (Figaro), Roberta Peters (Susanna),<br />
Ezio Flagello (Bartolo), Regina Resnik (Marcellina),<br />
Mildred Miller (Cherubino), Kim Borg<br />
(C1ount), Lucine Amara (Countess), Gabor Carelli<br />
(Basilio); Metropolitan Opera/ Erich Leinsdorf<br />
Sony 85310 [3CD] 155 minutes<br />
This was recorded January 28, 1961 from the<br />
stage of the Met, probably as a Saturday afternoon<br />
broadcast. As the notes put it: “the original<br />
monaural recording has been digitally<br />
remastered from original source material”. But<br />
the sound is quite poor; it’s noticeably deficient<br />
in high-frequency content and it strongly<br />
favors the singers. The orchestra sounds dull<br />
and sometimes inaudible; in the tuttis it lacks<br />
body and transparency.<br />
This is one of the fastest Figaros on<br />
records. Most performances take from 170 to<br />
190 minutes, depending on what has been cut.<br />
In this performance, the Act 4 arias for Marcellina<br />
and Basilio were omitted, as was usual at<br />
the Met.<br />
The cast is representative of what the Met<br />
offered at the time. There are several very good<br />
performances. Siepi’s Figaro is the best I can<br />
remember, and the Susanna of Roberta Peters<br />
is perky. But Lucine Amara is, at best, an indifferent<br />
Countess. Her voice isn’t steady enough<br />
for her arias; and her last lines, where she forgives<br />
her errant husband, lack poise and emotion.<br />
Kim Borg’s singing, as the Count, lacks<br />
elegance and smoothness—he sounds like a<br />
country bumpkin. But Regina Resnik’s Marcellina<br />
and Ezio Flagello’s Bartolo are very well<br />
sung and characterized, and Mildred Miller<br />
sings her two arias with pure and beautiful<br />
tine. The rest of the cast is competent enough<br />
but not always comfortable with Leinsdorf’s<br />
fast tempos. So this adds up to a fairly routine<br />
performance; it doesn’t show the Met at its<br />
best. After Levine took over this repertory, performances<br />
of the Mozart operas, in particular,<br />
became much better.<br />
No texts; only an English synopsis.<br />
MOSES<br />
PONCHIELLI: La Gioconda<br />
Zinka Milanov (Gioconda), Giovanni Martinelli<br />
(Enzo), Carlo Morelli (Alvise), Anna Kaskas (La<br />
Cieca), Bruna Castagna (Laura), Nicolo Moscona<br />
(Alvise); Metropolitan Opera/ Panizza<br />
Immortal Performances 1012 [3CD] 204 minutes<br />
brilliantly re-mastered by Richard Caniell, the<br />
answer is decidedly in the affirmative.<br />
In order to fit the work onto two discs,<br />
Symposium made a number of cuts, which are<br />
now all restored. Apart from Laura’s ‘Stella del<br />
marinar’, omitted that afternoon, almost the<br />
entire score is now here. Pitching has also<br />
been carefully checked. Even more praiseworthy<br />
is the new sound quality—almost as great<br />
an improvement over Symposium’s as that<br />
transfer was over the LPs. Bonuses include an<br />
interview with Milanov, a talk by Martinelli,<br />
and the splendid finale of Ponchielli’s I Lituani<br />
with Ottavio Garaventa, Yasuko Hayashi, and<br />
Carlo de Bortoli, conducted by Gavazzeni.<br />
This performance saw the debut of Milanov<br />
in a role that had been almost exclusively<br />
the property of Ponselle. Although often compared<br />
with her famous predecessor, in truth<br />
Milanov had more in common with Caballe.<br />
This was her debut at the Met, and she is in<br />
fine voice, though it is generally conceded that<br />
her 1946 performance was a more definitive<br />
assumption of the role.<br />
For many tenor enthusiasts it will be a joy<br />
to encounter Martinelli in a complete performance.<br />
After a slightly disappointing opening<br />
‘Assassini’—Ponchielli’s equivalent of Otello’s<br />
‘Esultate’—the tenor speedily gets into his<br />
stride and sings with a welcome range of<br />
dynamics and nuance—more than can be<br />
gleaned from many of his studio recordings. Of<br />
the entire cast, it is his voice that seems to<br />
have benefited most from this new transfer. If<br />
not the possessor of an intrinsically beautiful<br />
sound, he sings with such integrity as to disarm<br />
criticism.<br />
Carlo Morelli’s warm, vibrant tones, while<br />
perhaps too generous for the arch villain Barnaba,<br />
fall gratefully on the ears, as do Kaskas’s<br />
as La Chieca. Castagna’s refulgent voice is<br />
somewhat heavy for Laura, but it would nevertheless<br />
have been interesting to have heard her<br />
tackle Laura’s only solo—the sole omission<br />
from this performance.<br />
The late, greatly-missed, John Steane’s<br />
detailed and erudite notes further embellish<br />
this most worthwhile issue. It deserves a place<br />
in every collection.<br />
LIFF<br />
This truly immortal performance, from 30th<br />
December 1939, has been available for many<br />
PUCCINI: Tosca<br />
Renata Tebaldi (Tosca), Ferruccio Tagliavini<br />
(Cavaradossi), Tito Gobbi (Scarpia); Covent Garden/<br />
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli<br />
ICA 5022 [2CD] 110 minutes<br />
years—originally surfacing on one of the infa- When the Covent Garden company was remous<br />
EJS LPs. To my knowledge, its last established in 1946 after the War, its new<br />
appearance was in much improved sound as a beginnings were almost provincial: opera in<br />
two-CD set on the Symposium label, prompt- English, with predominantly English singers.<br />
ing the question as to whether we really need As time passed, it became more international,<br />
yet another issue. After hearing this new set, so that when Renata Tebaldi made her 1955<br />
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debut as Tosca, all the principals were Italian<br />
and only the supporting singers were British.<br />
Gobbi would sing Scarpia many times in London,<br />
and in 1955, he’s close to his best, the<br />
voice strong and menacing, the words sharply<br />
pointed. Tagliavini also knows how to use<br />
words and how to shape his lines, though he’s<br />
a lightweight Cavaradossi; and on this occasion<br />
his voice wasn’t flowing as freely as it usually<br />
did.<br />
Tebaldi, on the other hand, is in full flood,<br />
the voice just pouring out easily, the words<br />
crystal-clear. She’s not the most fiery Tosca,<br />
but her sincerity is palpable; and she sings so<br />
beautifully (aside from a couple of flat high<br />
notes), and with such power and richness (not<br />
least in her chest register), that it must have<br />
been thrilling to hear her.<br />
Molinari-Pradelli is a capable, well-seasoned<br />
<strong>conductor</strong>. The sound is fairly good in<br />
that the voices come through clearly, with<br />
some presence; the orchestra fares less well. So<br />
this is a Tosca for people who can’t get enough<br />
Tebaldi or Gobbi. Notes but no libretto.<br />
LUCANO<br />
VERDI: Il Trovatore<br />
Bianca Scacciati (Leonora), Francesco Merli<br />
(Manrico), Enrico Molinari (Count), Giuseppina<br />
Zinetti (Azucena), Corrado Zambelli (Ferrando);<br />
La Scala/ Lorenzo Molajoli<br />
Preiser 20059 [2CD] 116 minutes<br />
It was not long after the invention of recording<br />
that attempts were made to record complete<br />
operas. These were issued as bulky collections<br />
of shellac discs, which presumably enjoyed<br />
reasonable sales since all the major record<br />
companies offered examples, with varying<br />
degrees of sophistication as the technical side<br />
of the industry progressed. But it was not until<br />
the advent of electrical recording in the 1920s<br />
that these issues really took off. Two major<br />
firms in this field were HMV and Columbia.<br />
Both tended to concentrate on the standard<br />
operatic repertoire, and there was great rivalry<br />
between them. No sooner had HMV’s Il Trovatore,<br />
with its stellar cast of Pertile, Minghini-<br />
Cattaneo, and Granforte appeared on the topprice<br />
red label than Columbia offered its<br />
cheaper, black label release, the subject of this<br />
review.<br />
All the artists here enjoyed considerable<br />
success in the international field and sang at<br />
most of the world’s leading opera houses. The<br />
men are all easier on the ear than the ladies.<br />
Scacciati’s searing top is certainly not for all<br />
tastes, but she was an interesting artist who,<br />
several, long-departed friends affirmed, could<br />
be thrilling in the opera house. Azucena, the<br />
mad gypsy, is the one role Zinetti’s plangent<br />
tones sound eminently suitable for. Merli (a<br />
De Lucia pupil, believe it or not) is a fine if<br />
unsubtle Manrico—surely one of the most stupid<br />
of all Verdi’s heroes? Molinari sings Di<br />
Luna with warm tone and a good line, and<br />
Zambelli’s Ferrando is another positive boon.<br />
Indeed, although hardly the most refined reading<br />
available, the whole performance carries<br />
great conviction and is ably conducted by the<br />
ever reliable Molajoli. It has been excellently<br />
transferred. Hearing it again after a break of<br />
about 50 years is a potent proof of what has<br />
been lost in the operatic world.<br />
LIFF<br />
VIVALDI: Gloria; 4 Seasons<br />
Vienna Opera Orchestra/ Hermann Scherchen<br />
Tahra 697—77:30<br />
No. Some people liked Scherchen; I never<br />
understood that. In the Seasons the 1958<br />
sound is tinny and plunky—irritating and just<br />
plain ugly. And that would seem to be partly<br />
the <strong>conductor</strong>’s fault. Some like it stark. The<br />
1960 Gloria is dull and muffled.<br />
VROON<br />
WAGNER: Götterdämmerung<br />
Lauritz Melchior (Siegfried), Helen Traubel<br />
(Brünnhilde), Herbert Janssen (Gunther), Regina<br />
Resnik (Gutrune), Deszö Ernster (Hagen), Gerhart<br />
Pechner (Alberich), Margaret Harshaw (Waltraute);<br />
Metropolitan Opera/ Fritz Stiedry<br />
Immortal Performances 1010 [4CD] 228 minutes<br />
Well, here’s the Ring of the Month Club’s current<br />
entry, this time (at last) a really phenomenal<br />
and truly historic performance from<br />
December 1948. It was Melchior’s last Siegfried<br />
at the Met. It is of special interest to me,<br />
since I heard the music for the first time at a<br />
Met performance precisely like it—the same<br />
cast, orchestra and <strong>conductor</strong>, in the same<br />
locale—two years earlier. I was 19 years old,<br />
just beginning to form what was to be a lifetime<br />
commitment to Wagner, but also hearing<br />
a complete opera for the first time—not Carmen<br />
or Rigoletto, but Götterdämmerung, a<br />
drink from the fire hose if there ever was one!<br />
I expected a frayed, noisy, and distorted<br />
sound—after all, this was recorded before tape<br />
technology was available in the US. But I was<br />
surprised to hear the opening chords of the<br />
Norns scene bright, sharp, clear, and undistorted.<br />
Further investigation revealed that the<br />
original source must have been acetate FM<br />
broadcast masters—16-inch plastic discs that<br />
could accommodate 25 minutes per side,<br />
clear, distortion-free, and with a full frequency<br />
spectrum. Columbia’s first LPs were also<br />
recorded that way.<br />
The performance would have been recorded<br />
at the old Met at Broadway and 39th Street,<br />
a hall with good acoustics but a smallish<br />
orchestra pit. So the orchestra is somewhat<br />
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lean and spare. But it is adequate to convey the<br />
musical thrust of the score, particularly as conducted<br />
by Stiedry.<br />
Fritz Stiedry (1883-1965) was younger than<br />
Muck and Weingartner, and older than Böhm<br />
and Krauss—roughly contemporary with Klemperer<br />
and Furtwängler. Like Karl Böhm, he<br />
began by studying law, and like Böhm, he<br />
earned a doctoral degree in that field before<br />
becoming a musician. His musical career<br />
began in 1907 as assistant to Mahler at the<br />
Vienna Opera. He later conducted opera in<br />
Kassel and Berlin until (being Jewish) he was<br />
forced in 1934 to leave Germany. His next post<br />
was <strong>conductor</strong> of the Leningrad Philharmonic<br />
from 1934 until 1937, when he left for America.<br />
He settled in New York. His work in this recording<br />
leaves no room to question his skill as a<br />
Wagner <strong>conductor</strong>. His tendency was to keep<br />
the narratives moving along smartly while<br />
slowing down for the orchestral music and the<br />
great dramatic scenes. That technique results<br />
in a performance sculpted along the lines of the<br />
