Decca 4783625-2 (2). ROHCG O, BonyngeGiselle (ballet: complete, DVD version) (Choreography: Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, revised Marius Petipa and Peter Wright)
Opus Arte DVD OA0993D. Cojocaru, Kobborg, Soloists & Corps of the Royal Ballet, ROHCG O, Gruzin (Producer: Peter Wright)
Giselle (ballet: complete, CD version)
Decca 4783625-2 (2). ROHCG O, Bonynge
Adam’s Giselle is the first of the great classical ballets. The story has a simple romantic opening Act, with plenty of chances for the principal dancers to shine, but the drama rises to a peak in the second, where the female corps de ballet take the form of Willis, deserted maidens who have each died of a broken heart. Urged on by their imperious queen, Myrtha, they are able to return from the grave to entice any unfaithful male lover into a dance leading to death from sheer exhaustion. However, the heroine Giselle forgives her lover and successfully pleads for his life from the queen and her companions, before returning to the underworld. The choreography is richly traditional but includes an extraordinary hopping step for the corps de ballet in Act II, which is uniquely memorable.
The ballet has been extraordinarily successful on DVD with fine versions from Kirov (Warner) and Paris (TDK). But the most recent recording comes from a BBC transmission in January 2006. It is marvellously danced, with the Romanian ballerina, Alina Cojocaru, in the title role and the Danish virtuoso, Johan Kobborg, as Albrecht. They are a touching pair and the remaining roles are no less brilliant and as strongly characterized. The Royal corps de ballet is superb. A compelling performance, with finely supportive playing from the Covent Garden orchestra under Boris Gruzin and expert video direction throughout.
Bonynge’s CD performance offers the complete original score, exactly as Adam wrote it, with all repeats. Also included are the Peasant pas de deux in Act I with music by Frédéric Burgmüller, and two other insertions, possibly by Minkus. The playing is polished and warmly sympathetic. Bonynge’s tempi are very much of the ballet theatre, but the overall tension is well maintained and detail is affectionately vivid. Recorded in London’s Henry Wood Hall, with its glowing acoustics, the sound is richly coloured and sumptuous, the bass resonance almost too expansive, and this is one of the most successful and satisfying of Bonynge’s many ballet recordings made for Decca over the years.
John Adams is undoubtedly now the most important contemporary composer in the United States and is already making a worldwide reputation for music which is listener-friendly, highly imaginative and original. He tells us that the first major piece of classical music he experienced in his youth, heard within the glorious acoustic of Boston’s Symphony Hall, was Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis conducted by Koussevitzky, which made an overwhelming impression on him.
Having then encountered Webern (which he described as ‘the strangest musical experience in my whole life’), Adams believes that ‘in the distant future musicians will look back on a period in the twentieth century – the era of Schoenberg, Stockhausen and Boulez – when composers aggressively destroyed the pulse and tonal syntax of music’, and this is a view with which we have considerable sympathy.
After a year’s sabbatical in 1974 he was exposed to the music of Steve Reich, notably Drumming. But he later moved on from the ‘Minimalism’ for which Reich is famous, finding it provided only a limited musical experience. ‘Its emotional bandwidth was very small,’ he said, ‘so I tried to stretch it.’ He did just that, and the result has been most illuminating.
(i) The Chairman Dances; (ii) Grand Pianola Music; (iii) Shaker Loops; (i) Short Ride in a Fast Machine
EMI 2 06627-2. (i) CBSO Rattle; (ii) Random Wilson, NY Soloists; (iii) NY Soloists, Warren-Green
Under Rattle the foxtrot The Chairman Dances has unabated energy. It is an extraordinary adjunct to Adams’s opera Nixon in China, but not part of it, for Madame Chou outrageously dances a foxtrot in front of the assembled dignitaries at a banquet. Rhythmically unpredictable in its minimalist patterns, its kaleidoscopic scoring is ear-catching. The whizzing Short Ride in a Fast Machine and the exhilarating concertante (and tuneful) Grand Pianola Music both have immediate hit potential; the latter has a thrilling climax. Shaker Loops was the work that first alerted us to the originality and intensity of Adams’s earlier music and Christopher Warren-Green here directs its recording début.
Harmonielehre; Short Ride in a Fast Machine
SFS 0053. San Francisco SO, Michael Tilson Thomas
This superb disc is as fine a place as any to start exploring the music of America’s greatest contemporary composer, and the performances, splendidly recorded live at the Davies Symphony Hall, are unsurpassed. Adams was influenced by Schoenberg but rejected his atonal compositional style. His Harmonielehre throbbingly moves in arch form from white-hot, energy-absorbing minimalism to poignantly expressive yearning, before returning to the energetic thrust of the opening. ‘The Anfortas Wound’, pictured in the second movement, can never be healed and is evoked with plangent yearning; then the finale – inspired by the composer’s young daughter – at first is glitteringly light-hearted, then becomes a tender berceuse, before gathering pace and culminating in a tidal wave of minimalist brass and percussion. The brief, succinct Short Ride in a Fast Machine is, in the composer’s words, ‘a cranked up, high velocity, orchestral juggernaut insistently urged on by the unyielding pulse of the wood block’.
Nixon in China (opera: complete)
Naxos 8.669022/24 (3). Orth, Kanyova, Hammons, Heller, Dahl, Opera Colorado Ch., Colorado SO, Alsop
Nixon in China is Adams’s masterpiece, an inspired and wholly original opera, worthy to stand alongside the great operas of the past based on historical subjects and matching Britten’s Peter Grimes in its immediacy and melodic flow. If it seems an extraordinary conception to base a stage work on President Nixon’s visit to communist China in 1972, it projects grippingly in the theatre, and it stands up just as compellingly musically on record. Adams’s special brand of minimalism works magnetically in the rich orchestral accompaniment, and the music has a lyrical flow absent from most modern operas. Adams really can write for the voice and the choral music too is especially telling, but many of the solo arias are magnetic. Marin Alsop has this music in her very being, and her version is cast from strength. Robert Orth is a strong Nixon and his wife Pat is intensely and sympathetically characterized by Maria Kanyova. But Tracy Dahl steals the show in her sympatheic portrayal of Madame Mao, particularly in the coloratura of the closing Act. An unforgettable set, which won the 2010 Gramophone Opera Award.
In some respects the earlier, St Luke’s recording, conducted by Edo de Waart ( None. 79177-2 (3), Sylvan, Craney, Maddalena, St Luke’s Ch. & O), is more sophisticated, particularly the chorus, and Madame Mao (Trudy Ellen Craney) sings splendidly at the climax of the opera’s third Act.
(i–ii) Asyla, Op. 17; (i; iii) … But All Shall be Well, Op. 10; (iii–iv) Chamber Symphony for 15 Players, Op. 2; (iii–v) Concerto conciso for Piano & Chamber Orchestra, Op. 18; (i; iii) These Premises are Alarmed, Op. 18
EMI 5 03403-2. (i) CBSO; (ii) cond. Rattle; (iii) cond. composer; (iv) Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; (v) with composer (piano)
Thomas Adès’s brilliant orchestral piece, Asyla, with its exotic use of a vast range of percussion instruments, was Simon Rattle’s choice of work to complete his inaugural programme as the new music director of the Berlin Philharmonic in November 2002. The Chamber Symphony is extraordinarily intricate in its rhythmic ideas, developing ear-tickling colouristic patterns. The Concerto conciso has the solo piano well integrated into the instrumental group, where rhythms are free and jazzy, but it brings a calm central chaconne before the closing ‘Brawl’. These Premises are Alarmed is a brief, witty apoplexy, designed as a brilliant orchestral show-piece for the Hallé Orchestra. Balance is restored in … But All Shall be Well, the title coming from ‘Little Gidding’, the last of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Remarkable music, splendidly played and most vividly and atmospherically recorded.
The Tempest (opera: complete)
EMI 6 95234 2 (2). Keenlyside, Sieden, Bostridge, Royal, Spence, Langridge, ROHCG Ch. & O, composer
Many composers have attempted to turn Shakespeare’s last masterpiece, The Tempest, into an opera, but few have succeeded as strikingly as Thomas Adès, who wrote his 2004 version for Covent Garden. With Meredith Oakes adapting the text in rhymed couplets, the elaborate plot was neatly simplified, with Adès composing each of the principal roles specifically for particular singers, rather in the way Britten did. The result is well constructed and dramatically effective in its clever timing and contrasted textures. The climax at the end of Act III brings a beautiful love duet for Miranda and Ferdinand (the mezzo, Kate Royal, and the high baritone, Toby Spence, a handsome couple). An impressive passacaglia ensemble follows, before the opera ends with a poignant duet for Caliban (Ian Bostridge, a high tenor role) and Ariel, with its stratospheric chirrupings expressly designed for the dazzling American coloratura, Cyndia Sieden. Also notable is the powerful tonal aria in Act II for Caliban, a character here inspiring more sympathy than usual. The late Philip Langridge in one of his last performances at Covent Garden also makes a memorable King of Naples, while Adès’s evocative orchestration with its percussion effects vividly conjures up the atmosphere of the magic island of Prospero, a role written for the clear, fresh-voiced baritone of Simon Keenlyside, noble if youthful-sounding. ‘O brave new world,’ sings Miranda near the end, inspiring Prospero’s comment, ‘Oh simple girl.’ The whole opera fades into the distance at the end to Ariel’s increasingly faint flutings. A strong and memorable opera, which makes a splendid addition to the repertory, here recorded live in transparent yet atmospheric sound in the 2007 revival, conducted powerfully by the composer.
Iberia (complete); Navarra
Double Decca (ADD) 448 191 2 (2). Alicia de Larrocha (with GRANADOS: Goyescas)
Alicia de Larrocha has recorded Iberia three times with almost equal success, but her 1972 analogue version is rather special. She has a unique feeling for this repertoire, and plays with great character, losing little by comparison with the later digital version (also for Decca). The piano recording is most realistic and the Double Decca reissue is highly desirable for being coupled with an equally recommendable set of Granados’s Goyescas.
Oboe and Double-Oboe Concertos: 12 Concerti a cinque, Op. 7; 12 Concerti a cinque, Op. 9; Sinfonia
Chan. 0602; 0579; 0610. Robson, Latham, Col. Mus. 90, Standage
Like Vivaldi’s, Albinoni’s concertos offer a seemingly infinite variety of invention and imagination within his musical language. His music is more than merely melodically appealing, his occasional quirks of harmony and rhythm keep the listener on his toes and offer a great source of pleasure. Simon Standage’s survey of oboe and double-oboe concertos on Chandos is top choice in this repertoire. Anthony Robson plays all eight solo concertos from Opp. 7 and 9 using a period oboe. His tone is most appealing and his phrasing and musicianship are second to none. Simon Standage provides alert accompaniments, also using original instruments, and creates bright, athletic string timbres. Catherine Latham joins him to complete the Collegium Musicum 90 sets of Opp. 7 and 9, including the works for strings. The artistic results are very lively and refreshing, although the balance is rather close.
Simon Standage has also recorded the composer’s equally appealing Op. 5 concertos (CHAN 0663) – full of lovely melodic invention – and very recently, Albinoni’s rarely recorded Op. 10 set, which includes much delightful music, not least the vivid evocation of flamenco style in the Eleventh Concerto (CHAN 0769).
Midsummer Watch, Op. 16 (Swedish Rhapsody); Adagio; Andante religioso; King Gustav II Adolf; Legend of the Skerries; The Mountain King Suite; The Prodigal Son: Suite; Symphonies 1–5
BIS CD1478/80(5). Royal Swedish O, Neeme Järvi (with soloists)
Alfvén was one of the leading nationalist composers working in Scandinavia at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For three decades he was conductor of the celebrated Uppsala male choir, Orfei drängar (Sons of Orpheus). His Midsummer Watch brings the magic of the Swedish midsummer vividly to life and has a wholly individual character, and intoxicating atmosphere. So too has the affecting Elegy from the incidental music to the play Gustav II Adolf. The symphonies are less perfect but are well worth investigating all the same, especially when the five discs are economically priced for the cost of only three. Neeme Järvi conducts his Swedish forces with enthusiasm and authority, and this is altogether most rewarding and not music one meets readily.
Concerto for Solo Piano, Op. 39/8–10; Troisième Recueil de chants, Op. 65
Hyp. CDA 67569. Marc-André Hamelin
12 Etudes in the Minor Keys: Symphony for Piano, Op. 39/4–7; Alleluia, Op. 25; Salut, cendre du pauvre!, Op. 45; Super flumina Babylonis, Op. 52; Souvenirs: 3 Morceaux dans le genre pathétique, Op. 15
Hyp. CDA 67218. Marc-André Hamelin
Grande sonate (Les Quatre Ages); Barcarolle; Le Festin d’Esope; Sonatine, Op. 61
Hyp. CDA 66794. Marc-André Hamelin
All lovers of the piano repertoire must surely come across the remarkable piano music of Charles-Valentin Alkan some day. His music has a reputation for being fiendishly difficult, but his great range and variety of pieces ensured that he was admired by Liszt, Busoni and many others. Marc-André Hamelin continues his remarkable traversal of Alkan’s work with the Concerto for Solo Piano, a gigantic score, the first movement of which alone takes just under half an hour. The Symphony for Piano comprises four movements (Nos. 4–7) from the Douze études. The Symphony and the other pieces on Hyperion must sound effortless, just as a great dancer must seem weightless, and Hamelin makes light of their many difficulties. Superb playing and very good recording – and noteworthy not only for its virtuosity but for its refined music-making. Alkan’s Grande sonate over its four massive movements represents the hero at various ages, with the second, Quasi-Faust, the key one. The Sonatine, the most approachable of Alkan’s major works, is done just as dazzlingly, with the hauntingly poetic Barcarolle and the swaggering Festin d’Esope as valuable makeweights.
William Alwyn composed vigorously over the whole span of his musical life. His music is recognizably English and has an enticing amalgam of romantic as well as neoclassical character. In spite of a wide coverage of excellent recordings, he has never made it into the mainstream concert hall, although there is evidence that his music is coming back into fashion. It is certainly rewarding enough to do so.
(i) Autumn Legend (for cor anglais); (ii) Lyra Angelica (concerto for harp); (iii) Pastoral Fantasia (for viola); Tragic Interlude
Chan. 9065. (i) Daniel; (ii) Masters; (iii) Tees; City of L. Sinfonia, Hickox
Autumn Legend (1954) is a highly atmospheric tone-poem, very Sibelian in feeling. So too is the Pastoral Fantasia, yet the piece has its own developing individuality. The Tragic Interlude is a powerful lament for the dead of wars past. But the highlight of this disc is the Lyra Angelica, a radiantly beautiful, extended piece (just over half an hour in length) inspired by the metaphysical poet Giles Fletcher’s ‘Christ’s victorie and triumph’. The performance here is very moving, and the recording has great richness of string tone and a delicately balanced harp texture. Rachel Masters’s contribution is distinguished. The classic Lyrita recording of Autumn Legend and Lyra Angelica, under the direction of the composer, is still also available on SRCD 230.
BACH: Cantata 31: Sonata. HAYDN: Symphony 22. BEETHOVEN: Symphony 4. WEBER: Der Beherrscher der Geister: Overture; Preciosa: Overture. MENDELSSOHN: Ruy Blas: Overture. BORODIN: Polovtsian Dances. LIADOV: Kikimora. STRAVINSKY: Scherzo à la Russe; Pulcinella: Suite. SIBELIUS: Symphony 4. DELIBES: Coppélia: excerpts; Sylvia: excerpts. FRANCK: Le Chasseur maudit. CHABRIER: Joyeuse Marche; Danse Slave. FAURÉ: Masques et Bergamasques; Pénélope: Prélude. SCHUMANN: Carnaval. RAVEL: Le Tombeau de Couperin. DEBUSSY: 6 Epigraphes Antiques; Petite Suite. RESPIGHI: Fountains of Rome; Rossiniana. HONEGGER: Pacific 231; Le Roi David. DUKAS: La Péri. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Dubinushka. MARTIN: Concerto for 7 Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion & String Orchestra
Decca (ADD) 475 8140 (6)
It was the advent of Decca’s Full Frequency Range Recording recordings (ffrr) in the late 1940s that put both Ansermet and Decca at the forefront of hi-fi classical recordings. Ansermet’s mono accounts of La boutique fantasque and Petrushka are landmarks in recording history. During the 1950s and ’60s, Ansermet made an extraordinary number of LPs, mainly with his Suisse Romande Orchestra. He became especially famous for his interpretations of twentieth-century repertoire (though not the exponents of the twelve-tone row) and French music. If many of Ansermet’s performances can be criticized for their lack of polish and sheer virtuoso brilliance, they (usually) make up for it in terms of character and musical substance. Ansermet sparkles in the lighter French repertoire: Chabrier’s Joyeuse marche and Danse slave are among the best performances of these works on disc. Just listen to the sense of exhilaration in the music-making, not achieved by mere speed: it is the rhythmic pulse which makes them so striking, along with the 1964 recording. Decca provide similar brilliance in the Tarantella from Rossiniana, the most entertaining movement from the Rossini/Respighi suite.
The Delibes items show Ansermet’s gift for ballet music (both his complete Coppélia and Nutcracker are classics). The Mazurka from Coppélia positively dances out of the speakers, while Les Chasseresses from Sylvia is rich in pageant and classical drama. We are strikingly summoned to attention with Dukas’s Fanfare from La Péri, and the ensuing ballet music is both lively and sharply characterized. A rarity on this disc is an orchestrated version (by Glazunov, among others) of Schumann’s Carnaval and it works surprisingly well in its nineteenth-century orchestral dress. César Franck’s ominous hunting calls in Le Chasseur maudit sound splendid in Ansermet’s 1961 performance, building up a fine sense of drama (what a wonderfully entertaining work this is!). Ansermet’s classic version of Fauré’s Masques et Bergamasques, dating from 1961, finds the conductor on top form, with light and sensitive playing making the most of this delightful music.
Ravel and Debussy are composers with whom Ansermet often excelled. Ansermet fans will recognize the oboe almost like an old, if not always completely stable, friend. Still, the finely etched colours of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin are well brought out and there is a cool beauty in the charming Petite Suite. Ansermet’s extensive and innate understanding of orchestral texture is well displayed in his orchestration of Debussy’s Six Epigraphes Antiques. This was originally written as a piano duet but Ansermet’s orchestration fits the music perfectly. The mono sound is very good but it is a pity he didn’t re-record it in stereo.
It is hard to imagine a more powerful performance of Honegger’s masterpiece, Pacific 231, than Ansermet’s 1963 account: the opening tingles with excitement, with Honegger’s steam-engine brought to startling life. The same composer’s ‘Dramatic psalm’, Le Roi David, is a distinctive pageant offering very agreeable musical ideas in the composer’s distinctive sound-world. The performance is strong in character and, with its distinguished French cast (Suzanne Danco is especially impressive), it is completely idiomatic.
Frank Martin is represented by his Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion and String Orchestra. The shifting emotions of the music, with its unusual colours and the angular quality of the melodic lines, make for a highly rewarding and distinctive piece. Again, the woodwind playing is not the last word in brilliance (that oboe again!), but the performance is concentrated and full of conviction.
With his ear for colour, it is not surprising that Ansermet made some impressive LPs of Russian music. His Polovtsian Dances may not be in the Solti league of exhilaration, but the orchestra is lively enough, even if the chorus is a bit limp. Liadov’s Kikimora and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Dubinushka receive excellent performances.
Stravinsky’s Scherzo à la Russe, a relaxed reading, allows the textures to shine out, deliciously so in the quiet, chamber-like section of the work. Pulcinella was one of Ansermet’s most successful stereo Stravinsky recordings, not least because of the vividness of the 1956 recording. True, it sounds a little dry by today’s standards, but it has an intimate quality which is most attractive. Listen to the double basses in the vivo section and the rasp of the brass – crisp and vibrant. The gentleness of the following Minuetto is quite melting and one even forgives the oboe player’s lack of polish.
Ansermet was a mathematician and there is a sense that his mathematical mind sometimes worked too hard in the romantic repertoire. His Beethoven cycle is unfailingly interesting though, and his poised, direct approach works well (the Ninth Symphony, with Joan Sutherland, won universal praise). The Fourth Symphony with its subdued opening is almost chilling in its beauty here, and he warms up nicely in the main allegro. Ansermet’s always reliable sense of phrasing makes the string playing especially enjoyable, with the articulation in the finale particularly memorable.
The Weber overtures, The Ruler of the Spirits and Preciosa, are highly enjoyable, the latter with its sparkling Turkish music section. Ansermet’s account of Mendelssohn’s Ruy Blas Overture is among the very best versions with its vivid sound and sense of drama.
Most unlikely repertoire for Ansermet is Bach, but actually he was rather warm-hearted when playing this composer: listen to the vitality of the opening of Cantata 31. Ansermet’s Haydn is memorable too, mainly for its elegant phrasing of the strings. The finale of Symphony No. 22 is especially enjoyable, with its hunting rhythms, all very lively but not at all forced.
Sibelius’s Fourth Symphony is the least successful item here. Those who know this symphony well will get something out of this performance, because Ansermet always has a way of illuminating strands of a score in an interesting way. However, the tension notably sags in the slow movement and the performance as a whole lacks enough concentration to hold the work compellingly together.
Ansermet was the opposite of the flashy showman conductor: the excitement of listening to Ansermet performances is more in the detail than overt brilliance. But they are always enjoyable for their spontaneity.