great Böhm Bayreuth performance recorded 20<br />
years later. Actually, in the presentation of Act<br />
III, he manages in some instances to beat<br />
Böhm at his own game! Indeed, his timing for<br />
the entire opera is a little faster. The 228minute<br />
time given in the heading reflects commentaries,<br />
applause, and an eight-minute<br />
interview with Melchior. Böhm’s time is 230:33.<br />
There is no question that Melchior was the<br />
greatest Wagnerian tenor of the 20th Century.<br />
His voice was baritonal in timbre, very loud, its<br />
carrying power unsurpassed. His pitch is accurate,<br />
and he can go up to the top with ease. He<br />
is not the subtlest artist, but all things considered,<br />
he’s at the top of the lists. In this performance<br />
he is singing his last Götterdämmerung<br />
at the Met, though this isn’t his last performance<br />
there. I heard his Tristan at the met<br />
three years later.<br />
Helen Traubel was the Wagnerian soprano<br />
of choice at this time, since Kirsten Flagstad<br />
was not to return to the US until much later.<br />
Traubel was a big woman with a big wideranging<br />
soprano voice with lots of carrying<br />
power. She was <strong>American</strong>-born, from a St<br />
Louis German-<strong>American</strong> family. Her voice was<br />
smooth and powerful, more colorful than Melchior’s<br />
if not as loud. Anyway, she was the US<br />
Brünnhilde of choice at the time, and this<br />
recording preserves that.<br />
Herbert Janssen was at the time the US<br />
Wotan of choice, his smooth, dark, lowpitched<br />
baritone perfect for the role, as fine as<br />
the European competition of the era, with the<br />
possible exception of Hans Hotter, who actually<br />
peaked a bit later. He also appeared as<br />
Wotan in a complete Walküre Act III alongside<br />
Traubel and the NY Philharmonic under<br />
Rodzinsky for Columbia (in 1948). The others<br />
are also quite fine, Ernster a threatening blackvoiced<br />
Hagen, while as his dad Alberich we<br />
have one Gerhard Pechner, as nasty as can be.<br />
At the other end of the spectrum. there’s Regina<br />
Resnik as Gutrune, and Margaret Harshaw<br />
as Waltraute, both as good as they come. As a<br />
whole, a finer cast could hardly have been<br />
assembled, then or now, anywhere.<br />
I shall treasure this in the time available to<br />
me on the planet, which is not infinite. It’s an<br />
experience I shall never forget, from a golden<br />
era at the Met.<br />
MCKELVEY<br />
WALTON: Violin Concerto; SAINT-SAENS:<br />
Havanaise; SINDING: Suite; CASTELNUO-<br />
VO-TEDESCO: Concerto 2<br />
Jascha Heifetz, Philarmonia Orchestra, RCA Symphony,<br />
Los Angeles Philharmonic/ William Walton,<br />
William Steinberg, Alfred Wallenstein<br />
Naxos 111367—77 minutes<br />
This is a thoroughly happy collection: the<br />
compositions sort well together, and Jascha<br />
Heifetz commissioned the Walton concerto<br />
(heard in the 1950 recording). The Saint-Saens<br />
Havanaise is a work particularly associated<br />
with the great violinist, and the less familiar<br />
works by Sinding and Castelnuovo-Tedesco<br />
glow in his hands. The 1950s recorded sound is<br />
splendid, and the liner note is by Tully Potter.<br />
RADCLIFFE<br />
Celibidache<br />
GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue; RAVEL:<br />
Rapsodie Espagnole; BUSONI: Violin Concerto;<br />
CHERUBINI: Anacreon Overture:<br />
HINDEMITH: Piano Concerto; GENZMER:<br />
Flute Concerto; COPLAND: Appalachian<br />
Spring; TIESSEN: Hamlet Suite; Salambo<br />
Suite; Symphony 2; SCHWARZ-SCHILLING:<br />
Introduction & Fugue for Strings<br />
Gerhard Puchelt, p; Siegfried Borries, v; Gustav<br />
Scheck, fl; Berlin Philharmonic, RIAS Symphony/<br />
Sergiu Celibidache<br />
Audite 21406 [3CD] 3:35<br />
Celibidache, famously, was the <strong>conductor</strong> who<br />
didn’t make recordings; he was long a cult figure,<br />
though since he died in 1996 he has been,<br />
if anything, overexposed through reissued<br />
broadcasts. This collection has particular<br />
interest, both historical and musical. Celibidache<br />
conducted the Berlin Philharmonic<br />
from 1945, when Furtwangler was banished, to<br />
the beginning of Karajan’s tenure in 1952. It<br />
was still very much Furtwangler’s orchestra,<br />
though some things had changed, as a glance<br />
at the contents indicates: this is music banned<br />
by the Nazis and so new to Berlin audiences in<br />
1948-50. (The three pieces by Heinz Tiessen,<br />
Celibidache’s teacher, were recorded for the<br />
RIAS in 1957).<br />
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Celibidache was, like Furtwangler, a fundamentally<br />
subjective artist. In these early performances,<br />
the personal seems less significant<br />
than the social as the orchestra rejoices in the<br />
new liberal era. The Rhapsody in Blue is performed<br />
in the best sleazy-jazz Berlin manner<br />
reminiscent of Klemperer’s Three-penny Opera<br />
suite of an earlier day. By contrast the Hindemith<br />
seems mere cacophony as the spirit of<br />
the composer proves more elusive. The<br />
Tiessen works are middle-brow Teutonism<br />
that leaves one wondering what he could have<br />
done to run afoul of the Nazis. Reinhard<br />
Schwarz-Schilling’s piece is a pleasing homage<br />
to Bach; the Busoni concerto can be heard to<br />
much better advantage elsewhere. Harald<br />
Genzmer’s Flute Concerto is a neoclassical<br />
gem of the first water: I would very much like<br />
to hear more from this composer.<br />
The outstanding performance is Copland’s<br />
Appalachian Spring. Here one relishes the<br />
meditative qualities that made Celibidache a<br />
cult figure and an elfin grace and lightness that<br />
quite lift the spirit out of the body. Presumably<br />
this has more to do with the <strong>conductor</strong>’s relish<br />
for Buddhism than any feeling for <strong>American</strong>a,<br />
but whatever the source, his gift for simplicity<br />
proves abundant.<br />
Anyone with a serious interest in Celibidache<br />
should seek this out. Audite’s production<br />
is first-rate, a far cry from the dismal pirated<br />
LPs where we first encountered Celibidache<br />
in the West. The orchestra is splendid. The <strong>conductor</strong>,<br />
the repertoire, and the epoch make this<br />
a historical reissue worthy of particular notice.<br />
RADCLIFFE<br />
Johanna Martzy<br />
BACH: Solo Violin Sonatas & Partitas<br />
Testament 1467 [2CD] 139 minutes<br />
SCHUBERT: Violin Pieces<br />
with Jean Antonietti, p<br />
Testament 1468 [2CD] 124 minutes<br />
Johanna Martzy (1924-79) was one of the last<br />
students of the prolific Hungarian virtuoso and<br />
pedagogue Jeno Hubay (1858-1937). Her style<br />
and tone production were more modern than<br />
Hubay’s students Franz von Vecsey and Joseph<br />
Szigeti, whose bowing was of the old German<br />
School. Martzy’s recordings with EMI have<br />
long been deleted and have fetched high prices<br />
from collectors. They have attained a legendary<br />
status.<br />
While her recordings of Bach must have<br />
sounded stylistically very modern and technically<br />
accomplished for their time, they have<br />
not aged well. Style has changed dramatically<br />
since the mid-1950s. Dynamics are not so terraced<br />
now, and rhythms are more pointed.<br />
Frankly, I find the recordings by Henryk<br />
Szeryng for Odeon and Nathan Milstein for<br />
EMI at the same time as these more satisfying,<br />
even though they also show some age stylistically<br />
and sonically. Szerying is more lyrical and<br />
noble, while Milstein is more energetic and<br />
playful, especially in the dance movements.<br />
Martzy is too stiff, and she doesn’t have the<br />
engaging personality of a world-class soloist.<br />
She is a bit more satisfactory in the Schubert,<br />
especially in the early sonatas. Perhaps<br />
the presence of a partner relaxes her. Still,<br />
these readings do not move to the top of the<br />
list. Schubert is a difficult composer to interpret.<br />
I write this from embarrassing experience<br />
as a quartet member. I have never heard completely<br />
satisfying recordings of Schubert’s<br />
music for violin. His demands are, of course,<br />
rarely technical, except insofar as technique is<br />
brought into the service of interpretation,<br />
which is the highest level of technique. The<br />
interpreter must first have the imagination to<br />
understand the significance of each note, and<br />
then must know how to make each phrase tell<br />
its story. In the more mature works, many sustained<br />
notes must go through a range of emotions<br />
and tone colors that the average violinist<br />
(and probably the average violin) is barely<br />
capable of mustering.<br />
These recordings were made in 1954 and<br />
1955, and the sound is very early hi-fi. Martzy<br />
plays the 1733 “Tarisio” Carlo Bergonzi violin,<br />
which is widely regarded as his masterpiece.<br />
Booklet notes are by that walking encyclopedia,<br />
Tully Potter.<br />
MAGIL<br />
Isaac Stern<br />
BEETHOVEN: Sonata 10; BRAHMS: Sonata<br />
2; FERGUSON: Sonata 2; SCHUBERT:<br />
Sonata 1 with Dame Myra Hess, p<br />
Testament 1458—79 minutes<br />
Stern and Hess began playing together in 1952,<br />
but they did not make any commercial recordings<br />
together. This is a BBC recording of a<br />
superb concert at Usher Hall in Edinburgh on<br />
August 28, 1960. It was their last concert<br />
together, and, owing to a heart attack that Hess<br />
had shortly after the concert, it was one of her<br />
last performances.<br />
I think Stern was at his very best in the<br />
company of Hess, and it is to everyone’s great<br />
fortune that we have this recording. The interpretations<br />
are personal and very spontaneous.<br />
The reading of Howard Ferguson’s 1948<br />
Sonata (new music in 1960) is particularly personal<br />
because of Hess’s friendship with the<br />
composer.<br />
This is a recording not to miss and one to<br />
return to often.<br />
FINE<br />
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Irma Gonzalez, 1945-65<br />
Butterfly, Boheme, Manon Lescaut, Tosca, Turandot,<br />
Amico Fritz, Pagliacci, Andrea Chenier,<br />
Mefistofele, Norma, Manon, Herodiade, Carmen,<br />
Jeanne d’Arc; Traviata, Aida, Requiem, Otello,<br />
Forza<br />
Urtext 189 [2CD] 142 minutes<br />
After nearly three quarters of a century spent<br />
listening to voices, I was more than mildly<br />
astonished to come across a soprano I had<br />
never heard of. And it was one who seemingly<br />
enjoyed a major career—but almost entirely in<br />
the country of her birth (Mexico). Judging from<br />
many photos and these mainly air-check<br />
examples, the lady had almost every attribute<br />
required for an international career. A pleasing<br />
appearance, a fine voice of individual quality,<br />
a smooth legato line, instrumental-like phrasing,<br />
and splendid dynamic variety, all combine<br />
to make her a most exciting discovery. Virtually<br />
no appearances outside of Mexico and less<br />
than a handful of commercial recordings, may<br />
explain to some extent her relative obscurity.<br />
This handsomely produced double-fold<br />
tribute includes a slim booklet—unfortunately<br />
entirely in Spanish. It appears to omit any reference<br />
to her birth year (1916) but does<br />
include 2008 as the year of her death. She<br />
appears to have been most active in the middle<br />
years of the last century, from when all<br />
these recordings date. While the best of them<br />
are perfectly tolerable, none are exactly easy<br />
on the ear. But if prepared to cope with less<br />
than first rate sound, you will be rewarded by<br />
some truly magnificent singing.<br />
Two excerpts from Butterfly are moving<br />
and meaningfully sung, but Mimi’s two arias<br />
are even better. Musetta’s air, which follows, is<br />
a highly individual interpretation. The first<br />
total revelation is a genuinely affecting ‘Vissi<br />
d’arte’ noteworthy for being sung as scored—<br />
the final phrases taken in one breath. Also from<br />
Tosca is the final act, commencing at Tosca’s<br />
entrance. Her Cavaradossi is the ever-reliable<br />
Domingo. Despite a sound glitch near its conclusion,<br />
she triumphantly surmounts the hidden<br />
pitfalls of Nedda’s ‘Bird song’ and with Di<br />
Stefano in good voice, is thrilling in the Andrea<br />
Chenier finale. The trill may not be quite up to<br />
Alda standard in the first of the two arias from<br />