‘Ouvertures Françaises’: LALO: Le Roi d’Ys. AUBER: Le Domino Noir; Fra Diavolo. HÉROLD: Zampa. THOMAS: Mignon; Raymond. BOIELDIEU: La Dame Blanche. OFFENBACH: La Belle Hélène; Orphée aux enfers
Australian Decca Eloquence (ADD) 4800023
This recording of once popular French overtures was always one of Ansermet’s most successful records. Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys is full of melodrama and builds up to a particularly exciting finale, while La Dame Blanche receives a suitably more reserved, though delicately stylish, reading. Auber’s infectious overture, Le Domino noir, with its string of colourful, formal dances, goes splendidly, with Ansermet’s strikingly articulated strings (at 5 minutes 40 seconds) in the crescendo á la Rossini particularly effective. The opening section of the Fra Diavolo Overture is also effectively pointed – what a fine overture that is! Both the Offenbach overtures come off very well, with La Belle Hélène (in Haensch’s ingenious arrangement) sounding most enticing with its many wittily memorable tunes. If the final Can-can in the Orphée aux enfers overture is taken at a slower speed than one might expect, it is invested with such rhythmic vigour that music sounds freshly minted. Zampa also receives one of its best performances on disc, with the dramatic tremolo strings near the beginning sounding especially vibrant. With both of Thomas’s most famous and delightful overtures (Mignon is an inspired piece, beautifully scored), this makes a most welcome reissue, with any slight imperfections of ensemble easily forgivable in the fresh, lively music-making.
(i) Piano Concerto in F min., Op. 2; Fantasia on Russian Folksongs. To the Memory of Suvorov; Symphonic Scherzo
Naxos 8.570526. (i) Scherbakov; Russian PO, Yablonsky
Arensky occupies a small but not insignificant place in the history of Russian music. While not possessing the distinction of, say, Rimsky, his music has genuine merit and often has considerable melodic appeal. This inexpensive Naxos CD is an ideal way to explore his orchestral music. Not surprisingly, these performances are very Russian in feeling, and after a bold opening both orchestra and the excellent soloist make the very most of the concerto’s memorable secondary theme. The Fantasia on Russian Folksongs is hardly less idiomatic, and again shows the pianist, Konstantin Scherbakov, in brilliant form. There are attractive couplings too; the commemorative march celebrates General Suvorov with plenty of fanfare, yet has a contrasting, folksy centrepiece, and the lively Symphonic Scherzo shows the composer’s orchestral palette vividly. A most enjoyable collection.
Violin Concerto in A min., Op. 54
Hyp. CDA 67642. Gringolts, BBC Scottish SO, Volkov – TANEYEV: Suite de concert, Op. 28
The concerto’s second theme is an adorable idea that is both touching and difficult to dislodge from one’s memory. Ilya Gringolts plays it with disarming elegance and warmth, yet elsewhere he offers effortless brilliance and is expertly and sensitively partnered by Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Orchestra. The balance between soloist and orchestra is truthful and most musically judged. If you fancy the attractive Taneyev coupling, this can be strongly recommended.
CHABRIER: España. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Capriccio espagnol. GRANADOS: Andaluza. MOSZKOVSKY: Spanish Dances, Book 1 (with LSO). DEBUSSY: Images (with SRO). LISZT: Piano Concertos 1 & 2 (with Katchen, LPO); Faust Symphony (with Paris Conservatoire O); Les Préludes (with SRO). ALBÉNIZ: Iberia Suite. BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique. TURINA: Danzas fantásticas (with Paris Conservatoire O). TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto (with Campoli, LSO); Symphony 4 (with SRO)
Decca mono/stereo 475 7747 (5)
Argenta’s early death came before he realized his full potential. His recording career was cut short, but before then he made a series of colourful records for Decca which have been gathered here complete for the first time. The first CD in the box is a vintage, early stereo collection, España, mainly from the pens of non-Spaniards, but readily displaying the conductor’s flair, not least in the sparkling account of Chabrier’s title-piece. The slight but endearingly dated Moszkowski dances are stylishly played, and the last three are especially successful. The highlight of the disc is Rimsky’s Capriccio espagnol which (alongside Maazel’s DG Berlin version from the same period) has seldom been matched for its brilliance and Mediterranean colour, with real virtuosity from the LSO. The 1957 Kingsway Hall recording with its glittering percussion is dazzling in this CD transfer, and only a slight tightness in the upper range of the strings gives a hint that this is not a new recording. The Debussy Images, recorded in Geneva the same year, shows the conductor’s fine ear for intricate detail, so well etched by the recording; but the response from the SRO has less body of tone than that produced by the LSO. The more familiar Liszt Piano Concertos with Katchen are brilliantly extrovert readings, vividly recorded. The Berlioz Symphonie fantastique (stereo) is an individual account, with the balance between reflection and neurosis remarkably well judged. The orchestral playing is impressive and the French brass is full of character. Argenta observes the repeat in the March to the Scaffold (for the first time on LP) and the finale is strong on atmosphere as well as drive. What both Les Préludes and the Faust Symphony lack in the polish of the orchestral playing they more than make up for in character and personality. The mono sound is again excellent. Argenta is again on top form in Albéniz’s Iberia and Turina’s Danzas fantásticas, though he characteristically brings out the colour rather than the sensuousness of the music. The 1953 mono sound is sharp and vivid. It is good to have a reminder of the art of Campoli; his account of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto has always been praised for its combination of technical brilliance and a natural sense of style. The soloist’s judicious editing of his part does not interfere with the music’s impulse and line and, although this is a personal reading, its natural warmth and spontaneity are appealing. The stereo sound is exceptionally warm and vivid for its date (1956). The Fourth Symphony, however, is not on the same adrenalin level, though it is a decent, lusty account, with characterful rather than brilliant playing from the orchestra, and good early stereo sound from 1955.
8 Overtures (1751); Overtures: Alfred; Thomas and Sally
Chan. 0722. Col. Mus. 90, Standage
Thomas Arne, the composer of Rule Britannia, was a highly active composer for the theatre, owing in part to his Catholic religion which precluded him from posts in the church. He had a flair for writing simple, attractive melody, and his set of Eight Overtures, published in 1751, was an attempt to broaden his appeal through a series of separate publications. The invention is tuneful and elegant, cosmopolitan in style; they also have a certain eighteenth-century English pastoral spirit which is very refreshing. The two theatre overtures make for equally enjoyable listening, with the Scottish Gavotte of Thomas and Sally adding a dash of ‘local’ colour. Very stylish and alert playing from Simon Standage and Collegium Musicum 90, and the sound is vivid and full. An unexpectedly distinctive and enjoyable collection, easy to live with.
Artaxerxes (English opera: complete)
Hyp. CDD 22073 (2). Robson, Bott, Partridge, Spence, Edgar-Wilson, Hyde, Parley of Instruments, Goodman
Artaxerxes was the first opera seria with words in English, and this sparkling, lively performance impressively explains why Arne’s opera was such a success when it was first performed at Covent Garden in February 1762, three years after Handel died. One reason for its success was that it provides a splendid challenge to the singers, most of all to the soprano who takes the role of Mandane, sister of Artaxerxes, whose love for Arbaces, her brother’s friend, provides a central theme of the libretto, translated from Metastasio. The one number that has latterly become popular – largely thanks to Joan Sutherland’s brilliant recording – is ‘The soldier tir’d’, but that dazzling climactic number is only one of Mandane’s formidable solos, whether expressive or vehement. Catherine Bott gives a masterly performance, with the counter-tenor Christopher Robson also impressive in the castrato title-role, and with Ian Partridge pure-toned and incisive in the role of the villain, Artabanes, even if his sweet tenor hardly conveys evil. With the mezzo-soprano Patricia Spence taking the role of Arbaces, the others are first rate too. On two well-filled CDs, the set owes much of its success to the inspired direction of Roy Goodman who, from the overture onwards, electrifies the players and singers, pointing rhythms and aerating textures to bring out the charm as well as the vigour of the writing. The reconstruction of the score – involving the recitatives which were separated from the original – has been capably achieved by Peter Holman, who contributes an effective note. Full texts are included.
Anniversary Overture, Op. 99; Beckus the Dandipratt (Comedy Overture), Op. 5; The Fair Field, Op. 110; A Flourish for Orchestra, Op. 112; A Grand Grand Festival Overture, Op. 57; Peterloo Overture, Op. 97; Robert Kett Overture, Op. 141; The Smoke, Op. 21; A Sussex Overture, Op. 31; Tam O’Shanter Overture, Op. 51
Chan. 10293. BBC PO, Rumon Gamba
Arnold was master of the short orchestral form, his English Dances being a supreme example. However, he wrote a series of strikingly attractive overtures, which have been gathered together on this mightily impressive Chandos recording. Beckus the Dandipratt came first in 1943, possibly something of an uninhibited self-portrait. Tam O’Shanter is another flamboyant portrayal, with a spectacular realization of bagpipes at its witty climax. A Grand Grand Festival Overture came a year later. The scoring included four vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher. (On the night of its première, they were dispatched by the rifles of a firing squad!) But this is far more than an occasional piece, not least because it has a really good tune. The noisily dramatic Peterloo also has one – but then, so have all the other works here. They are marvellously played, with a truly Arnoldian infectious exhilaration, and the Chandos recording is in the demonstration bracket.
(i; ii) Double Piano Concerto (three hands); (iii) English Dances 3 & 5; (iv) Beckus the Dandipratt: Overture; (i) Peterloo: Overture; (v) Solitaire; Symphonies: 1; (iv) 2; (i) 5; (iii) Tam O’Shanter
EMI mono/stereo 3 82146-2 (2). (i) CBSO; (ii) Cyril Smith, Phyllis Sellick (piano duo, 3 hands); (iii) Philh. 0; (iv) RPO; (v) Bournemouth SO; all cond. composer
Sir Malcolm Arnold was the finest of the twentieth-century English composers who suffered from the destructive era of atonalism, the weird experimentation of Stockhausen, and the music of Boulez and his followers, which failed to communicate with the ordinary music-lover. Melody became unfashionable and traditional writing, however original, fell completely by the wayside. Arnold was a natural melodist and musical communicator and, while he survived by writing film scores, his serious works gradually became unfashionable and absent from the concert hall. But fortunately much of his music has survived on record (including the remarkable symphonies).
He was a brilliant advocate of his own works, revealing their emotional depth but also their passages of electrifying exuberance. Symphonies 1, 2 and 5 are just three of the treasures in this superb compilation, which brings together all the recordings Arnold made for EMI. Beckus the Dandipratt is a deliciously light-hearted characterization hailed as a cross between Strauss’s Till and Walton’s Scapino. Tam O’Shanter is another flamboyant portrayal. The Concerto for Two Pianos ends with a delightfully infectious rumba, full of cross-rhythms. No Arnold collection captures his special magic quite as compellingly as this.