Mefistofele; but it is highly respectable, and she<br />
competes with Olivero in the second. ‘Mira, O<br />
Norma’ with Dominguez is good enough but<br />
not perhaps as noteworthy as hoped. Manon’s<br />
farewell to her table goes convincingly, and her<br />
seduction scene at St Sulpice is irresistible but<br />
somewhat bizarrely continues into the concluding<br />
duet, sung here as a solo! Pitching<br />
problems emerge in the Herodiade and Jean<br />
d’Arc arias, which sound as if transferred about<br />
a half to a full tone sharp. The orchestra in<br />
Micaela’s air (down a quarter tone at least)<br />
sounds almost unbelievably poor. The Nile aria<br />
is predictably fine, as are the Otello excerpts.<br />
She is joined in the love duet by Vickers—a<br />
highly idiosyncratic Moor. A splendid ‘Pace,<br />
pace’ from La Forza del Destino and a singularly<br />
smooth <strong>Record</strong>are (down a half tone) with<br />
the unknown Aurora Woodrow further confirm<br />
her to have been a Verdi singer of note. A<br />
bonus track offers snippets from a session<br />
where Gonzalez sings Garland’s numbers from<br />
Meet me in St Louis, for its Mexican release!<br />
As a memorial to an important, unfairly<br />
neglected artist, this issue warrants the highest<br />
praise and deserves support. Whether to purchase<br />
it will probably depend on your tolerance<br />
of the somewhat indifferent sound, balanced<br />
against such superb singing and artistry.<br />
Singing of this calibre must surely entitle this<br />
soprano a place among the truly great singers<br />
of the past century.<br />
Gustav Neidlinger<br />
Preiser 93475—79 minutes<br />
242 September/October 2011<br />
LIFF<br />
This German bass (1910-91) was one of the<br />
superb, black-voiced basses of the 1950s and<br />
60s. Thanks to his performance in the Solti<br />
Ring cycle (Decca) Neidlinger became identified<br />
with the wicked dwarf Alberich. There are<br />
examples of his Alberich here: the Rheingold<br />
Curse, The Alberich-Wotan-Fafner encounter<br />
in Act II of Siegfried, and the Alberich-Hagen<br />
Scene from Gotterdammerung, all from a 1953<br />
Bayreuth performance with Erich Witte, Hans<br />
Hotter, and Josef Greind.<br />
But Neidlinger’s art was far more extensive<br />
than Alberich. Here is a chance to hear him as<br />
Wotan (‘Wotan’s Farewell’, a 1958 Electrola<br />
recording). The other Wagner selection is<br />
Pogner in Meistersinger.<br />
But who would have guessed his delight in<br />
comic roles? Here is Baron Ochs (Rosenkavalier,<br />
two arias from Mozart’s Garden of Love<br />
(sung in German of course), a rollicking scene<br />
for Fra Melitone (Forza), and Masetto’s ‘Ho<br />
capito, Signor, si’. There is great joy in Neidlinger’s<br />
singing, and a great, huge, cavernous,<br />
black voice to back it up.<br />
No texts.<br />
Kurt Baum<br />
Preiser 89741—71 minutes<br />
PARSONS<br />
As the brief biography from Preiser points out<br />
“Few tenors have polarized opera fans more<br />
than Kurt Baum’. Although he was born in<br />
Czechoslovakia and studied voice in Germany,<br />
his principal repertoire was Italian—the “big
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voice” repertoire. His principal opera house<br />
was the Metropolitan in New York, where he<br />
remained for 26 years. Some considered him a<br />
vocal bull in the china shop, with poor musicianship,<br />
an ugly voice, wooden acting, and<br />
only the incredible strength and reliability of<br />
his high notes to base a career on. The tremendous<br />
power of his high C riveted audiences<br />
and even impressed the critics. To his credit,<br />
Baum always sang at the original pitch, never<br />
needing to transpose.<br />
In the 1950s I saw Baum numerous times<br />
at the Cincinnati Zoo Opera. As a youth I was<br />
indeed impressed by his loudness and high<br />
notes, but terribly unimpressed by everything<br />
else about him. But on hearing this disc I<br />
began to mistrust my memory. Baum was bad,<br />
but not this bad! The 18 selections taken from<br />
an Allegro Royale LP and a Remington LP are<br />
studio recorded and are worse than anything I<br />
remembered. All singing is forte, fortissimo,<br />
and FORTISSIMO. The <strong>conductor</strong>, Wilhelm<br />
Loibner, Baum regards as an impediment. It’s<br />
all Baum’s way, or nobody’s. Aria after aria—<br />
Pollione, Faust, Manrico, Don Alvaro, Radames,<br />
Don Jose, Canio, Andrea Chenier,<br />
Rodolfo, Cavaradossi, Calaf, Enzo—even the<br />
Italian Tenor in Rosenkavalier—all sound the<br />
same. It’s take no prisoners, and it’s painful.<br />
Still, I don’t remember Baum being this<br />
bad. So, I dug out a complete Pagliacci (Walhall<br />
286) from Boston, the Met on tour, April<br />
13, 1957, with Fausto Cleva leading Lucine<br />
BEETHOVEN: Symphony 5; STRAUSS: Don<br />
Juan; WAGNER: Flying Dutchman Overture<br />
Covent Garden Orchestra; BBC Symphony/ Georg<br />
Solti<br />
ICA 5024—96 minutes<br />
Georg Solti had been Music Director of the<br />
Royal Opera House of Covent Garden for two<br />
years when he taped this Wagner performance<br />
in 1963. At the time, he was still controversial<br />
at the Opera because of his loud dynamics, fast<br />
tempos, nervous beat, and lack of lyricism.<br />
Still, his ground-breaking Decca Ring Cycle<br />
was well under way, so there was good reason<br />
for critics to be patient, and Solti went on to<br />
enjoy a good relationship with the Opera until<br />
leaving in 1971. The setting for this recordedfor-television<br />
Flying Dutchman Overture is<br />
visually striking. The orchestra is in full formal<br />
dress and arrayed on step-by-step risers—<br />
every row back goes one step up—with Solti<br />
standing before it like a raving sorcerer. The<br />
Videos<br />
Amara, Robert Merrill (Tonio), and Frank<br />
Guarrera (Silvio). What a wonderful surprise!<br />
Baum is more than a decent tenor; he really<br />
delivers a powerful, dramatic performance.<br />
Even the voice is prettier—brighter, still strong<br />
as iron, horrifically exciting, quite enjoyable.<br />
Perhaps it was the on stage performance or<br />
Cleva’s iron baton that kept Baum in order. He<br />
still isn’t the tenor of one’s dreams.<br />
PARSONS<br />
Albert Da Costa<br />
Preiser 89740—71 minutes<br />
After Kurt Baum I turned to this <strong>American</strong><br />
tenor (1927-67). There are several similarities<br />
to Baum: big voice, iron strength, not the most<br />
beautiful voice to belt from the stage. But there<br />
are major differences, too. Da Costa has a<br />
cleaner sound, good musicianship, and a generally<br />
good grasp of the dramatics. Of the 21<br />
selections here, only seven duplicate Baum. All<br />
of Da Costa’s selections were recorded in the<br />
studio and published on Allegro Royale and<br />
Concord LPs.<br />
Several repertory items here are from<br />
operas Baum never attempted: Puritani, Le<br />
Prophete, Otello, and especially some Wagner<br />
(Lohengrin, Meistersinger, Walkure, Siegfried).<br />
It is in this repertoire that Da Costa excels. The<br />
voice is robust, fresh, full of confidence, with<br />
strength to spare.<br />
No texts.<br />
PARSONS<br />
dark, shadowy photography is like something<br />
out of Orson Welles. As annotator David Patmore<br />
notes, the performance is stormy, with<br />
tight, fast tempos and a wide range of dynamics.<br />
The risers are gone for the 1967 Don Juan,<br />
and everyone is dressed casually. For this<br />
work, we get rehearsal excerpts as well as the<br />
performance—and what a rehearsal! It is easy<br />
to see why Solti was known as the “screaming<br />
skull” at Covent Garden. It is also easy to<br />
understand how the orchestra improved so<br />
much under his leadership. The man is everywhere<br />
on that podium, lunging from one side<br />
to the other, forward, back, up and down,<br />
involved and earthy. He waves his hands up<br />
and down like a mad condor, emphasizing<br />
upbeats, while still giving cues. Rather than<br />
stop often to make his verbal points, he shouts<br />
them over the music, along with descriptions<br />
of what is going on in the music’s program.<br />
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When he does stop, he speaks quickly and nervously,<br />
teeming with energy and enthusiasm.<br />
Anyone wondering where Solti’s nervous performances<br />
came from need only watch this<br />
one. It is thrilling, raging, sweeping, and passionate<br />
(literally), but still tender when needed,<br />
a real tour de force. Along with the<br />
rehearsal excerpts, there is a long conversation<br />
between Solti and record producer John Culshaw<br />
about Strauss and Don Juan. Solti conversed<br />
just like he conducted—-all over the<br />
couch, always smiling, talking fast.<br />
In 1985, Solti was 73, 16 years into his<br />
Chicago Symphony directorship, when he<br />
conducted the Beethoven. Culshaw never<br />
thought much of Solti as a Beethoven <strong>conductor</strong>,<br />
and the <strong>conductor</strong>’s set of Beethoven symphonies<br />
with the powerhouse Chicago Symphony<br />
proved that point. The BBC Symphony<br />
adds some solidity and dignity to the cause,<br />
but this is still a Solti performance with strong<br />
accents, powerful punctuating chords, fast<br />
tempos, and an exultant finale. It’s not bad,<br />
and it is certainly entertaining. This is the only<br />
segment in color (somewhat faded), and it was<br />
made in concert in Royal Albert Hall.<br />
The sound is decent but not outstanding<br />
monaural. Patmore’s notes are brief but useful.<br />
The reasons to get this DVD are the Wagner<br />
and especially the Strauss.<br />
HECHT<br />
BELLINI: Norma<br />
June Anderson (Norma), Daniela Barcellona<br />
(Adalgisa), Shin Young Hoon (Pollione), Ildar<br />
Abdrazakov (Oroveso); Teatro Regio, Parma:<br />
Orchestra Europa Galante/ Fabio Biondi<br />
Arthaus 107 235 [2DVD] 163 minutes<br />
A too gosh darn dark but otherwise OK traditional<br />
production of Norma, with hardly a cut<br />
that allows the opera to unfold in a straightforward<br />
way without contempt. It was given in<br />
2001 with June Anderson in the autumn of her<br />
career. She was a major player in the bel canto<br />
world. (I have fond memories of her Puritani<br />
Elvira and Semiramide at New York’s two<br />
major opera houses.) She understands Norma<br />
thoroughly, and if time has robbed the voice of<br />
some luster and added a touch of dryness,<br />
there is still much expert singing. She has a<br />
great understanding of Norma’s emotions and<br />
brings them out very well. ‘Casta Diva’ and her<br />
duets with Adalgisa are high points. Bel canto<br />
style and drama. I wish Barcellona were a better<br />
partner. She’s done Adalgisa often, but here<br />
she sounds clumsy. Anderson seems to be<br />
working for two in their scenes together. The<br />
voice is attractive; was this an off night?<br />
Hoon is a lyric Pollione, not heroic in style<br />
but sturdy enough. Abdrazakov early in his<br />
career is an authoritative Oroveso—attractive<br />
singing in an ungrateful role. Orchestra Europa<br />
Galante is a period orchestra, and sometimes I<br />
longed for the richer sounds of a modern<br />
ensemble. But it isn’t unduly unattractive; the<br />
sound is fuller than some period orchestras I<br />
can think of. Biondi generally paces the show<br />
with an understanding of bel canto style and<br />
how to support his singers. Yet sometimes he<br />
does peculiar things. For example, the beginning<br />
of the overture slows down and almost<br />
runs out of steam and then suddenly picks<br />
up—full speed ahead. The chorus is a good<br />
group, though a mite unpolished. DG has a<br />
DVD with Gruberova that’s good competition.<br />
(I have heard the Caballé video only on CD.).<br />
This is mainly for Anderson fans—and I am<br />
one.<br />
MARK<br />
HAYDN: The Creation<br />
Arleen Auger, Gabriela Sima, Peter Schreier, Walter<br />
Berry, Roland Herrman; Collegium Aureum,<br />
Schoenberg Choir/ Gustav Kuhn<br />
Arthaus 107225—114 minutes<br />
This is a performance from 1982.<br />
The singers are distinguished ones with<br />
(except for Auger) mostly middle European<br />
careers. Kuhn (who was in his 30s when this<br />
concert was given) studied conducting under<br />
Maderna and Karajan.<br />
The Collegium Aureum was a German<br />
early instrument group with a relatively modern<br />
(and pleasant) sound. The strings have at<br />
least a hint of vibrato, and the brass and wind<br />
seem to be close to modern instruments.<br />
The chorus is a little light in weight.<br />
The soloists are all lovely in voice. It’s nice<br />
to be back in a time when Schreier and Berry<br />
had young, juicy voices and Auger was alive.<br />
Kuhn’s reading is a little light and sometimes<br />
slow, approaching slack, in ways that<br />
neither Karajan nor Maderna would have put<br />
up with for a moment.<br />
I wouldn’t choose this over Hogwood on<br />
video and would want to look at the Fischer<br />
DVD before I settled on this one.<br />
If I were going beyond DVDs, I would<br />
choose either Karajan, Solti, or Harnoncourt<br />
over this one.<br />
Still, this performance is perfectly pleasant,<br />
never goes seriously off the rails, and offers<br />
fine vocal work, especially when Auger is<br />
singing. I don’t mind having spent time with it<br />
and will go back.<br />
CHAKWIN<br />
244 September/October 2011
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MOUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition<br />
Eyran Katsenelenbogen & Andrei Ivanovitch, p<br />
Eyran 9009—48 minutes (www.eyran.com or 617-<br />
267-1648)<br />
This concert was recorded on May 24, 2009 in<br />
Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory<br />
in Boston. It is the <strong>American</strong> premiere of an<br />
arrangement that these two pianists first performed<br />
in 2006 in Germany. The original piano<br />
solo version of this great work is alternated<br />
with jazz interpretations or reflections on each<br />
movement. Sometimes, especially in ‘The<br />
Great Gate of Kiev’, Katsenelenbogen (the jazz<br />
pianist) joins Ivanovitch in the original, adding<br />
an additional sound layer that seems perfectly<br />
appropriate. Audience response here and critical<br />
responses have been quite favorable.<br />
I have many different versions of Pictures<br />
at an Exhibition, from the piano original to<br />
Ravel’s (and other’s) orchestrations, to a synthesized<br />
version, pipe organ, and even the<br />
1960s rock version by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.<br />
I have also performed most of the movements<br />
on and off since first learning them in the early<br />
1970s. This Classical Meets Jazz version is a<br />
completely new and original approach, very<br />
well executed, thought provoking, and always<br />
interesting.<br />
My main reservation is how well the original<br />
works back-to-back with the jazz versions.<br />
As creative as they may be, it almost seems like<br />
a straight jazz version by itself might work better,<br />
much like the orchestrations or even the<br />
rock version. Imagine a pianist playing the<br />
opening Promenade on a concert grand piano,<br />
directly followed by a trio of Hammond Organ,<br />
Electric Bass, and Drums doing the same<br />
thing, slightly embellished. But my reservations<br />
are minimal. There is no booklet with<br />
notes.<br />
HARRINGTON<br />
MOZART: The Magic Flute (for Children)<br />
Ileana Cotrubas (Pamina), Peter Schreier<br />
(Tamino), Christian Boesch (Papageno), Kurt Rydl<br />
(Sarastro), Zdzislawa Donat (Queen of the Night);<br />
Vienna Opera/ James Levine<br />
Arthaus 107201—106 minutes<br />
This is an adaptation of The Magic Flute for<br />
children given in the Felsenreitschule as part<br />
of the 1982 Salzburg Festival. It uses the same<br />
scenery and costumes as the complete opera<br />
(Jan/Feb 2006) and has mostly the same cast.<br />
(The Zurich performance of this same opera<br />
for children had a different cast—July/Aug<br />
2010.) The audience is almost entirely children;<br />
adults were admitted only if they came<br />
accompanied by at least two children. Many of<br />
the children are pre-schoolers, and they were<br />
entranced by what they saw and heard.<br />
Christian Boesch, who is credited with the<br />
idea, acts as narrator (he also sings Papageno’s<br />
arias); he is charming as he explains what the<br />
children are about to see and hear, the music<br />
as well as the story. Unfortunately, he talks too<br />
much; less than half of the time is taken up<br />
with the music. The opera is reduced to 12<br />
musical selections. The musical numbers are<br />
sung very well.<br />
Children ho may well enjoy this, especially<br />
if they understand German. While subtitles are<br />
supplied, they do not keep up with all of<br />
Boesch’s jokes and explanations, and they go<br />
by so fast that I doubt that many children can<br />
keep up with them.<br />
Several years ago, Levine conducted a<br />
streamlined version of Julie Taymor’s production<br />
of Magic Flute at the Met, also meant for<br />
children. It dispensed with the talk and<br />
charmed the listeners with its more imaginative<br />
use of costumes and innovative stage business.<br />
It was very effective; if there is a Met<br />
video of it, it ought to be released. It was a<br />
much more magical production of Mozart’s<br />
opera.<br />
MOSES<br />
OFFENBACH: La Belle Helene<br />
Felicity Lott (Helene), Yann Beuron (Paris),<br />
Michel Senechal (Menelaus), Laurent Naouri<br />
(Agamemnon), François Le Roux (Calchas); Musiciens<br />
du Louvre/ Mark Minkowski<br />
ArtHaus 107403—127 minutes<br />
This famous production of La Belle Helene<br />
originated at the Chƒtelet in Paris in 2000, and<br />
then played internationally, from London to<br />
Santa Fe. It was originally released on the Kultur<br />
label, then on TDK. The terrific <strong>conductor</strong><br />
is Mark Minkowski, the fabulous director Laurent<br />
Pelly.<br />
The production takes all kinds of postmodern<br />
liberties with the original Trojan-War timeframe<br />
and gets away with most of them, from<br />
the overture, with a bored, modern Helen<br />
(Felicity Lott) going into her bathroom, to a<br />
Nauplia (Act III) with modern guys and gals<br />
cavorting by the seaside. It adds an appreciable<br />
amount of sex and skin to a ribald work<br />
that for many years had been enbalmed in<br />
fussy costuming. One startling example for<br />
your delectation is having its Paris take a<br />
shower on stage.<br />
The Parisian critics raved about this show,<br />
and the Châtelet had a huge hit on its hands.<br />
The following Pelly-Minkowski Offenbach<br />
offering was a less-effective Grande-Duchesse<br />
de Gerolstein, also with Madame Lott. There<br />
have also been productions elsewhere with the<br />
same director or <strong>conductor</strong> of Orphée aux<br />
Enfers and La Vie Parisienne, but not with<br />
quite the same eclat. Of course, M. Pelly has<br />
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gone on to furnish the Metropolitan Opera<br />
with more challenging vocal works like La Fille<br />
du Regiment.<br />
But do not disparage the vocal and acting<br />
talents required to pull off an Offenbach<br />
opera-bouffe. Fortunately, a superlative cast<br />
here has the goods required. Yann Beuron is a<br />
very sexy Paris, and François Le Roux is a very<br />
amusing Calchas, the soothsayer. The Kings of<br />
Greece are enacted wonderfully by Michel<br />
Senechal, Laurent Naouri, Erich Huchet, and<br />
others. Marie-Ange Torodovitch is the sparkling<br />
Orestes, a breeches part; and Stephanie<br />
d’Oustrac, who just wowed me considerably in<br />
the Champs-Elysées-Arts Florissants Armide<br />
(by Lully), appears as one of the courtesans.<br />
Felicity Lott was possibly a little too old to<br />
play the most beautiful woman in the (ancient)<br />
world and the “face that launched a thousand<br />
ships”, but her wry comedic ways and good<br />
singing and excellent French help her to get<br />
away with it.<br />
Belle Helene is a landmark Offenbach, and<br />
not to be missed. The DVD has English (and<br />
other) subtitles, and includes an interesting<br />
documentary at the end. The score follows the<br />
critical edition, but there has been some tampering<br />
with the original Meilhac-Halevy text by<br />
Agathe Melinand, as you might expect.<br />
TRAUBNER<br />
PUCCINI: Tosca<br />
Emily Magee (Tosca), Jonas Kaufmann (Cavaradossi),<br />
Thomas Hampson (Scarpia); Zurich<br />
Opera/ Paolo Carignani<br />
Decca 15483—125 minutes<br />
VERDI: Macbeth<br />
Thomas Hampson (Macbeth), Paoletta Marrocu<br />
(Lady Macbeth), Roberto Scandiuzzi (Banquo),<br />
Luis Lima (Macduff); Zurich Opera/ Franz<br />
Welser-Most<br />
Arthaus 101563—141 minutes<br />
Both of these productions are from the Zurich<br />
Opera, but only one is worth bothering with.<br />
We’ve all seen a lot of Eurotrash and a lot of<br />
preposterous opera stagings, but David Pountney’s<br />
2001 Macbeth sets a new low standard.<br />
Almost nothing you see has any relationship<br />
whatsoever to the story or the words. The<br />
props are arbitrary and irrelevant: typewriter,<br />
hula hoop, boom-box, newspapers. The costumes<br />
suggest no time or place at all, and the<br />
variety of styles would take too much space to<br />
describe. Macbeth’s is vaguely military; Lady<br />
Macbeth is almost topless, save for a few strips<br />
of cloth. Some characters are wearing newspapers.<br />
There’s no furniture on stage to speak of.<br />
The producer might have gone to a local charity<br />
shop, emptied it out, threw everything on<br />
and around the players, and called it Macbeth.<br />
Yes, there’s a dagger, and a lot of children wave<br />
branches about when Birnam Wood comes to<br />
Dunsinane, but nothing illuminates the drama<br />
at all. It’s rare—fortunately—to see such a<br />
complete mess on an opera stage.<br />
The actual performance is decent, no<br />
more. Though on the light side, Hampson is a<br />
good actor, and his strong top voice gets him<br />
through a role he’s not naturally suited for.<br />
Paoletta Marrocu has a strong, cutting voice<br />
and the right sort of dominant personality for<br />
Lady Macbeth. She’s no pleasure to hear, but<br />
she’s flexible enough for her arias, and she<br />
goes easily up to the top D-flat of the Sleepwalking<br />
Scene (where, for the first time, she’s<br />
modestly clothed). Scandiuzzi is an eloquent<br />
Banquo, and veteran tenor Luis Lima still has<br />
enough voice for Macduff. Welser-Most likes<br />
broad tempos, often to the detriment of the<br />
drama, but he holds it all together.<br />
The 2009 Tosca also has some silly moments,<br />
but next to Macbeth it’s a model of<br />
lucidity. The characters are in modern dress<br />
(you wonder why they’re so upset about the<br />
news of the battle of Marengo); the stage settings<br />
are drab but functional. The church<br />
might be a church (with a very oddly dressed<br />
congregation for the Te Deum and a theater<br />
curtain in the background), and Scarpia’s<br />
apartment at least looks like a habitable room.<br />
Act 3 is vague: nothing to suggest the Castel<br />
Sant’Angelo or Rome in the background, and<br />
no parapet for Tosca to leap from—she just<br />
raises her arms and walks into the darkness.<br />
Hampson, again in a role just a size too big,<br />
is a riveting Scarpia, handsome and unctuous<br />
and very much in command. His best vocal<br />
moments are at the top of his voice. Kaufmann<br />
looks perfect as Cavaradossi, very much the<br />
romantic hero. His voice has a baritonal cast<br />
on bottom but grows more ringing and<br />
thrilling as it rises, though it never sounds Italian.<br />
He sings so softly sometimes you wonder<br />
if he would be audible even in the small Zurich<br />
house. He and Emily Magee have good chemistry—they<br />
play off each other and really seem<br />
to be in love. She has a fresh, rather plainvanilla<br />
voice that, like Kaufmann’s, is stronger<br />
on top than on bottom, and her words are not<br />
really filled with the sort of emotion Italian<br />
sopranos put into them. But she’s tireless, and<br />
she keeps on rising to shining heights from<br />
beginning to end. I’m not entirely sold by her<br />
girl-next-door Tosca, but she’s honest and<br />
touching. Conductor Carignani sets even slower<br />
tempos than Welser-Most—Tosca doesn’t<br />
need this much deliberation—but the orchestra<br />
plays well for him.<br />
Sound and picture is fine for both performances.<br />
The Tosca is worth seeing but skip the<br />
Macbeth.<br />
LUCANO<br />
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RAUTAVAARA: Aleksis Kivi<br />
Jorma Hynninen (Aleksis), Janne Reinikainen<br />
(August Ahlqvist), Riikka Rantanen (Charlotta),<br />
Pauliina Linnosaari (Hilda), Ville Rusanen (Young<br />