4 Cornish Dances; 8 English Dances, Sets 1 & 2; 4 Irish Dances; 4 Scottish Dances; 4 Welsh Dances
Naxos 8.553526. Queensland SO, Penny
This disc was an early Naxos success and enjoys the inclusion of all six sets of the dances which are among Arnold’s most spontaneous and attractive shorter works. The cheerful, tuneful ebullience of the masterly English Dances came first in 1950 51 and the others followed on, with wide changes of mood to continually capture the ear. The performances have the composer’s imprimatur (he was present at the recording sessions) and can be recommended as an ideal representation of Arnold’s spontaneous orchestral writing.
Overtures: Le Domino noir; Le Cheval de bronze; Crown Diamonds; Fra Diavolo; Masaniello
Australian Decca Eloquence (ADD) 480 2385 (2). Paris Conservatoire o, Wolff (see also under the conductor: WOLFF, Albert)
Auber had the knack of writing catchy tunes and he stuffed the best of them into his superbly crafted overtures. Take The Crown Diamonds, for example – after a long string cantilena, Auber gives the first section of the Allegro over to brass and woodwind, and a delicious effect his scoring makes. Fra Diavolo, with its side-drum introduction followed by a dainty tune on the violins before moving on to the vivacious militaristic aspects of the score, is as enjoyable as any of the overtures by Rossini. Each of these works is hugely enjoyable.
Cello Concertos: in A min., Wq. 170; in B flat, Wq. 171; in A, Wq. 172
BIS CD 807. Hidemi Suzuki, Bach Col., Japan
These works show their fine composer at his most inventive. Hidemi Suzuki, who is soloist/director here, is another fine artist from this remarkably talented family, and he creates a dashing flow of energy in the orchestral ritornellos of outer movements; and the Bach Collegium play with great zest and commitment. In slow movements Suzuki’s eloquent phrasing, warmth of feeling and breadth of tone are totally compelling, producing a cello line of heart-stopping intensity. The recording is splendid.
(i) Flute Concertos: in D min., Wq. 22; in A min., Wq. 16; in B flat, Wq. 167; in A, Wq. 168; in G, Wq. 169. Sonata for solo flute, Wq. 132
Naxos 8.555715/16. Patrick Gallois, (i) Toronto Camerata, Mallon
Patrick Gallois is a masterly flautist, and he gives a set of superb performances of these fine concertos, written for the court of Frederick the Great and arranged by the composer from works originally featuring the harpsichord as soloist. There is much sparkling vivacity in the Allegros, and the expressive range of the solo instruments, sometimes quite dark in feeling, is fully captured by both Gallois and the Toronto Camerata under Kevin Mallon.
6 Hamburg Sinfonias, Wq. 182 / 1 – 6
Naxos 8.553285. Capella Istropolitana, Benda
The Six Hamburg String Sinfonias are particularly striking in their unexpected twists of imagination, and they contain some of Bach’s most inspired and original ideas. Using modern instruments at higher, modern pitch, Benda directs light, well-sprung accounts with extra light and shade. The excellent sound is full and open as well as immediate, and these winning works are well worth exploring.
Keyboard sonatas Wq. 52/4; 59/1; 61/2; 65/17 & 31; 65/32: Andante only Rondos in A. Wq 58/1; in C min, Wq59/4; in D min Wq 61/4.
DG 469 0356 Mikhail Pletnev (piano) (with BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata 26 (Les Folieux))
Altogether remarkable playing even by Pletnev’s exalted standards. He finds both the wit and depth of this music and his resource of keyboard colour and refinement of articulation are pretty awesome. The Beethoven Sonata comes as a digital bonus online.
Harpsichord or Clavier Concertos, Opp. 1, 7, 13 & 14 (complete)
CPO 999930-2 (6). Halstead, Hanover Band
Bach’s early Berlin concertos (from the 1750s) undoubtedly influenced the young Mozart. These splendid performances from Anthony Halstead directing the Hanover Band from a Broadwood piano are appealingly fluent, full of flair and vitality. Slow movements are deeply expressive and outer movements bustle vigorously. Halstead has recorded Op. 7 in chamber form with just an accompanying string trio. His solo playing is very persuasive and the result is delightfully intimate. Bach’s Op. 13 appeared in 1777 and shows him still developing in ideas and orchestration. Op. 14 is more ambitious, although it may have been written earlier. Halstead accompanies himself brightly and gracefully.
6 Sinfonias, Op. 3; 6 Sinfonias, Op. 6; 3 Sinfonias, Op. 8; Sinfonias in C (Venier 46 – 2 versions); in F (manuscript); Sinfonias, Op. 9/1–2 (standard and original versions), Op.9/3; Sinfonia in E flat with Clarinets; 6 Sinfonias, Op. 18
CPO 999896-2 (5). Hanover Band, Halstead
Anthony Halstead continues his exploration of J. C. Bach with his Sinfonias, which share the same three-part format as the Italian overture, and at the time the descriptive titles were interchangeable. Indeed, as we discover in Opp. 9 and 18, Bach borrowed overtures from his own operas to include in his published sets. The works were initially intended for his London concerts and this is the first complete coverage on period instruments – and very impressive it is.
Brandenburg Concertos 1–6, BWV 1046–51; (i) Harpsichord Concertos 1–7, BWV 1052–8; (i–ii) Double Harpsichord Concertos 1–3, BWV 1060–62; (i–iii) Triple Harpsichord Concertos 1–2, BWV 1063–4; (i–iv) Quadruple Harpsichord Concerto, BWV 1065; (i; v; vi) Triple Concerto for Flute, Violin & Harpsichord, BWV 1044; (vi; vii) Double Concerto for Oboe & Violin, BWV 1060; (vii) Oboe d’amore Concerto, BWV 1055; (vi) Violin Concertos 1–2; (vii–viii) Double Violin Concerto, BWV 1041–3; Orchestral Suites 1–4, BWV 1066–9
DG 477 9510 (8). English Concert, Trevor Pinnock; with (i) Pinnock; (ii) Kenneth Gilbert; (iii) Lars Ulrik Mortensen; (iv) Nicholas Kraemer; (v) Lisa Beznosiuk; (vi) Simon Standage; (vii) David Reichenberg; (viii) Elizabeth Wilcock
This admirable box collects together, on eight CDs, the English Concert’s recordings of Bach, directed by Trevor Pinnock and made in the 1970s and early 1980s, which have dominated the catalogue ever since. Pinnock’s Brandenburg Concertos represent the peak of his achievement as an advocate of authentic performances, with sounds that are clean and refreshing but not too abrasive. Interpretatively, he adopts faster speeds in outer movements, but is relatively slow in Andantes, a style that others have followed since, yet from first to last there is no routine. The soloists are outstanding.
In the solo concertos he plays with real panache, his scholarship tempered by excellent musicianship. Pacing is again brisk but, to today’s ears that are used to period performances, the effect is always convincing when the playing is so spontaneous and the sound so bright and clear. The transcribed Concertos for flute, violin and harpsichord, for oboe and violin and for oboe d’amore are equally persuasive, both vigorous and warm, with consistently resilient rhythms, while the Violin Concertos are equally welcome. Rhythms are again crisp and lifted at nicely chosen speeds – not too fast for slow movements – and the solo playing here, led by Simon Standage, is very stylish.
In the Orchestral Suites Pinnock improves on his readings of many years earlier, with sound that is rather warmer and string-tone sweeter. In the dance movements of the Suite No. 2 Lisa Beznosiuk takes her flute solos faster and more brilliantly than her predecessor, Simon Preston, but otherwise speeds are a fraction broader in all four Suites, with Allegros more jauntily sprung and phrasing a degree more espressivo. Above all, the great Air of Suite No. 3 sounds far warmer, persuasively played on multiple violins instead of on a single, acid-toned instrument.
Those hankering after first-class modern-instrument performances of the Violin Concertos might add Grumiaux’s fine mid-priced analogue disc (Decca 420 700-2) in which he is satisfyingly joined in the Double Concerto by Hermann Krebbers and in the Concerto for Violin and Oboe by the equally distinguished Heinz Holliger. This is in every way satisfying.
Brandenburg Concertos 1–6, BWV 1046–51
EuroArts Invitation DVD 2050316. Freiburg Bar. O, Von der Gölz
The beautifully handwritten score for Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos was presented to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1721, to whom they were dedicated in French. We are not told whether he liked them or not, but they have since become the composer’s most familiar and cherished orchestral works. Their design (with stimulating contrasts between the full ensemble and the concertino of soloists) shows strong Italian influences, notably that of Vivaldi, and their performance requires considerable virtuosity, notable from the pair of horns in No. 1, the solo trumpet in No. 2, the obbligato harpsichord in No. 5 and the violas and cellos in No. 6.
The very finest of all DVDs of these highly rewarding works is by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra directed by Gottfried von der Gölz. Visually entrancing, it is appropriately photographed against the magnificently restored Spiegelsaal of the Castle Cöthen, which has an ideally spacious acoustic. The performance itself, on period instruments, is freshly spontaneous in the most appealing way and the imaginative video direction often takes us among the players to create the complete illusion of being present. Tempi are ideally chosen and the performance has great finesse and easy virtuosity. The recording is in the demonstration bracket.
Orchestral Suites Nos. 1–4, BWV 1066/9 (with alternativements dances)
Harmonia Mundi HMC 90 2113/14. Freiburg Bar. O, Gottfried von der Goltz
As we have discovered in their outstanding DVD of the Brandenburgs, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra are unsurpassed in this repertoire, their performances consistently stimulating and splendidly recorded. But they also include the alternativements dances in all four suites, which gives them a competitive edge over all other versions. This is a key recording, although the sound is a little dry.
Clavier Concertos 1–7, BWV 1052–8; (i) Double Clavier Concertos 1–3, BWV 1060–62; (i ii) Triple Clavier Concertos 1–2, BWV 1063–4; (iii) Triple Concerto for Flute, Violin & Harpsichord, BWV 1044. Italian Concerto in F, BWV 971
Decca 478 2363 (4). András Schiff (piano), with (i) Peter Serkin (piano); (ii) Canino (piano); (iii) Nicolet (flute), Shiokawa (violin), CO of Europe or Camerata Bern
As is instanced by the performance of the Italian Concerto, splendidly articulated and alive, and by his other Bach solo records, Schiff’s control of colour and articulation never seeks to present merely a harpsichord imitation, and in the concertos his shaping of Bach’s lovely slow movements brings finely sustained lines and a subtle variety of touch. In the composite concertos, joined by Bruno Canino, Aurèle Nicolet and Yuuko Shiokawa – equally fine artists – he and they are just as satisfying. He directs both the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (in the solo concertos) and the Camerata Bern from the keyboard and chooses spirited, uncontroversial tempi for Allegros, at the same time providing decoration that always adds to the joy and sparkle of the music-making. This makes a clear first choice for those who, like us, enjoy Bach on the piano, and the composite concertos are particularly successful, notably BWV 1044.