Aleksis); Finnish Opera/ Mikko Franck<br />
Ondine 4009—1:47<br />
Aleksis Kivi is regarded as Finland’s “national<br />
author”, creator of “the first major novels,<br />
plays and poems in the Finnish language”,<br />
according to the composer’s notes. He died of<br />
a combination of alcoholism, madness (said to<br />
be schizophrenia), and depression in 1872 at<br />
the age of 38.<br />
A genuinely tragic figure, Kivi’s downfall<br />
offers juicy material for 20th Century operatic<br />
treatment and is a good role for a strong dramatic<br />
baritone. Jorma Hynninen, for whom<br />
the role was written, fits the bill perfectly. A<br />
long-time operatic collaborator with<br />
Rautavaara, Hynninen is a master of the composer’s<br />
lyrical idiom and a fine actor.<br />
Rautavaara’s 1996 three act opera opens<br />
with a brief prologue, set near the conclusion of<br />
the protagonist’s demise. Act I proper begins as<br />
a flashback to the young Kivi (well sung by Ville<br />
Rusanen) feeling his oats and declaring his<br />
commitment to depicting the Finnish People<br />
warts and all, their crude language, heavy<br />
drinking, and gruff character naked and unexpurgated.<br />
He is surrounded by his two women,<br />
his considerably older patroness Charlotta<br />
(Riikka Rantanen) and her pretty, if air-headed,<br />
blonde pupil Hilda (Pauliina Linnosaari). All is<br />
not merry, though, since Aleksis has a jealous<br />
alter ego in the Professor August Ahlqvist,<br />
intentionally given a speaking role owing to<br />
what the composer regards as his inherent lack<br />
of musicality (played to the hilt by actor Jenne<br />
Reminkainen). Ahlqvist will have none of Kivi’s<br />
realist aesthetic, insisting instead on the duty of<br />
art to teach man “what should be”, rather than<br />
“what is”. His disgust at the rabble’s abuse of<br />
the Finnish language might sound familiar to<br />
readers of these pages. The act closes with<br />
Charlotta thinking better of her budding lust<br />
for artist Aleksis, and she leaves him after advising<br />
her pupil to leave him as well.<br />
Act II opens with the older Kivi asking the<br />
powerful Ahlqvist for aid in getting his works<br />
published. Not a chance! He tears up the manuscripts<br />
and throws Aleksis a penny to go<br />
drinking with. Act III finds the destitute Aleksis<br />
alone, drunk and delusional, tortured by the<br />
specter of Ahlqvist, assorted characters of his<br />
own invention, and apparitions of his past. An<br />
Epilogue finds Aleksis at death’s door in a<br />
mental institution, begging for peace. He sees<br />
himself revisiting his youth and sings a duet<br />
with it (a neat touch). The moving, almost<br />
Wagnerian finale is set to words that were also<br />
set by Sibelius.<br />
Rautavaara based his libretto on texts by<br />
Kivi himself, as well as by merciless critic<br />
Ahlqvist. They are set in a basically tonal, lyrical<br />
style, suitably dramatic sometimes, and are<br />
constructed with what amounts to set pieces in<br />
the traditional operatic sense. The production<br />
is austere, since this is essentially a chamber<br />
opera. Groups and spare characters are<br />
wheeled around on dollies by “the eighth<br />
brother” (an extra “Young Finn”: see below), a<br />
“dancing role” (Timo Saari) symbolizing, I suppose,<br />
Kivi’s active subconscious, or, more likely,<br />
his psychosis. It prances around like an irritating<br />
troll, which I suppose could be an apt<br />
portrayal of a mental illness. It is not an effective<br />
device theatrically after a while. Kivi’s<br />
male entourage, known as the “Young Finns”<br />
(there are seven of them), are always rather<br />
awkwardly hanging around, providing ensemble<br />
when needed. Least effective are the first<br />
act episodes involving the women, particularly<br />
the irritating Hilda. Her mooning all over Aleksis<br />
as he sings one of his poems is cloying and<br />
downright embarrassing.<br />
Pekka Milonoff’s direction is more clever<br />
than consistently effective. I found much of<br />
the staging distracting. Singing is generally<br />
excellent (though I’m not wild about Ms<br />
Linosaari’s contribution). The piece is worth<br />
seeing, though as a whole consider my<br />
response “mixed”. Included as bonus is ‘The<br />
Making of ‘Aleksis Kivi’’, which contains interviews<br />
with Rautavaara, Hynninen, and <strong>conductor</strong><br />
Franck. The booklet includes an introduction<br />
by the composer, essays on the opera<br />
and Kivi, and a synopsis. Subtitling is clear;<br />
sound is excellent.<br />
GIMBEL<br />
SAINT-SAENS: Samson et Dalila<br />
Torsten Kerl (Samson), Marianna Tarasova<br />
(Dalila), Nikola Mijailovic (High Priest); Flemish<br />
Opera/ Tomas Netopil<br />
EuroArts 2058628—136 minutes<br />
Co-directors Omri Nitzan, an Israeli, and Amir<br />
Nizar Zuabi, a Palestinian, must have thought<br />
they had an absolutely brilliant idea when they<br />
updated Samson to the present. Israelis vs<br />
Palestinians in Gaza. Great idea, right? Wrong!<br />
The directors chose to make a political statement,<br />
biased, I think, toward the Philistines—<br />
oops, Palestinians. I thought the Philistines<br />
were the bad guys. And besides, the Philistines<br />
and their god Dagon aren’t around anymore in<br />
the era of three great monotheistic religions.<br />
Cultural Philistines don’t count.<br />
Leaving out the politics, this is still an icky<br />
production. There is dancing in the choral<br />
scenes that suggests slow dances and other<br />
stuff one might see on one of those TV reality<br />
dance shows. Pretty tame for a bacchanal or<br />
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lamenting Hebrews. And some of the choreography<br />
for that bacchanal seems like a futuristic<br />
Rockettes number. Yikes! Samson’s blinding is<br />
tame stuff. In Act 2 Delilah puts a handgun to<br />
Samson’s head; sometimes she seems to be<br />
using it as a sex toy. The High Priest and Philistine<br />
crowd are about as menacing as students<br />
in a high school pageant. Modern dress and a<br />
refusal to face the fact that Samson is set in a<br />
fixed time and place—those demerits alone<br />
would be enough to irritate me. The bonus<br />
interview with the directors attempting to justify<br />
themselves is pure gobbledygook.<br />
The musical side of the show is notable<br />
mainly for Torsten Kerl’s sensitive singing—<br />
heroic sounds from a voice not really heroic.<br />
He tries hard to create a sympathetic figure,<br />
but the production does him in. I tried sometimes<br />
to close my eyes during his big moments<br />
and felt I was hearing a real effort to make the<br />
best of a bad concept. Tarasova’s cloudy,<br />
mature sounds and what I consider to be<br />
unsteadiness with a vibrato not in proper<br />
working condition don’t make for a believable<br />
seductress. The High Priest and supporting<br />
singers are no great shakes, but the chorus is<br />
fine. Conductor and orchestra are OK but not<br />
particularly stimulating. Who can blame them?<br />
If I want a good Samson, I’ll stick with CDs:<br />
Vickers-Gorr or Bouvier-Luccioni on EMI, to<br />
name just two of the best.<br />
MARK<br />
SCARLATTI: A Daring Game<br />
Francesco Leprino<br />
Concerto 2021—98 minutes<br />
This DVD will be of great interest to lovers of<br />
Scarlatti’s music. All we can hope to learn<br />
about the composer’s inner life must be<br />
gleaned from his music. The interviews documented<br />
by this film help paint a picture of who<br />
Scarlatti was. Harpsichordists Enrico Baiano,<br />
Emilia Fadini, and Gustav Leonhardt bring<br />
early music performance practice and scholarship<br />
to the table. Composer Salvatore Sciarrino<br />
and writer Jose Saramago discuss Scarlatti’s<br />
influence on their own work. The film maker<br />
has interlaced video footage of performances<br />
of Scarlatti’s music, from harpsichord solos to<br />
fado arrangements.<br />
KATZ<br />
SCHOENBERG: Gurrelieder<br />
Deborah Voigt, Stig Andersson, Mihoko Fujimara,<br />
Herwig Pecoraro, Michael Volle; Bavarian Radio/<br />
Mariss Jansons<br />
BR 900110—124 minutes<br />
Gurrelieder is a great work. It gathers the darkness<br />
and the soaring aspirations of the Romantic<br />
Era, from Beethoven through Mahler and<br />
Strauss, wraps them into one huge work of art<br />
and then sends them off with a blazing Cmajor<br />
sunrise, like some ancient warrior sent<br />
off to a sea burial on a blazing boat.<br />
This is only my second encounter with it<br />
on video. The first was a private recording of a<br />
BBC performance under Andrew Davis from<br />
some time ago. I don’t know why we don’t<br />
have more video recordings of it, since the<br />
recordings of it that exist almost all seem to<br />
come from concerts. The sheer spectacle of<br />
these massed forces is not easily forgotten;<br />
and, when you actually see things like what the<br />
double bass players have to go through in the<br />
Wild Hunt or the Wagner Tubas with their<br />
mutes opening Part III with unearthly sounds,<br />
you have a much better idea of how strange<br />
and ambitious this music is than most people’s<br />
unaided ears can offer.<br />
All of that said, I have some reservations<br />
about this performance. Jansons is a technically<br />
superb, superbly trained, and deeply sensitive<br />
musician. Many of his performances are<br />
ones that I treasure. But lately, perhaps for<br />
health reasons, perhaps because that’s just<br />
where he is in his development as an artist,<br />
some of his performances have become so<br />
understated that they seem short of energy.<br />
Parts of this performance are like that. The<br />
magical opening of the piece, so gorgeous in<br />
color, so full of light and shadow, in for example,<br />
the Inbal performance, is very muted here,<br />
almost conversational. The emotion in the big<br />
duets doesn’t soar. Over and over again, the<br />
camera pans to Jansons, who is physically very<br />
involved in the music, but what you see is not<br />
what you hear. I don’t know why this is.<br />
Voigt is in fine voice, and Andersson has a<br />
clean, slightly dry voice that’s a little small for<br />
the part but sounds good all the way through.<br />
They are both lovely to listen to but don’t have<br />
performing charisma. In most Gurrelieders,<br />
Tove and Waldemar grab your attention and<br />
don’t let it go. Not here.<br />
Who does grab your attention is Fujimara,<br />
the Wood Dove. Her voice is a good instrument,<br />
though there have been some fabulous<br />
singers in this part over the years. What makes<br />
the difference is that she has the charisma that<br />
nobody else does. She is absolutely riveting.<br />
Every note matters. Jansons isn’t there for her.<br />
He could have built the insanity in the orchestral<br />
response to what she was singing at the<br />
end, but no. He’s not intense.<br />
The chorus and orchestra and minor parts<br />
are all first-rate. The video editing (Brian<br />
Large) is sensitive and smart.<br />
Among the audio-only performances,<br />
Inbal is the best conducted that I know of. He<br />
revels in the colors of the score and handles<br />
the ebb and flow really well. Chailly, who is not<br />
on Inbal’s level as a <strong>conductor</strong>, has a great<br />
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team of singers, and they are all great communicators.<br />
This performance is full of virtues but<br />
doesn’t add up to what I hoped for. But I<br />
would not want to give up the chance to hear<br />
Fujimara.<br />
CHAKWIN<br />
SOMERS: Louis Riel<br />
Canadian Opera/ Victor Feldbrill<br />
Centrediscs 16711—126 minutes<br />
Louis Riel (1844-85) was an important and<br />
controversial figure in Canadian history. A<br />
leader of the Metis (descendants of French settlers<br />
who paired with people already present),<br />
he led uprisings when the young Canadian<br />
government extended its reach westward in<br />
the mid-to-late 19th Century. For his deeds (or<br />
misdeeds, depending on your point of view),<br />
he was arrested, convicted of treason, and<br />
hung. Today he is hero to some, traitor to others—as<br />
he was a century ago.<br />
Composer Harry Somers (1925-99) and<br />
librettist James Mavor Moore were commissioned<br />
to write this two-hour, three-act opera<br />
in commemoration of Canada’s centennial in<br />
1967. The first runs were in Toronto and Montreal,<br />
and it has been revived several times<br />
since—including at the Kennedy Center in<br />
Washington DC during the US bicentennial in<br />
1976. The present recording is of a 1969 television<br />
adaptation and offers almost the entire<br />
original cast. The cast is large: 37 characters<br />
are listed.<br />
Introductory material, spoken and with<br />
archival news photos, lets us know that Louis<br />
Riel’s story has parallels in current events—<br />
that struggles between minorities and majorities<br />
still take place and still vex people in<br />
power. As stated in the notes, “the geographic,<br />
linguistic, and cultural fault lines emphasized<br />
in Somers’s opera have long haunted Canada’s<br />
past since Riel’s death and continue to persist<br />
in the present”.<br />
The opera is excellent, the performances<br />
are moving, and the overall production is marvelous.<br />
It appears that no expense was spared<br />
on sets and costumes. The atonal music fits<br />
the tense scenes quite well, and the gritty<br />
libretto packs punches. Texts are in English,<br />
French, Cree, and Latin. Conductor Victor<br />
Feldbrill coaxes fine playing from the orchestra,<br />
and the engineers make sure the cast can<br />
be heard clearly. The cast is very strong, musically<br />
and dramatically. Scenes are expertly<br />
crafted to portray the important events and the<br />
underlying conflicts.<br />
Principal characters are played by Bernard<br />
Turgeon (Riel), Patricia Rideout (Riel’s mother),<br />
Mary Morrison (his sister), Roxolana<br />
Roslak (his wife), Donald Rutherford (Prime<br />
Minister John Macdonald), Joseph Rouleau<br />
(Bishop Tache), and Thomas Park (Thomas<br />
Scott). The DVD includes a 10-minute interview<br />
with composer Somers and librettist<br />
Moore.<br />
KILPATRICK<br />
STURMINGER: The Giacomo Variations<br />
John Malkovich (Casanova), Ingeborga Dapkunaite<br />
(Elisa+), Florian Boesch (Count Almaviva+),<br />
Sophie Klussmann (Despina+); Vienna<br />
Akademie/ Martin Haselböck<br />
Arthaus 101570—139 minutes<br />
The Giacomo of the title is Giacomo Casanova<br />
(1725-98), the notorious rake and, perhaps, the<br />
model for Mozart’s Don Giovanni. He is the<br />
hero of this weird and rather silly Chamber<br />
Opera Play, allegedly based on Casanova’s<br />
memoirs and spiced with arias from Mozart’s<br />
Da Ponte operas. It’s more of a play than an<br />
opera, and it can also be described as a fantasy.<br />
Casanova is portrayed by the actor John<br />
Malkovich (not known as an opera singer); he<br />
is supported by the three singers listed above<br />
who are trained in opera. They sing the Mozart<br />
arias beautifully, and they try to persuade us<br />
that the goings-on in Casanova’s memoirs can<br />
be characterized by Mozart’s arias. (I am not<br />
that easily persuaded, but I love the music.)<br />
This idea and its realization is the work of<br />
Michael Sturminger, who also directs it. The<br />
spoken dialog (and there’s lots of it) is in English,<br />
but the arias are sung in the original Italian.<br />
Unfortunately, the libretto for this “play<br />
with music” is not supplied, though a terse<br />
commentary by the author is printed on the<br />
DVD box. “The 18th Century is nearly over.<br />
Mozart died seven years ago and the first bars<br />
of his Prague Symphony still resound a certain<br />
vicinity of death, when the Venetian adventurer<br />
Giacomo Casanova contemplates putting an<br />
end to his deplorable existence. Stranded as<br />
Count Waldstein’s librarian at the remote castle<br />
of Dux and lacking any eligible occupation<br />
for 15 years now, Giacomo has been doing<br />
nothing but writing his memoirs. Considering<br />
himself to be forgotten by the world, he is surprised<br />
to see the German poet Eliza van der<br />
Recke paying him a visit and showing serious<br />
interest in the 4000 pages of his ‘Histoire de<br />
ma vie’. Attracted by this fascinating woman,<br />
old Giacomo for one last time wages the struggle<br />
to capture a female heart, ready to show<br />
her “how young I can be”. Reciting Da Ponte’s<br />
lyrics to her, he recalls his first love and above<br />
all his falling in love with love.”<br />
Elisa then sings ‘Non so piu’, Cherubino’s<br />
Act 1 aria from The Marriage of Figaro. Is it relevant?<br />
Inspired by Elisa’s amazement, Giacomo<br />
cannot refrain from opening other chap-<br />
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ters of his life, even granting Elisa a brief look<br />
into his “catalog of affairs”, such as Leporello’s<br />
“in Espagna son gia mille e tre”...And so on<br />
and on, for more than two hours.<br />
The staging, by the author, is primitive but<br />
emphasizes Casanova’s interest in sex. There’s<br />
much groping, undressing, and coupling on<br />
stage. The scenery is minimal but there are<br />
almost always beds. The costumes evoke what<br />
the upper class was wearing in the last decades<br />
of the 18th Century. Malkovich gives a fine<br />
performance; I just wish he wouldn’t try to<br />
sing; his vocal range, I’d guess, is at most one<br />
octave. The other soloists have smooth and<br />
alluring voices; they sing with a good understanding<br />
of Mozart style and they act with confidence.<br />
But some of the excerpts are used in<br />
situations quite different from Mozart’s intentions.<br />
For example, the trio ‘Suave sia el vento’<br />
(Cosi Fan Tutte) is here sung as a duet after a<br />
duel between the two male soloists. After Giacomo<br />
is shot, that melody accompanies Elisa’s<br />
attempt to soothe her lover. Susanna’s ‘Deh<br />
vieni non tardar’ (from The Marriage of Figaro)<br />
is sung by Elisa just before she and Casanova<br />
make love together at a picnic.<br />
The accompaniments are well played on<br />
period instruments by the Vienna Academy<br />
Chamber Orchestra, which Haselböck conducts<br />
with vigor and authority. I’d be more<br />
inclined to recommend this release if a libretto<br />
were included. As it is, it can’t be taken seriously,<br />
and its humor is often strained.<br />
MOSES<br />
TCHAIKOVSKY: Nutcracker Act II; GLINKA:<br />
Ruslan & Ludmilla Overture; Life for the<br />
Czar Dances<br />
BBC Symphony/ Gennady Rozhdestvensky<br />
ICA 5027—65 minutes<br />
WAGNER: Meistersinger Excerpts; FRANCK:<br />
Symphony; FAURE: Pelleas & Melisande<br />
Suite Boston Symphony/ Charles Munch<br />
ICA 5015—71 minutes<br />
STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben; DVORAK: Symphony<br />
9<br />
Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony/ Rudolf<br />
Kempe<br />
ICA 5009—89 minutes<br />
ELGAR: Symphony 2; Enigma Variations<br />
London Philharmonic/ Georg Solti<br />
ICA 5011—84 minutes<br />
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker music has to be as<br />
close to perfection as any human creation has<br />
come. And if I had to choose its most nearly<br />
perfect interpreter, it would have to be Artur<br />
Rodzinski. But Gennady Rozhdestvensky and<br />
Eugene Ormandy (though he never recorded<br />
the complete ballet) would be extremely close<br />
second choices.<br />
Rozhdestvensky seemed to have a particular<br />
fondness for the score: it was one of the first<br />
pieces he led as a 20-year-old <strong>conductor</strong> at the<br />
Bolshoi Theater in the 1950s, his Melodiya<br />
recording of the whole score (Sept/Oct 1997) is<br />
something of a classic, he leads the Royal<br />
Opera House orchestra in the Covent Garden<br />
production widely circulated on VHS and DVD<br />
(a staple of my family’s Christmas celebrations)—and<br />
he seemed to like to lead the second<br />
act in concert. I remember being bowled<br />
over by his account with the Chicago Symphony<br />
in the early 1990s at the Ravinia Festival,<br />
after a blistering, life-altering performance of<br />
Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto with<br />
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. This performance<br />
was videotaped at Royal Albert Hall on 27 July<br />
1981 at the Proms, and it brings back memories<br />
of that one. It’s a spectacular traversal that<br />
anybody who loves this score really must hear<br />
and see.<br />
Rozhdestvensky was director of the BBC<br />
Symphony for only a brief period, from 1978 to<br />
1981, before the unrelated political fall out<br />
from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (I<br />
guess we should call it the First Afghanistan<br />
War now) and the last-gasp tightening foreign<br />
travel restrictions of the Communist Old<br />
Guard in the 1980s forced him to give up the<br />
position. By all accounts, he enjoyed the relative<br />
freedom and working conditions with the<br />
ensemble and regretted giving it up. Judging<br />
from what we see here, he seems to have a<br />
genial and mutually supportive relationship<br />
with the orchestra.<br />
It is definitely not the CSO—there are<br />
moments when Rozhdestvensky seems to have<br />
to hold back the tempo because the players are<br />
having trouble staying together. And sure, the<br />
trumpet soloist makes a few goofs in the intro<br />
to the ‘Spanish Dance’. But when everything is<br />
running well he knows that the orchestra doesn’t<br />
have to be manhandled into delivering the<br />
performance. He doesn’t over-conduct, and<br />
sometimes he doesn’t conduct at all, as when<br />
he steps back in the ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ and<br />
barely moves his arms. In the grand Finale, he<br />
actually steps back and crosses his arms at one<br />
point, an expression of pure satisfaction with<br />
the orchestra’s playing on his face! When he<br />
wants a certain kind of expression, he shapes it<br />
with his extremely long baton, which he sometimes<br />
sets down to guide the players with his<br />
hands. The beautifully lithe, sinuous rendering<br />
of the ‘Arabian Dance’ is reflected in his<br />
remarkably graceful, almost perfectly choreographed<br />
movements.<br />
So is Rozhdestvensky just showing off to<br />
the audience with a flashy conducting style? I<br />
don’t think so. His unforced, lively interpreta-<br />
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tion is beautifully expressive, with careful yet formances seem to come from early video<br />
fuss-free attention to the wealth of detail in tapes, while the Fauré is obviously a Kinescope<br />
Tchaikovsky’s score. Turn off the picture and it (a movie film of a TV monitor). Oddly enough,<br />
sounds gorgeous; turn the TV back on and in portions of the Franck and Wagner, the cor-<br />
Rozhdestvensky’s gestures translate directly ners of the picture are sometimes cut off, as if<br />
into what we hear.<br />
viewed through a telescope. It reminds me of<br />
The program leads off with a lively, vibrant watching TV on the small black and white set<br />
Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture. Rozhdestven- we had in the basement when I was a kid. Just<br />
sky doesn’t treat it like a 50-yard dash, so it has be prepared that this is archival material; once<br />
energy without feeling rushed. There’s enough you adjust back to the way TV viewing was 50<br />
time for him and the orchestra to savor some years ago, it’s highly rewarding.<br />
of the delicious details in the inner voices that Munch was from Alsace-Lorraine, the<br />
usually get lost when the piece is treated like a province on the border of France and Germany<br />
slam-bang curtain raiser or encore. The Waltz, that is attached to whichever of the two coun-<br />
Mazurka, and Krakowiak from A Life for the tries won the last war. When Munch was born<br />
Czar are slighter, less inventive works, but you it was part of Germany, and his musical<br />
would never know it from the concentration upbringing was essentially German (eventually<br />
and savoring of detail by <strong>conductor</strong> and leading to becoming concertmaster of the<br />
orchestra. The Glinka items were recorded at Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra), but he even-<br />
the Proms about two weeks after the Tchaitually turned to conducting, leading his first<br />
kovsky.<br />
concert in Paris.<br />
Rozhdestvensky had probably led the Nut- Munch conducted and recorded a good<br />
cracker hundreds of times before this concert, deal of Wagner, and the three Meistersinger<br />
yet he still has the score in front of him and fol- excerpts presented here figured regularly on<br />
lows it all through the performance.<br />
his Boston programs. He combines serenity<br />