(Unaccompanied) Cello Suites 1–6, BWV 1007–12
EMI DVD DVA 5 99159-9 (2). Rostropovich
Whether on DVD (filmed against the comparatively severe backcloth of the Basilique Sainte-Madeleine, Vézelay, in France) or on the companion CD version, both of which are included here, Rostropovich’s performances are masterly and all-involving, drawing distinctions between each work in his spoken introductions, although one can choose to hear the music without the commentaries. Unsurpassed and unsurpassable. There is also a CD-only set, offered less expensively on EMI 5 18158-2, which is just as welcome.
Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas 1–3, BWV 1001, 1003 & 1005; Violin Partitas 1–3, BWV 1002, 1004 & 1006
Hyp. CDA 67691/2. Alina Ibragimova
The young Russian virtuoso Alina Ibragimova has been making waves for some time, but in these accounts of the Bach solo sonatas and partitas her mastery is very striking indeed. Hers are traditional readings and they pay no homage to the authentic-instrument lobby. She brings a refined, quiet sensitivity to the slow sarabandes of the First and Second Partitas as well as to the slow openings of the three Sonatas, and finds great spirit and incisiveness in the more vigorous movements. There is elegance and character in every single piece. We have a special affection for Grumiaux (Philips 438 736-2) and Milstein (DG 457 702-2) in these works, but this modern version from Hyperion is outstanding in every way.
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Sony 696998924322. Perahia (piano)
We are agreed that Murray Perahia’s set of the Goldberg Variations is uniquely revealing, essentially thoughtful and intimate, often introvert, and with his involvement and dedication present in every bar. The piano recording, too, is wonderfully natural. An obvious first choice. Even so, Rosalyn Tureck’s VAI account is very special indeed, with insights all its own. For I.M. it is enormously compelling and would be a desert island choice (VAI VAIA 1029); but Perahia’s account is hardly less inspired.
15 2-Part Inventions, BWV 772–86; 15 3-Part Inventions (Sinfonias), BWV 787–801; 6 Little Preludes, BWV 933–8; 6 Little Preludes, BWV 939–43 & 999; 6 Little Preludes from the Clavierbüchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, BWV 924–31; 3 Fughettas, BWV 952, 953 & 961; Prelude and Fugue, BWV 895; Preludes and Fughettas, B WV 899, 900, & 902a; French Suite 6, BWV 817; Partita 2, BWV 826
Dynamic CDS 629/1-2 (2). Andrea Bacchetti (piano)
Bach’s Klaviermusic (including the 2-Part Inventions and the rather more complex 3-Part Sinfonias) was mainly written in Köthen from 1717 to 1723 for Bach’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedmann, and the Sixth French Suite and Second Partita also seem to come from the end of this period. So for Andrea Bacchetti to include them in his survey seems very appropriate, and they are wholly welcome musically. The monothematic Inventions are simply structured and usually brief, but their very simplicity adds to their immediacy of appeal, with changes of style from dance to fugue, from expressive writing to canon. Bacchetti, who has already given us a first-rate DVD of the Goldberg Variations (Arthaus 101447), plays them with spontaneous freshness and plenty of expressive life, and these two discs make very appealing listening. The Inventions are also available, admirably played on the harpsichord, by Masaaki Suzuki (BIS CD 1009), but he does not include the other items, and in any case this simple music makes its mark more readily on the piano.
Partitas 1–6, BWV 825–30
Sony BMG 88697443612 (1, 5 & 6); 88697226952 (2, 3 & 4). Perahia (piano)
Bach’s six Partitas appeared one at a time at approximately yearly intervals between 1725 and 1730. He obviously valued them highly for they were the first works he published at his own expense. With the character of French dance movements underlying the writing, they show true mastery of the style français and are as diverting to listen to as they are demanding to play. Murray Peahia is again in his element here. Bach keyboard playing does not come any finer than this. A set of true distinction, most truthfully recorded.
Allabreve in D, BWV 589; Aria in F, BWV 587; Canzona in D min., BWV 588; Canonic Variations on ‘Vom Himmel hoch’, BWV 769; Chorale Partitas, BWV 766-8, 7; Clavier-Übung (Prelude & Fugue in E flat, BWV 552/1–2 & Chorale settings, BWV 669–89; 4 Duets, BWV 802–5); Concertos for organ solo, BWV 592; (after Vivaldi), BWV 593, 594 & 596; (after Ernst, Prince of Sachen-Weimar), BWV 592. Fantasia, BWV 562; BWV 563 (con imitazione); BWV 570; BWV 572; Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 537 & BWV 542; Fugue on a theme by Giovanni Legrenzi, BWV 574; Fugues, BWV 575, 577–8; Fugue on a theme of Corelli, BWV 579; Orgelbüchlein: Chorales BWV 599–644; Kirnberger Chorales, BWV 691–713 & Chorale settings, BWV 714–41 & BWV 753; 764, BWV AnH. ll/55 & without BWV number. 18 Leipzig Chorales, BWV 651–68; 6 Schübler Chorales, BWV 645–50; 18 Chorales of diverse kinds, BWV 659–67; Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor, BWV 582; Pastorale, BWV 590; Pedal-Exercitium, BWV 598; Preludes, BWV 568; 569 (con organo pleno); Preludes & Fugues, BWV 531–46; 543; 551; 535a; Toccatas and Fugues (Dorian), BWV 538; 540; in D min., BWV 565; BWV 566; Toccata, Adagio & Fugue, BWV 564; Trio Sonatas 1–6 BWV 525–30; Trios, BWV 583 & BWV 586
DG 477 8628 (14). Simon Preston (various organs)
Simon Preston’s survey was recorded digitally over more than a decade, from 1987 onwards, beginning with the solo Concertos. The performances which set the standard for the whole series are first class in every way and the recording of the various organs (from Lübeck Cathedral, Tonbridge School, Kent, St Peter’s Waltrop, Saint John’s, Smith Square, Klosterkirke, Sora, Trinity College, Cambridge, Nidaros Domkirke, Trondheim, among others) is admirably clear, yet with an attractive ambient resonance. Preston revels in the extrovert brilliance of the early Weimar Preludes and Fugues (and indeed also the flamboyant Toccatas) with their virtuoso use of pedals; but he also relishes the more tightly structured works, which he plays with genuine panache. Another highlight of the series is the (1993) set of Trio Sonatas on the first disc, recorded on the Klais organ at St Katharina, Blankenburg (near Bonn). Some of the repertoire has been recorded on separate discs, including a few works omitted here, such as the 8 Little Preludes and Fugues which are wrongly attributed to Bach. But apart from these few omissions the whole set now reappears in a DG bargain box, with the various genres sensibly grouped together. The performances are consistently alive and distinguished and the choice of organs ear-tinglingly perceptive. The reissued box includes a new analysis of the music by Dorotheas Schröder.
A generous and well chosen 146-minute collection of major Bach organ works taken from Peter Hurford’s alternative cornerstone Decca survey on 17 discs (444 410-2) makes a recommendable alternative choice. This selection, devised for the general collector, brings two separate recitals, each framed by major concert pieces, with beautifully played chorales used in between the large-scale works to add contrast. The analogue recordings are splendidly remastered.
Complete Cantatas: ongoing BIS Masaaki Suzuki Series with Japan Bach Collegium (also Concerto Palatino), Masaaki Suzuki; Volumes 1 47 (Soloists include: Kurisu, Tachikawa, Kantano, Kooy, M. Suzuki, Yanagisawa, Mera, Türk, Sakurada, Schmithüsen, Frimmer, Blaze, Urano, Persson, Wessel, Nonoshita, Sollek-Avella, Kupfer, MacLeod, Hatano, Gilchrist, Kobow, Hida, Taylor, Kenworthy-Brown, Rydén, Bertin, Mields, Sampson, Weller, Kobow, Wörner, Blažíková, Nicholls).
Vol. 1: Cantatas BWV 4; 150; 196 (BIS CD 751); Vol. 2: BWV 71; 106; 131 (BIS CD 781); Vol. 3: BWV 12; 54; 162; 182 (BIS CD 791); Vol. 4: BWV 163; 165; 185; 199 (BIS CD 801); Vol. 5: BWV 18; 143; 152; 155; 161 (BIS CD 841); Vol. 6: BWV 21 (with alternative movements); 31 (BIS CD 851); Vol. 7: BWV 61; 63; 132; 172 (BIS CD 881); Vol. 8: BWV 22; 23; 75 (BIS CD 901); Vol. 9: BWV 24; 76; 167 (BIS CD 931); Vol. 10: BWV 105; 179; 186 (BIS CD 951); Vol. 11: BWV 46; 95; 136; 138 (BIS CD 991); Vol. 12: BWV 21; 147 (BIS CD 1031); Vol. 13: BWV 25; 50; 64; 69a; 77 (BIS CD 1041); Vol. 14: BWV 48; 89; 109; 148 (BIS CD 1081); Vol. 15: BWV 40; 60; 70; 90 (BIS CD 1111); Vol. 16: BWV 119; 194 (BIS CD 1131); Vol. 17: BWV 73; 144; 153; 154; 181 (BIS CD 1221); Vol. 18: BWV 66; 67; 134 (BIS CD 1251); Vol. 19: BWV 37; 86; 104; 166 (BIS CD 1261); Vol. 20: BWV 44; 59; 173; 184 (BIS CD 1271); Vol. 21: BWV 65; 81; 83; 190 (BIS CD 1311); Vol. 22: BWV 7; 20; 94 (BIS CD 1321); Vol. 23: BWV 10; 93; 107; 178 (BIS CD 1331); Vol. 24: BWV 8; 33; 113 (BIS CD 1351); Vol. 25: BWV 78; 99; 114 (BIS CD 1361); Vol. 26: BWV 96; 122; 180 (BIS CD 1401); Vol. 27: BWV 5; 80; 115 (BIS CD 1421); Vol. 28: BWV 26; 62; 116; 139 (BIS SACD 1451); Vol. 29: BWV 2; 3; 38; 135 (BIS SACD 1461); Vol. 30: BWV 51; 1127 (BIS SACD 1471); Vol. 31: Cantatas BWV 91; 101; 121; 133 (BIS SACD 1481); Vol. 32: BWV 111; 123; 124; 125 (BIS SACD 1501); Vol. 33: BWV 41; 92; 130 (BIS SACD 1541); Vol. 34: BWV 1; 126; 127 (BIS SACD 1551); Vol. 35: BWV 74; 87; 128; 176 (BIS SACD 1571); Vol. 36: BWV 6; 42; 103; 108 (BIS SACD 1611); Vol. 37: BWV 35; 169; 170; 200 (BIS SACD 1621); Vol. 38: BWV 52; 55; 58; 82 (BIS SACD 1631); Vol. 39: BWV 28; 68; 85; 175; 183 (BIS SACD 1641); Vol. 40: BWV 79; 137; 164; 168 (BIS SACD 1671); Vol. 41: BWV 56; 82; 84; 158 (BIS SACD 1691); Vol. 42: BWV 13; 16; 32; 72 (BIS SACD 1711); Vol. 43: BWV 57; 110; 151 (BIS SACD 1761); Vol. 44: BWV 43; 88; 146 (BIS SACD 1791); Vol. 45: BWV 39; 129; 187; Sinfonia in D, BWV 1045 (BIS SACD 1801); Vol. 46 BWV 17; 19; 45; 102 (BIS SACD 1851); Vol. 47: BWV 27 (with appendix); 36; 47 (BIS SACD 1861); Vol. 48:***** BWV 34; 98; 117; 120 (BIS SACD 1881); Vol. 49: BWV 156; 159; 171; 188 (BIS SACD 1891); Vol. 50: BWV 49; 145; 149; 174 (BIS SACD 1941); Secular Cantatas, BWV 210 (Wedding); 211 (Coffee) (BIS CD 1411); Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 (BIS 941/2)
BIS CD 9030/32 Volumes 21 30 (Limited Edition)
Bach’s more than two hundred cantatas were among his most amazing achievements, especially when one remembers that he actually composed about 300 in all, and the remainder are lost. Although some of Bach’s earliest cantatas date from before he became court organist at Weimar in 1708, most of the surviving cantatas were composed during two inspired periods, between 1713 and 1716 in Weimar (where he was expected to provide a new work every month), and between 1723 and 1729 in Leipzig. At Cöthen, between 1717 23, cantatas were not required but, once established at Leipzig, he wrote five annual cycles (for use during all the Sundays and Festivals of the liturgical year) at the almost incredible rate of one a week. The first two Jahrgang (volumes) of 1724 and 1725 have come down to us nearly complete, but many works from the remaining three are, alas, no longer preserved.
All these cantatas are of the highest musical quality and many show Bach at his most inspired. Their formal design is simple, usually framed by two choruses, with solo movements at the centre plus a central chorale. The Weimar cantatas are more adventurous in style, often including recitative and arias, with a da capo return to the opening section. The imaginative reader might picture his many sons gathered round the composer during the week, helping to copy out the solo vocal, choral, instrumental and continuo parts ready for the forthcoming weekend’s rehearsal and performance.
There are about five recorded surveys of this richly rewarding repertoire, three of them still in progress; but, to our minds, Suzuki’s BIS series with the Japan Collegium stands as a clear first choice and one of the gramophone’s greatest achievements, offering performances of total conviction and consummate artistry. They are certainly among the finest ever, radiating freshness, and their vitality is matched by a wonderfully rich and present recording, which in the later volumes, with the addition of the surround sound of SACD, is very realistic indeed; one has the feeling of sitting in the auditorium where the performances are taking place. Played back through ordinary CD equipment, the effect is hardly less impressive. With Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze and Yukari Nonoshita, among others, joining the soloists once the series got well under way, the quality of the solo singing, and indeed of the instrumental obbligati, seems unsurpassable.
Suzuki is proceeding chronologically, using a higher pitch (A = 465), with its concomitant brighter sound, which is especially effective against the warmly expansive background acoustic. The strings are clean yet have bloom, and the sense of inhibition – of excessive awareness of the constraints of period performance – is refreshingly absent here. The set which comes, CD by CD, with texts and translations included, is fully documented, and the BIS recordings are altogether exemplary. The CDs, all available separately, are in the premium price range. It will probably be two more years before the set is complete, so we suggest collectors interested in collecting this wonderful music should simply explore the individual issues, any one of which is worthy for inclusion in our 1,000 finest recordings. The celebrated Christmas Oratorio (also available separately) is in essence a special collection of six linked cantatas, in which Bach drew on earlier music. It was written for Christmas in Leipzig in 1734 5, performed over six feast days from Christmas Day to Epiphany (6th January). Suzuki’s performance is a joyfully alive reading, with good soloists and a first-class choral contribution.
Cantatas (i) 82; (i–iii) 159; (ii) 170
Decca Australian Eloquence (ADD) 476 2684. ASMF, Marriner, with (i) Shirley-Quirk; (ii) Baker; (iii) Tear
Classic accounts of three cantatas, including Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem (BWV 159) – one of Bach’s most inspired works. Particularly glorious is the meditation, Es ist vollbracht (‘It is finished’), with its poignant oboe obbligato (played by Roger Lord). Both Dame Janet Baker and John Shirley-Quirk are in marvellous voice, as they are in Nos. 82 and 170 – hardly less inspired works and performances. Indeed, this group of cantatas ought to be in every collection, and the recordings (mid-1960s) are of Decca’s best vintage quality.
Mass in B min., BWV 232 (DVD version)
Virgin DVD 0094637063699. Ziesak, DiDonato, Taylor, Agnew, Henschel, Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris, O Ens. de Paris, Nelson
Mass in B min., BWV 232 (CD version)
DG 415 514-2 (2). Argenta, Dawson, Fairfield, Knibbs, Kwella, Hall, Nichols, Chance, Collin, Stafford, Evans, Milner, Murgatroyd, Lloyd Morgan, Varcoe, Monteverdi Ch., E. Bar. Sol., Gardiner
John Nelson gives Bach’s great Mass a highly distinguished DVD début, with a deeply expressive performance, full of life. His soloists, including Daniel Taylor and Joyce DiDonato, are all first rate. Ruth Ziesak sings radiantly and her duet with DiDonato in the Kyrie is an early highlight. The choral group is dominated by the female voices, but the singing in the Gloria, Sanctus, and notably the Osanna is thrilling. Nelson’s tempi cannot be faulted, and the performance moves forward spontaneously to its richly satisfying closing Dona nobis pacem. The authentic-sized orchestra achieves a compromise, playing modern French instruments, and Olivier Simonnet’s video coverage is fully worthy of the performance.
On CD, John Eliot Gardiner gives a magnificent account of the B minor Mass, one which attempts to keep within an authentic scale, but which also triumphantly encompasses the work’s grandeur. Gardiner masterfully conveys the majesty (with bells and censer-swinging evoked) simultaneously with a crisply resilient rhythmic pulse. The choral tone is luminous and powerfully projected. The regular solo numbers are taken by choir members, making a cohesive whole. The recording is warmly atmospheric, but not cloudy.
Motets: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225; Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226; Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227; Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir, BWV 228; Komm, Jesu, Komm!, BWV 229; Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230; O Jesu Christ, mein Lebens Licht, BWV 118; Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich den, BWV Anh. 159
BIS SACD 1841. Nonoshita, Matsui, Guillon, Mizukoshi, Bach Col. Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Bach’s Motets, which include some of the greatest music he ever wrote for chorus, have previously been recommended by us in a fine performance by the Stockholm Bach Choir under Harnoncourt. This is one of his best CDs and, beautifully recorded, it is still worth exploring at mid-price (Teldec 0630 17430-2). But the newest collection from Japan is finer still, and it includes also Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich den, BWV Anh. 159 (which was only partly written by Bach, but includes richly complex polyphony which is most appealing) and the sonorous O Jesu Christ, mein Lebens Licht, lavishly scored, alternatively for strings and brass, so making a resonantly sonorous close to the collection. The familiar motets are memorable too, the opening Singet dem Herrn particularly fresh, and Jesu, meine Freude strikingly beautiful. So is the recording, particularly fine using surround sound in the Kobe Shoin Women’s University Chapel in Japan.
St John Passion, BWV 245
TDK DVD DV-BAJPN. Türk, Midori Suzuki, Blaze, Urano, MacLeod, Bach Col. Japan, Masaaki Suzuki
Recorded in Suntory Hall, Tokyo, on 28 July 2000 – the day marking the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death – this is an outstanding version on DVD of the St John Passion, another tribute to the work of Masaaki Suzuki in Japan. In a brief interview which comes as a supplement, he comments on the intensive training in period performance he undertook in Holland, and this performance consistently demonstrates the vigour and sensitivity of his approach to Bach. The interpretation remains very similar to Suzuki’s earlier CD account on BIS, with fresh, light textures and generally brisk speeds, which yet allow for depth of feeling; and the sense of occasion is irresistible. Only Gerd Türk as the Evangelist is presented as a soloist in front of the choir, giving an achingly beautiful performance, with his profound involvement all the more evident when seen as well as heard. Türk also sings the tenor roles, and the other soloists, all first rate, also have double roles, singing in the sixteen-strong choir (4-4-4-4) before stepping forward when needed as soloists, Stephen MacLeod singing Christus as well as the bass arias, Chiyuki Urano singing Pilate and other incidental solos, Robin Blaze a superb soloist, and the ravishing Midori Suzuki in the two soprano arias.
St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (CD version)
Decca 478 2194 (2). Johannes Chum, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Christina Landshamer, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Maximilian Schmitt, Thomas Quasthof, Klaus Häger, Leipzig Thomanerchor, Tölz Boys’ Ch., Leipzig GO, Chailly
Riccardo Chailly’s glorious new live account of the St Matthew Passion, recorded in the ideal acoustic of the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 2009, is very recommendable indeed. The balance is excellent, as is immediately shown in the opening double chorus, which has striking but not exaggerated antiphonal separation, and there is an ideally wide range of dynamic between soloists and chorus, so the effect is very real, with a fine bloom on the solo voices. Indeed the soloists sing very beautifully, with Johannes Chum’s dedicated Evangelist standing out. The two great arias in Part II, Marie-Claude Chappuis’s Erbarme dich and Christina Landshamer’s Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben (with its delicately played obbligato acompaniment for flute and two oboes da caccia) are movingly beautiful, as indeed are the chorales. Chailly’s pacing is freshly resilient and the refined orchestral playing often has the lightest touch.
Chorale Preludes: Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott; Komm, süsser Tod; Mein Jesu, was vor Seelenweh. Christmas Oratorio: Sinfonia. English Suite 2 in A min., BWV 807: Bourrée. Fugue in G min., BWV 578 (Little Fugue); Orchestral Suite 3 in D, BWV 1068: Air on the G String. Passacaglia and Fugue in C min., BWV 582; Toccata and Fugue in D min., BWV 565; Violin Partitas: 1 in B min., BWV 1002: Sarabande; 3 in E, BWV 1006: Preludio (with Bonus DVD: DEBUSSY: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune)
EMI Legend (ADD) 557758. Symphony O, Stokowski
Stokowski was a conducting phenomenon. Perhaps his very showmanship has in the past overshadowed his reputation as a ‘great’ conductor, but great he certainly was. He moulded his orchestras into the sound he wanted and created great warmth and tension in the strings. The results were often electrifying. In these times, when so-called ‘authenticity’ is paramount, his arrangements of Bach are the antithesis of modern orchestral practice but, taken on their own terms, they remain just as valid and enjoyable as ever, with one marvelling anew at the sheer richness of sound Stokowski created. The American (Capitol) late-1950s recordings of Bach arrangements have tended to be overshadowed by his later, more flamboyant, Decca Phase Four recordings (now, alas, deleted). The earliest versions here were made in 1957, and if the sound, understandably, displays a degree of thinness, it is still remarkably warm and well balanced, and certainly impressive for its time. Stokowski’s brand of lyricism is apparent throughout, with the conductor clearly wallowing in the sheer richness of sound he creates in the quiet numbers (which predominate). They may be inauthentic but are often very moving. The Chorale Preludes are played with great intensity, while in the obvious show-pieces, such as the D minor Toccata and Fugue and the Passacaglia, with their splashes of romantic colour, plenty of electricity is generated. As a DVD bonus we are offered the 1972 film of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, in which Stokowski is a joy to watch – marvellously intense and magical.