The video and audio production is quite (Act III prelude) with Mozartean geniality in<br />
good for 1970s television material. Despite the the ‘Apprentices’ Dance’ and grandeur in the<br />
age of the videotape, the color is quite vibrant, ‘Entrance of the Mastersingers’—Furtwangler<br />
and the camera work is straightforward and meets Toscanini, with balance and proportion<br />
businesslike. They’ll get you a shot of wherever in a sound that can only be Munch. The BSO<br />
the action is—often it’s on the podium—but plays brilliantly, but the sound isn’t hard or<br />
it’s usually the same angle each time. Don’t aggressive.<br />
expect the kind of close-ups and swooping Along with Pierre Monteux, Munch pretty<br />
around you see from modern, lightweight, much “owned” the Franck Symphony; it’s hard<br />
remote-controlled camera equipment.<br />
to think of a later interpreter who approached<br />
The recorded sound is OK. Ruslan and their mastery, let along topped it. The perfor-<br />
Ludmilla sounds distinctly monophonic, but mance Munch leads here makes the piece<br />
the rest of the program seems to be stereo— sound like something Beethoven might have<br />
perhaps only the quality of an FM broadcast, produced if he’d had a “French Period”. From<br />
but more than serviceable.<br />
the ominous introduction to the first move-<br />
Today, the Boston Symphony doesn’t quite ment, to the blistering allegro, to the move-<br />
have the profile it had in the 1930s through the ment’s wild final pages, Munch leaves no<br />
1960s, its status harmed by the long, dull doubt that this work, for him at least, is one of<br />
tenure of a music director who stayed too long the great masterpieces. II has repose and<br />
(Ozawa), followed more recently by a director scherzo-like interruptions—not a dull<br />
who had vision but not the physical health to moment. And of course the finale is brash and<br />
execute it (Levine). In the 1950s, though, it was vigorous and full of life—not bombastic in the<br />
a spectacular ensemble of virtuosos, led by slightest. The BSO plays with a rich, dark-hued,<br />
Charles Munch, and fully deserving of its place organ-like tone with burnish brass, fruity<br />
in the Big Five. Looking much like a trimmer, woodwinds, and lustrous strings.<br />
rather more stylish Carl Sandburg, “Le beau Charmingly called a “bonus” in the book-<br />
Charles” was BSO music director from 1950 to let, the suite of four movements from Fauré’s<br />
1963. Like Rozhdestvensky, he had a huge Pelleas incidental music puts the spotlight on<br />
baton, which he used boldly, decisively, and the first-chair woodwinds of the BSO, a roster<br />
assertively, though it could also express sereni- that reads like a Who’s Who of famous players.<br />
ty and stillness. All those characteristics are on It’s a piece not often played today, maybe<br />
display in this program.<br />
because few <strong>conductor</strong>s can give it the charm,<br />
The material comes from three different color, and life that Munch did.<br />
concerts at Harvard’s Sanders Theater in three Although the picture is imperfect, the<br />
consecutive years: 1959 (Fauré), 1960 (Wagn- sound is solid monaural with adequate bass<br />
er), and 1961 (Franck). The picture is, of and a decently tamed treble that keeps the top<br />
course, black and white; and the two later per- of the violins’ range from sounding screechy.<br />
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Balances seem quite good, much like what we<br />
know from Munch’s commercial recordings.<br />
Rudolf Kempe was not a particularly flashy<br />
podium figure, though he could get plenty animated,<br />
as he does several times here. Both<br />
interpretations have the depth, musical<br />
integrity, and cohesion that made him a<br />
beloved figure for a lot of record buyers and<br />
concert audiences. Back in the 1950s, 60s and<br />
70s, he was just one among many excellent<br />
<strong>conductor</strong>s plying his art on the international<br />
circuit. Now, the Chicago and Boston Symphonies<br />
or the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics<br />
would be vying for his services.<br />
Kempe succeeded Beecham as <strong>conductor</strong><br />
of the Royal Philharmonic and had a long and<br />
fruitful relationship with the ensemble. The<br />
Strauss, a Kempe specialty, is from his last<br />
concert with them, at the Proms in 1974. The<br />
Dvorak comes from almost exactly one year<br />
later, 29 August 1975, early in his tenure with<br />
the BBC Symphony. (He died a few months<br />
after this concert.)<br />
Kempe’s commercial recordings of Strauss<br />
are justly regarded as some of the best ever<br />
made. This is a superb opportunity to see him<br />
making the music with the orchestra he<br />
worked with for so many years. You won’t really<br />
hear anything much different from what we<br />
know in the studio recordings, but the visual<br />
element adds something for us who are too<br />
young to have seen Kempe in person.<br />
The Dvorak gets a big, bold, yet carefully<br />
balanced and paced interpretation. Kempe’s<br />
account is plenty animated, but he refrains<br />
from stirring up frenzy just to add excitement.<br />
The full melodic richness of the score is never<br />
short-changed, and as the album notes point<br />
out, he maintains a particularly wide dynamic<br />
range, fortunately captured in the full, vibrant<br />
stereo sound. Given the limitations of sound<br />
reproduction on the TV sets of the period, one<br />
has to assume that the BBC was also recording<br />
the audio for FM transmission.<br />
The video production is very fine, with<br />
exceptionally vivid color—better than many<br />
video tapes of the period, even the BBC’s.<br />
One has to be impressed by the quality of<br />
the old material ICA has trawled up from the<br />
depths of the BBC archives. The Solti Elgar<br />
program is a particular find. Despite the <strong>conductor</strong>’s<br />
long tenure with the Chicago Symphony,<br />
in a city with one of the largest PBS stations<br />
in the US, very little of his work there was<br />
captured on video. What we have was mostly<br />
taped during foreign tours and has already<br />
been issued on DVD. Solti “discovered” Elgar’s<br />
music (or perhaps finally realized its worth)<br />
shortly after becoming a British subject a few<br />
years before this Symphony 2 was taped. The<br />
album notes make a rather sizeable point out<br />
of his referring to Elgar’s own recording of the<br />
work when he was learning the score. Elgar’s<br />
performances of his own works are incisive,<br />
unsentimental, and often fiery.<br />
Does he pour the “Solti Hot Sauce” on<br />
Elgar? I’m probably not the best judge since, as<br />
a teenager, I was glued to the radio every Sunday<br />
afternoon to hear the Chicago Symphony<br />
broadcast. Certainly, his account of the massive<br />
Second Symphony has the sometimes<br />
abrupt, angular, Soltian phrasing in the vigorous<br />
passages. The first movement is one of the<br />
most intractable of Elgar’s large-scale works; I<br />
always get a bit fidgety during it. Solti moves it<br />
along but doesn’t convince me that he’s getting<br />
the most out of the music (but who does?).<br />
He makes up for it by plumbing the expressive<br />
depths of the slow movement—makes sense,<br />
given the <strong>conductor</strong>’s affinity for Mahler—and<br />
he builds from the end of II through the lighter<br />
Rondo of III and to a an earth-shattering<br />
finale.<br />
In some ways, Solti’s take on the more<br />
popular Enigma Variations is less convincing.<br />
As in his earlier CSO recording (made in 1976;<br />
this concert dates from 1979), he seems to miss<br />
the charm of the score, its melodic richness,<br />
and the composer’s genuine affection for the<br />
friends it depicts. Solti knows how to hammer<br />
through the vigorous variations, and ‘Nimrod’<br />
is suitably expansive; but at this stage in his<br />
career he didn’t quite have the grasp of nuance<br />
in phrasing that he did in his last decade. He<br />
makes it into a series of episodes not closely<br />
related to each other. An exciting performance—and<br />
good to see the <strong>conductor</strong> in any<br />
video program I hadn’t encountered before—<br />
but probably not indispensable to the Elgar<br />
discography.<br />
As in the other two BBC programs, the picture<br />
quality is vivid and clean. I viewed all of<br />
these on my Sharp Aquous LCD, letting the TV<br />
upscale the feed from a Sony NS3100ES DVD<br />
player (also my playback machine for audio<br />
SACDs, by the way). It wasn’t Blu Ray quality,<br />
but it was quite impressive for 35-year-old<br />
broadcast TV material.<br />
HANSEN<br />
WAGNER: Parsifal<br />
Poul Elming (Parsifal), Linda Watson (Kundry),<br />
Hans Sotin (Gurnemanz), Falk Struckmann<br />
(Amfortas), Ekkehard Wlaschiha (Klingsor);<br />
Bayreuth Festival 1998/ Giuseppe Sinopoli<br />
Unitel 705908 [2DVD] 278 minutes<br />
This was recorded at the Festspielhaus in<br />
Bayreuth in July 1998. The production is credited<br />
to Wolfgang Wagner, grandson of the<br />
composer, at that time the sole director of the<br />
Festival. It dates from 1989, when James<br />
Levine conducted it with a different cast; his<br />
performance was recorded on Philips CDs.<br />
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Sinopoli took it over in 1994 and conducted it haps the fault lies with Sinopoli’s rigidly-held<br />
every year until 1999 (when I happened to see and slack tempos that don’t give the singers<br />
it). It’s one of the slowest and most boring per- many opportunities for expressive interpretaformances<br />
of this work I have ever heard. tions. The Bayreuth Chorus is, as usual, out-<br />
Sinopoli establishes a slow tempo in the Prestanding; but the orchestral sound is somelude<br />
and rigidly holds on to it all through the times rhythmically slack, thick, and unbal-<br />
opera. The performance is slack, it lacks tenanced.sion and is full of luftpausen. I discussed it This performance is as long as Levine’s<br />
briefly in a review of several Bayreuth perfor- (Philips) but Levine at least varies the tempo<br />
mances (N/D 1999). This cast is the same freely and has a better feel for the drama and<br />
except that Linda Watson, the Kundry in 1998, the orchestral score. The slowest Parsifal on<br />
was replaced by Violetta Urmana in 1999.<br />
records is still Goodall’s, but only by less than<br />
Wolfgang’s staging breaks no new ground; 10 minutes. By contrast, the much-praised<br />
it’s a mixture of the traditional and the mod- Knappertsbusch Parsifal from 1964 clocks in<br />
ern. The stage is uncluttered, the dominant almost a half hour faster, yet many fans<br />
colors are green (Acts 1 and 2) and bluish pink. thought he was too slow! For a really “fast”<br />
The forest in the opening scene is represented performance, try Pierre Boulez’s—one hour<br />
by huge idealized green trees, and the only faster than Goodall’s. (These are all on CD.)<br />
props in the Grail scenes are the shrine for the Subtitles are available, and the overall<br />
Grail and Amfortas’s chair. Klingsor’s castle is sound is not bad; but the Bayreuth Orchestra<br />
notable by its absence. In the first scene of Act has sounded much better with Levine, Knap-<br />
3, the Holy Spring whose water refreshes and is pertsbusch, and even Barenboim at the helm.<br />
used to anoint Parsifal is a huge semi-sphere<br />
surrounded by a small moat; it also gushes<br />
MOSES<br />
water in the Act 3 Prelude. I don’t know why.<br />
If I Were A Rich Man<br />
Gurnemanz and his retinue in Act 1 wear green<br />
robes, Parsifal wears a green hunter’s suit,<br />
Amfortas is clad in black, and Klingsor and<br />
Kundry’s robes are violet with red stripes. For<br />
Act 3, Kundry has changed to a more neutral<br />
light-green robe. In this production, as I wrote<br />
in my 1999 review, Kundry does not die at the<br />
end; she officiates at the Grail’s unveiling with<br />
Parsifal, contrary to the composer’s stage<br />
directions. Perhaps she’ll become the first<br />
female Knight of the Grail.<br />
The best and obviously the most experienced<br />
singer in this cast is Hans Sotin. He has<br />
been singing Gurnemanz for a very long time,<br />
yet his noble and mellifluous voice is in good<br />
shape here and his diction and phrasing are<br />
superb. His bearing is dignified and his use of<br />
vocal colors unmatched. In the title role, the<br />