‘Johann, I’m only Dancing’: Brandenburg Concerto 3, BWV 1048; Harpsichord Concerto in F min., BWV 1056: Arioso. Double Violin Concerto in D min., BWV 1043: Largo. (Orchestral) Suite 2 in B min., BWV 1067: Minuet & Badinerie. Cello Suite 6, BWV 1012: Prelude in D. English Suite 3 in A min., BWV 807: Bourrée. Sarabande. Flute Sonatas: in A, BWV 1032: Largo e Dolce; in C, BWV 1033: Allegro; in E min., BWV 1034: Andante. Harpsichord Prelude in G min., BWV 885. Oboe Sonata in G min. BWV 1020; Prelude & Fugue in C min., BWV 847. Toccata in D, BWV 1012. Toccata and Fugue in D min., BWV 565; Violin Partita in E, BWV 1006: Prelude
Red Priest Recordings RP 007. Red Priest (Piers Adams (recorders); Julia Bishop (violin); Angela East (cello); Howard Beach (harpsichord))
A brilliantly and affectingly different collection of transcriptions of favourite Bach movements, at times uniquely exhilarating, at others showing Bach at his most expressively touching, as in the lovely Arioso from BWV 1056, the slow movement of the transcribed Double Violin Concerto and Howard Beach’s delicate solo harpsichord contributions. Piers Adams’s recorder playing is musically dazzling (the Badinerie from the Second Orchestral Suite is uniquely virtuosic) but the other players complete an ensemble which is delightfully fresh and alive, and most effectively balanced. The sleeve-picture might suggest that the group are jazzing up Bach, but they certainly don’t do that; instead they make his music come to life and communicate with wonderful freshness. The recording is admirably vivid and present.
‘The Beloved Mezzo’: BRAHMS: Alto Rhapsody (with John Alldis Choir). WAGNER: Wesendonck-Lieder. R. STRAUSS: Liebeshymnus; Das Rosenband; Ruhe, meine Seele; Muttertändelei (with LPO, Boult). ELGAR: Sea Pictures (with LSO). Dream of Gerontius: Angel’s Farewell (with Choirs, Hallé O). BERLIOZ: Nuits d’été. RAVEL: Shéhérazade (with New Philh. O; all cond. Barbirolli). CHAUSSON: Poème de l’amour et de la mer (with LSO, Previn). MAHLER: Kindertotenlieder; 5 Rückert-Lieder; Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (with Hallé O or New Philh. O, Barbirolli); Symphony 2: Urlicht (with CBSO, Rattle). HANDEL: Messiah: He was despised (with ECO, Mackerras). Ah! Crudel nel pianto mio, HWV 478; Armida abbandonata, HWV 105 (with ECO, Leppard). BACH: Cantata 82, Ich habe genug: Schlummert ein (with Bath Festival O, Y. Menuhin); Christmas Oratorio: Bereite dich, Zion. St John Passion: Es ist vollbracht. Bist du bei mir (with ASMF, Marriner). Early English Songs: DOWLAND: Come again, sweet love. CAMPION: Never love again unless you can; Oft have I sighed; If thou longst so much to learn; Fain would I wed (with Robert Spencer, lute). PURCELL: Sleep, Adam, sleep; Lord what is man. BOYCE: Tell me, lovely shepherd. MONRO: My lovely Celia. ARNE: Where the bee sucks (with Martin Isepp (harpsichord), Ambrose Gauntlett (viola da gamba)). Lieder: SCHUBERT: Gretchen am Spinnrade (with Gerald Moore (piano)); Heidenröslein; An die Musik; Die Forelle; Auf dem Wasser zu singen; Du bist die Ruh; Nacht und Träume; An Sylvia. MENDELSSOHN: Neue Liebe; Auf Flügeln des Gesanges; Nachtlied. LISZT: Lorelei; Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh (with Geoffrey Parsons (piano)). SCHUMANN: Frauenliebe und -Leben, Op. 42 (with Daniel Barenboim (piano))
EMI (ADD) 2 08087-2 (5)
Indeed Janet Baker was one of the most loved English singers of our time and this admirable anthology covers her key recordings between 1965 and 1980, with the voice staying ever fresh. She had a remarkable communicative ability. As John Steane comments in the booklet which accompanies this set: ‘For those who heard her “in the flesh” the voice commanded immediate attention. If you happened to be looking down at your programme, with the first sung notes you looked up. She had a way of so directing the voice that everybody felt she was singing for them. And she was lucky in being one of those whose recordings preserve a true reflection.’
Whether in English, French or German song, she felt the idiom naturally but there was also a special feeling for Mahler, encouraged by her association with Barbirolli. But others formed serendipitous musical partnerships with her, not least Sir Adrian Boult, whose account of Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody opens this programme arrestingly. She closes with Lieder, the intimacy of which found a special place in her heart, especially when singing with her favourite accompanist, Geoffrey Parsons. Indeed this is a treasurable set, and one can only feel a little disappointed by EMI’s decision not to include translations.
‘French Songs’: RAVEL: Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé; Chansons Medécasses. CHAUSSON: Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37. DELAGE: Quatre poèmes hindous
Australian Decca Eloquence (ADD) 480 3670
A classic disc if ever there was one. This beautiful recital was made in 1966 and sounds as fresh today as the day it was made. Chausson’s cycle of a deserted lover has a direct communication, which Janet Baker contrasts with the subtler beauties of the Ravel songs. She shows great depth of feeling for the poetry here, and an equally evocative sensitivity to the songs about India written by Ravel’s pupil, Maurice Delage, in 1912. The superb playing from the Melos group adds much to the pleasure of this recording, with the exquisite instrumental writing which is such a part of this repertoire brought out with both vividness and delicacy, helped by vintage Decca sound. This may be placed among Janet Baker’s most outstanding recordings.
Caristiona; A Celtic Symphony; Cuchullan’s Lament; The Cyprian Goddess (Symphony 3); Dante and Beatrice; Fifine at the Fair; Hebridean Symphony; Helena Variations; Kishmul’s Galley; Omar Khayyám: Prelude & Camel Caravan; Overture to a Greek Tragedy; Pagan Symphony; Pierrot of the Minute; Processional; Sapphic Poem for Cello & Orchestra; Sappho; The Sea Reivers; Song of Songs (Prelude & extracts); Thalaba the Destroyer; The Wilderness and the Solitary Place; The Witch of Atlas
Hyp. CDS 44281/6 (6). Lloyd Webber; Bickley; Connell; Begley; RPO (with Ch.), Handley
Between 1990 and 2003 Vernon Handley recorded all the principal orchestral works of Bantock (although the complete Omar Khayyám had to wait until 2006/7 and now appears on Chandos CHSA 5051 (3)). It was a considerable achievement, revealing Bantock as a major figure in English music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Handley is a dedicated advocate and the standard of performances and recordings in this box is very high indeed. If you have not already invested in this rewarding composer, Hyperion’s box (with the sirens visually enticing on the front cover) offers a chance to respond to their allure, with a promise of many rewards from this often sumptuously scored and consistently inventive music.
Complete Orchestral Works (as below)
Naxos 8.506021 (6). Soloists, RSNO, Marin Alsop
Adagio for Strings; (i) Cello Concerto, Op. 22. Medea (ballet suite), Op. 23
Naxos 8.559088. RSNO, Alsop; (i) with Wendy Warner
(i) Canzonetta for Oboe & Strings; (i–ii) Capricorn Concerto. Fadograph of a Yestern Scene; Mutations from Bach; (iii) A Hand of Bridge (opera). Vanessa (opera): Intermezzo
Naxos 8.559135. RSNO, Alsop; with (i) Stéphane Rancourt; (ii) John Gracie, Karen Jones; (iii) Lesley Craigie, Louise Winter, Simon Wall, Roderick Williams
(i) Piano Concerto. Commando March; Die Natali, Op. 37; Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance
Naxos 8.559133. RSNO, Alsop; (i) with Steven Prutsman
(i) Violin Concerto. Music for a Scene from Shelley, Op. 7; Serenade for Strings, Op. 1; Souvenirs (ballet suite), Op. 28
Naxos 8.559044. RSNO, Alsop; (i) with James Buswell
First Essay for Orchestra, Op. 12; The School for Scandal Overture, Op. 5; Symphonies 1, Op. 9; 2, Op. 19
Naxos 8.559024. RSNO, Alsop
Second Essay for Orchestra, Op. 17; Third Essay for Orchestra, Op. 47; (i) Toccata Festiva for Organ & Orchestra, Op. 36; (ii) Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24
Naxos 8.559134. RSNO, Alsop; with (i) Thomas Trotter; (ii) Karina Gauvin
This is among Marin Alsop’s finest achievements to date, among her many other impressive recordings, and this box can hardly be recommended too highly. Barber’s Cello Concerto of 1945 is more elusive than his Violin Concerto but Wendy Warner concentrates on its sometimes wry lyricism, and she articulates with brilliant point in the gentle scherzando passage of the finale. Alsop is a persuasive partner, relishing the often plangent orchestral backcloth and securing a splendidly committed response from the Scottish players, both here and in the often astringent score for Medea. The selection is generous, with the atmospheric central portrait of Medea herself and her dance of vengeance made the final point of the score. The famous Adagio for Strings then becomes essentially an elegy, but reaches a passionate climax.
The neoclassical Capricorn Concerto, which takes its name from the house that Barber and Menotti shared, is a relative rarity, but this Scottish account is in every way appealing. The Canzonetta was left in short score on Barber’s death, but this arrangement with strings is expertly done, and the piece is as moving as the very best of Barber. The Fadograph of a Yestern Scene is another rarity, a ruminative and reflective score with a strong vein of melancholy to sustain it. The witty ten-minute opera, A Hand of Bridge, which Barber wrote for Menotti’s festival at Spoleto, also comes off well. In short, this is a most pleasurable disc and repays repeated listening.
Stephen Prutsman gives a powerful reading of Barber’s formidable Piano Concerto, fully in command of the bravura writing of the outer movements and tenderly expressive in the central Canzonetta. Again with Marin Alsop a most sympathetic Barber interpreter, the Concerto is effectively supplemented by the well-known concert work drawn from the Medea ballet, the genial and colourful fantasia on Christmas carols, Die Natali, written at the same period as the Concerto in memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky, and the wartime Commando March.