Danish tenor Poul Elming is most appealing<br />
and sometimes thrilling in his high register,<br />
notably in his last lines as he uncovers the<br />
Grail. Elsewhere and especially in his low register,<br />
his voice loses its tonal purity. He is also a<br />
stiff, unconvincing actor; he often looks bored.<br />
The <strong>American</strong> soprano Linda Watson was new<br />
to this production (and Bayreuth) in 1998, and<br />
perhaps she as yet hadn’t taken the measure of<br />
the place (and this production). Her voice is<br />
ample and smooth; but her acting, vocal and<br />
physical, is primitive and unconvincing. In Act<br />
2 she stands on the stage and keeps on waving<br />
her arms; it becomes a distracting and annoying<br />
habit that means nothing. She also moves<br />
awkwardly (when she moves) and she is surely<br />
no seductress.<br />
Falk Struckmann’s Amfortas doesn’t move<br />
the viewer as it should in the Grail scenes; per-<br />
The Life of Jan Peerce<br />
EuroArts 2058328 [DVD] 59 minutes<br />
This is greatly entertaining. Peerce (1904-84),<br />
Toscanini’s favorite tenor, is a wonderful storyteller.<br />
Through black-and-white photos and<br />
film and through intelligent, entertaining<br />
questions and comments by Isaac Stern, viewers<br />
get a look at Peerce’s humble beginnings as<br />
a synagogue choir boy, his deeply-rooted faith<br />
and cantorial background, life as a bandleader<br />
and Radio City performer, the Toscanini<br />
years, and Peerce’s family life, though mention<br />
of family members other than his devoted wife<br />
Alice is scarce. Viewers will get nothing whatsoever<br />
about Peerce’s long-lasting feud with<br />
brother-in-law Richard Tucker. But Peerce<br />
doesn’t come across as an unkind man. It is a<br />
joy to listen to the joie de vivre when he talks<br />
about his faith, career, and marriage. He has<br />
great timing, and even the serious moments<br />
are fascinating. The film and photos vividly<br />
convey bygone times, especially of New York<br />
City’s lower east side Jewish community. I<br />
remember Peerce’s appearances in the 1960s<br />
with Johnny Carson. The guy could have<br />
become an entertainer in the tradition of<br />
Myron Cohen and Alan King. This documentary<br />
was co-produced by Peerce’s son Larry.<br />
He did his father proud.<br />
MARK<br />
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James Levine: 40 Years at the<br />
Metropolitan Opera<br />
Elena Park, ed.<br />
Amadeus Press, 230 pages, $35<br />
A bounty of CD and DVD performances has<br />
already been released to celebrate James<br />
Levine’s 40 years at the Met, and there has also<br />
been a PBS special, which will probably be<br />
issued on DVD as well. Now comes this hefty,<br />
richly illustrated book that neatly chronicles his<br />
Met career. Its basic format is a timeline that<br />
takes us through four decades. At the bottom of<br />
the pages, important premieres, new productions,<br />
and other milestones are listed by date.<br />
Levine himself comments on most of them (he<br />
should really get author credit), and sometimes<br />
there are additional remarks by singers, orchestra<br />
members, and stage producers.<br />
For instance, 1991 brought us Levine’s first<br />
Magic Flute, a new production of Parsifal,<br />
Mirella Freni’s 25th anniversary gala, the first<br />
tour of the Met orchestra, and the premiere of<br />
The Ghosts of Versailles. Aside from Levine, we<br />
hear from Marilyn Horne and John Corigliano,<br />
and there are copious photographs. To take<br />
another example, 1974 was the year of Levine’s<br />
first Don Giovanni and Wozzeck, the first Met<br />
performances of Vespri Siciliani, and Kiri Te<br />
Kanawa’s “eleventh-hour” debut in Otello.<br />
Again, Levine’s comments are illuminating,<br />
and Te Kanawa herself has words of praise for<br />
the supportive <strong>conductor</strong>. (“He didn’t just<br />
plow on but helped me all the way through.”)<br />
The weight and size of the book (9 1/2 by<br />
11 inches) make it a bit unwieldy, but once you<br />
prop it up, it makes addictive reading—or just<br />
browsing. And for us who remember Levine’s<br />
40 years, it’s a wonderful, nostalgic history,<br />
filled with good anecdotes and useful information.<br />
The book has some appendixes: tallies of<br />
all Levine’s Met performances, telecasts, premieres,<br />
opening nights, and orchestral concerts,<br />
as well as a discography of his Met<br />
recordings.<br />
LUCANO<br />
Sibelius: A Composer’s Life and the<br />
Awakening of Finland<br />
Glenda Dawn Goss<br />
University of Chicago Press, 549 pages, $55<br />
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is one of our most<br />
enigmatic composers and a nest of contradictions.<br />
A national symbol of Finland, he was<br />
nurtured in the German tradition. His sur-<br />
Books<br />
name was Latinized to Sibelius by his grandfather,<br />
and the composer himself Gallicized<br />
Janne to Jean. He was of working class origin,<br />
but his first language was that of the Finnish<br />
elite—Swedish. His music owes much to Finland’s<br />
history and folklore, yet most of his<br />
songs have Swedish texts.<br />
Sibelius is a natural for a biography, but<br />
there are few good ones in English. Enter Glenda<br />
Dawn Goss, an <strong>American</strong> who teaches at<br />
the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and was an<br />
editor of the Sibelius Edition. Goss writes like a<br />
good novelist and balances objectivity and<br />
observation, often humorously and sometimes<br />
bluntly. Convinced that to know Sibelius one<br />
must understand the Finland he lived in, she<br />
supplies more information on the country<br />
than any other Sibelius biographer I know.<br />
Finland was ruled by Sweden from 1155 to<br />
1809 (hence the two major languages, Finnish<br />
and Swedish) and as a Russian duchy from<br />
1809 to 1917 (though Russian never took root).<br />
Goss discusses the Russian czars who ruled<br />
Finland, but also tells about Nikolai Bobrikov,<br />
the ruthless, doomed-to-be assassinated Russian<br />
administrator of the duchy. She is excellent<br />
on the linguistic divide and life under foreign<br />
rule. She describes in detail how Finland was<br />
devoutly Lutheran and steeped in ancient folklore<br />
and how its social divisions were tempered<br />
by the Russians but exploded in a<br />
bloody civil war after independence. The book<br />
teems with information about everyday life,<br />
history, politics, and the arts, including the<br />
painter Axel Gallen, the poet Johan Runeberg,<br />
Finnish Symbolists, and musicians like Robert<br />
Kajanus. She even has a heart for the Finnish<br />
celebrations and political lotteries, which she<br />
covers down to the costumes.<br />
The problem is that Jean Sibelius often gets<br />
lost in this broad tapestry, coming and going<br />
as national events dictate. Much of what Goss<br />
tells about him is interesting, perceptive—and<br />
sometimes novel—but there is a hit-and-miss<br />
quality to her coverage. She is very good on<br />
capturing Sibelius, the superannuated man.<br />
Her explanation for his withdrawal from composition<br />
is probably closer to the truth than<br />
most. (Along with other points she raises, is<br />
the new-to-me theory that shaking hands<br />
made the revisions the composer insisted on<br />
doing himself difficult.) On the other hand, I<br />
could not find what Sibelius’s original family<br />
name was. (I believe it was Sibbe.)<br />
Goss writes more about Kullervo than most<br />
writers, but I don’t recall her mentioning that<br />
Sibelius pulled the piece from circulation. She<br />
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tells us he turned down the directorship of the<br />
Eastman School of Music but not that the job<br />
went to Howard Hanson. She does not deny<br />
Sibelius’s drinking binges and marital problems,<br />
but neither does she bring them to life.<br />
And it would have been nice to read about<br />
Eugene Ormandy’s visit with Sibelius at home<br />
in the 1950s.<br />
Coverage of the music is variable, brief,<br />
and strictly speaking, not musicological,<br />
though she includes some generous samples.<br />
There is a lot about the Violin Concerto (mostly<br />
background) and Kullervo’s folkloric aspects<br />
and social effects. There is less about other<br />
major works, but quite a bit on some minor<br />
pieces. The criterion for inclusion seems to be<br />
a piece’s relationship to Finnish culture rather<br />
than musical interest.<br />
I must point out that the title is misleading.<br />
Readers who care nothing for Sibelius but are<br />
<strong>American</strong> Composers—July/Aug 1995<br />
<strong>American</strong> Symphonies—July/Aug 2007<br />
<strong>American</strong> Music—Nov/Dec 2007<br />
Bach—Nov/Dec 1997<br />
Bach Keyboard—July/August 2005<br />
Ballet Music—Mar/Apr 1996<br />
Bartok—Mar/Apr 2001<br />
Beethoven Piano Sonatas—May/June 2002<br />
Beethoven Quartets—Nov/Dec 2006<br />
Beethoven—July/August 2003<br />
Berlioz—May/June 2007<br />
Brahms—Sept/Oct 2006<br />
Brass—Sept/Oct 2005<br />
British Orchestral—Jan/Feb 2010<br />
Britten—July/Aug 1998<br />
Bruckner—May/June 2006<br />
Cello —Mar/Apr 2009<br />
Cello Concertos—Nov/Dec 1998<br />
Chopin—July/Aug 2011<br />
Choral Masterpieces—Nov/Dec 2000<br />
Debussy & Ravel—Jan/Feb 2000<br />
Dvorak—Sept/Oct 1998<br />
English Symphonies—Sept/Oct 2010<br />
Favorite Violin Concertos—Sept/Oct 1996<br />
Favorite String Quartets—Sept/Oct 1997<br />
Film Music—Mar/Apr 1998<br />
French & German Operas—March/April 2008<br />
French Favorites—Nov/Dec 1999<br />
Guitar Music—Sept/Oct 2003<br />
Handel Orchestral & Messiah—Nov/Dec 2002<br />
Handel Operas—Jan/Feb 2003<br />
Haydn—Mar/Apr 2002<br />
Historic Conductors—May/June 1998<br />
interested in Finland may never give this volume<br />
a thought—and they should—while people<br />
looking for a biography of Sibelius may<br />
skim it in frustration. The latter should start<br />
with Jean Sibelius by Guy Rickards or the biographical<br />
section of Robert Layton’s Sibelius,<br />
which has a lot of musical analysis. (Andrew<br />
Barnett’s Sibelius reads more like an annotated<br />
catalog of works than a biography.) The most<br />
comprehensive biography, Sibelius by the<br />
composer’s friend, Erik Tawaststjerna, is in<br />
three volumes, from the 1970s and 80s, and<br />
out of print, but well worth finding. Read one<br />
of those first. Then, by all means, take on Goss.<br />
The book is beautifully put together, with<br />
excellent pictures, endnotes, and bibliography,<br />
but no list of works.<br />
HECHT<br />
Mailings outside USA<br />
In 2007 the US Postal Service stopped accepting periodicals for outside the USA. We are forced to<br />
use private mailers. The mailer requires a minimum of $200 per mailing. Therefore we can only<br />
mail something every two months, with the new issue. If you order back issues, the postage will<br />
be $4 each if you mark your order "NO HURRY" and we send it with the next issue.<br />
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boxes holding 8 or 10 issues are $27.95 Canada and $45.50.<br />
If you live outside the USA we want to serve you, but please take account of how limited our<br />
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Index to Overviews<br />
Italian Opera—Sept/Oct 2000<br />
Liszt—May/June 1999<br />
Mahler—July/Aug 2001<br />
Mendelssohn—Nov/Dec 2008<br />
Mozart Concertos—May/June 2008<br />
Mozart Operas—Jan/Feb 2002<br />
Mozart Symphonies—Nov/Dec 2001<br />
Music since 1975—Sept/Oct 2001<br />
Nielsen—May/June 2004<br />
Overtures—Part 1 Jan/Feb 2010<br />
Part 2 Mar/Apr 2011; Part 3 May/June 2011<br />
Piano Trios—May/June 2009<br />
Program Music—Sept/Oct 1999<br />
Prokofieff—July/Aug 2004<br />
Rachmaninoff—Nov/Dec 2010<br />
Respighi—July/August 2010<br />
Russian Favorites—July/Aug 1996<br />
Russian Music beyond Tchaikovsky<br />
Part 1 —Jan/Feb 2004; Part 2—Mar/Apr 2004<br />
Russian Operas—May/June 2003<br />
Saint-Saens—Mar/Apr 2000<br />
Schubert—Nov/Dec 2003<br />
Schumann—Sept/Oct 2004<br />
Shostakovich Symphonies—Nov/Dec 2009<br />
Shostakovich other music—Mar/Apr 2006<br />
Sibelius—Jan/Feb 1999<br />
Spanish Music—Sept/Oct 2002<br />
R Strauss—May/June 2005<br />
Stravinsky—May/June 2001<br />
Tchaikovsky—Jan/Feb 2001<br />
Verdi—May/June 2000<br />
Wagner—July/Aug 2002<br />
Woodwinds—Nov/Dec 2005<br />
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