Marin Alsop then backs up the masterly Violin Concerto with the witty and delightfully parodic ballet, Souvenirs, and two early works, the evocative Scene from Shelley and a long-neglected three-movement Serenade, which is based on a string quartet written when Barber was nineteen and which anticipates the Adagio for Strings. James Buswell is a refined, sensitive soloist in the Concerto, warm without being soupy, if not quite as individual as Ehnes in his vintage version with Tovey.
In the fifth Naxos collection, the two Symphonies are played by the Scottish orchestra with passionate commitment and deep lyrical feeling. The account of the complete Second Symphony will surely confirm the reputation of a wartime work which the composer partly withdrew in despondency after its neglect. The First Essay for Orchestra also generates a powerful atmosphere when played with such depth of expression, helped by the spectacular recording.
Marin Alsop’s final outstanding collection gathers together a most attractive group of works, including one of the most popular of all, the evocative setting of a prose poem by James Agee, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, with the Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin as the opulent soloist. The voice is so rich that the diction is not as clear as it might be, but happily the booklet provides the full text. Alsop’s reading brings out the contrasts between the different sections more sharply than usual; similarly, in both of the Essays (No. 3 a late work, written in 1976) she highlights contrasts to bring out the feeling in each of these compressed symphonic structures. The Toccata Festiva for organ and orchestra, written for the unveiling of a new organ for the Philadelphia Orchestra, is an exuberant piece that brings the widest expressive range in the organ part and, with the orchestral contribution colourful too, the work (surprisingly) is a great rarity on disc. But, like the whole six-disc collection, it is superbly played and recorded.
Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
Decca (ADD) 475 8237. ASMF, Marriner (with COWELL: Hymn and Fuguing Tune; CRESTON: Rumour; COPLAND: Quiet City; IVES: Symphony 3)
Americans have now adopted Barber’s Adagio (a transcription of the slow movement of a string quartet) as their equivalent to Elgar’s Nimrod favoured by listeners on this side of the Atlantic. Marriner’s nobly restrained performance with the ASMF, which dates back to 1976, is still unsurpassed. Its climax is absolutely gripping and the remastered Argo recording shows just how good Decca string-sound was in the mid-1970s. The couplings are as attractive as they are imaginative, and this splendid anthology shows five twentieth-century American composers all on top form.
Violin Concerto, Op. 14
Onyx 4016. Ehnes, Vancouver SO, Tovey – KORNGOLD; WALTON: Violin Concertos
Barber’s Violin Concerto grows in stature with every hearing, and the young Canadian violinist James Ehnes proves an ardent and committed advocate, mirrored by Bramwell Tovey’s glowing partnership, particularly in the lyrical, beautiful slow movement, which has exquisite delicacy of feeling. It is an inspired coupling, as well as a generous one, having the Barber alongside two other high-romantic concertos together. Ehnes gives superb performances of all three, bringing out their full emotional thrust without vulgarity or exaggeration. An altogether indispensable CD.
RCA (ADD) 88697446172 (2). Eleanor Steber, Nicolai Gedda, Rosalind Elias, Regina Resnik, Giorgio Tozzi, Met. Op. O, Mitropoulos
Vanessa inhabits much the same civilized world as Strauss or Henry James. Although it has not held the stage, its melodic freshness and warmth will ensure a reversal of its fortunes some day. This recording was made at the time of its first performance in 1958, but no apologies are needed for its quality; it stands the test of time as well as does the opera itself, and this reissue is well worth seeking out.
IRELAND: A London Overture (with LSO). VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’; Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (with Sinfonia of London); Symphonies: 2 (London) (with Hallé O); 5 in D (with Philh. O). BAX: The Garden of Fand (with Hallé O); Tintagel. DELIUS: The Walk to Paradise Garden (with LSO); In a Summer Garden. BUTTERWORTH: A Shropshire Lad. SIBELIUS: Finlandia; Karelia Suite; Pohjola’s Daughter; The Swan of Tuonela; Valse triste (with Hallé O). ELGAR: Cello Concerto (with Navarra, Hallé O); Enigma Variations (with Philh. O); Introduction and Allegro (with Allegri String Qt, Sinfonia of London); Sea Pictures (with Baker, LSO); Serenade in E min., Op. 20 (with Sinfonia of London); Elegy; Sospiri (with New Philh. O); Symphony 1 (with Philh. O). MAHLER: 5 Rückert-Lieder (with Baker, New Philh. O); Symphony 5 (with New Philh. O). DEBUSSY: La Mer. RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloé: Suite 2; Ma Mère l’Oye: Suite; La Valse (with Hallé O). TCHAIKOVSKY: Serenade in C for strings (with LSO); Symphony 4 in F min. (with Hallé O). BRAHMS: Tragic Overture; Symphony 3 (with VPO). PUCCINI: Madama Butterfly (excerpts, with Scotto, Stasio, Palma, Panerai, Morresi, Opera Theatre O, Rome). BERLIOZ: Les Nuits d’été (with Baker, New Philh. O)
EMI (ADD) 457767-2 (10)
Sir John Barbirolli, born in London of Italian and French parents, was one of the finest and most successful British conductors of the last century. He was especially associated with the Hallé Orchestra, which he took over in 1943 when it was reduced to only 23 players. Over the next few years he built it up to stand alongside London’s finest orchestras. Barbirolli was an outstanding interpreter of the late-romantic classics, particularly Mahler, Sibelius and Brahms, but perhaps his greatest sympathy was with British music, of which he was a supreme champion.
CD 1 opens with Ireland’s London Overture with its pithy main theme – and very successful it is too. This is followed by his very special (1957) recording of Vaughan Williams’s London Symphony – an inspirational reading that gathers power as it proceeds. The slow movement has great intensity and eloquence, with the Hallé strings surpassing themselves. Bax’s Garden of Fand follows, recorded at the same time another performance full of character and atmosphere.
CD 2 opens with Barbirolli’s almost Italianate Delius – richly romantic accounts of The Walk to the Paradise Garden and In a Summer Garden, with different orchestras, but both with passionate and characteristically arching string phrasing. Next (and new to CD) is a 1957 performance of Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad, with its opening as rapt and as haunting as can be imagined. Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 5 which follows is one of Barbirolli’s greatest recordings, opening magically and unsurpassed in lyrical intensity, with many wonderfully glowing moments.
CD 3 reminds us what an excellent Sibelian Barbirolli was, especially with Pohjola’s Daughter: it is an extremely impressive performance, spacious, yet no less exciting for its slower than usual tempi. Curiously, Barbirolli’s 1957 recording of the Cello Concerto with Navarra has been chosen, rather than the iconic reading he made later with Du Pré. The performance culminates in a most moving account of the Epilogue. Only the Scherzo falls short – slower than usual and not completely assured.
Disc 4 begins with the 1969 reading of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony – one of the most warmly affecting performances ever committed to disc, expansive, yet concentrated in feeling, especially the Adagietto. The recording sounds excellent, and this is undoubtedly one of the classic versions of this much recorded symphony.
CD No. 5 shows Barbirolli’s feeling for the French repertoire too, with his 1959 Hallé version of La Mer fully encompassing the work’s atmosphere and vivid impressionism. In Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite, Barbirolli’s characteristically languorous shaping of Ravel’s yearning string phrase in Daybreak brings a real sense of ecstasy. He has the advantage of using a chorus, well balanced into the texture; the 1959 recording is full and luminous. The flute playing in the Pantomime is brilliant and sensitive; the Danse générale sparkles, with the chorus contributing very vividly to the climax. La Valse also has plenty of temperament and excitement, and Ma Mère l’Oye has delicacy and innocence, and the ear would hardly guess that this later recording derives from a 1957 mono master, so translucent the sound.
CD6 is devoted to Tchaikovsky and includes Barbirolli’s exciting (1957) account of the Fourth Symphony, but is not one of his great recordings. After a lively first movement, the elegantly structured Andantino has many characteristic touches of individuality. The following Serenade for Strings (1964) is characteristically ripe and romantic, especially in the Élégie. In the first movement, Barbirolli is surprisingly metrical when the second subject arrives, but he is naturally expressive in the Waltz and prepares the bustling finale with subtle, loving anticipation.
CD 7 includes some of Barbirolli’s finest Elgar recordings. His Introduction and Allegro and Serenade in E minor are certainly among them and the Elegy and Sospiri are hardly less fine, while the Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia which follows is a uniquely inspirational performance. The magically quiet playing of the second orchestra is unforgettable. The recording has magnificent definition and sonority, achieving dramatic contrasts between the main orchestra and the ethereally distanced solo group. The CD ends with Barbirolli’s full-blooded (1967) account of Bax’s Tintagel, another of his greatest recordings, with the sea vistas magnificently evoked by players and recording engineers alike, and Sir John sees that the memorable principal tune is given a fine romantic sweep.
CD 8 brings Janet Baker’s unforgettable recording of the Sea Pictures. Like Du Pré, Baker is an artist who has the power to convey on record the vividness of a live performance. With the help of Barbirolli she makes the cycle far more convincing than it usually seems, with the words clothed in music that seems to transform them. The First Symphony which follows is very good, without possessing the surging exhilaration of his earlier, Pye account. Barbirolli is perhaps just a bit too affectionate here, though his identification with the music is not in doubt.
Again in Brahms’s Third Symphony (CD 9), dating from 1967, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, one feels that Barbirolli is just that bit too indulgent with this score. To sustain a performance as slow as this demands the keenest concentration, and though the playing of the VPO is refined and beautiful, tension tends to fall. The Tragic Overture is similarly expansive, but full of vigour. This CD is completed by Barbirolli’s superb (1962) account of Elgar’s Enigma Variations. It was a work that Barbirolli, himself a cellist, made especially his own, with wonderfully expansive string-playing and much imaginative detail. The recording was made when he was at the very peak of his interpretative powers.
The final CD (No. 10) is devoted to Barbirolli’s classic opera and vocal recordings. Madama Butterfly (1967) inspired the conductor to make a recording in which the singers perform with a dedication and intensity rare in opera recordings made in Italy, and the whole score glows more freshly than ever. (The complete opera is also available on EMI 5 67885-2.) There is hardly a weak link in the cast and the ardour and perception of Renata Scotto’s portrayal of Butterfly more than make up for any shortcomings in the basic beauty of her tone colour. Following Butterfly comes the magical Berlioz cycle, Les Nuits d’été. The collaboration with Janet Baker produced some remarkable records. Even if the great singer is admittedly just slightly strained in the first song, Villanelle, the half-tones in the middle songs are exquisitely controlled and the elation of the final song, L’Île inconnue, with its vision of an idyllic island, has never been more rapturously captured on record. Finally, Dame Janet’s totally idiomatic recording of the 5 Rückert-Lieder completes this CD. Her range of tone and colour is matched by dedicated playing from the New Philharmonia, and this recording is first class.
Concerto for Orchestra; Dance Suite; Divertimento; Hungarian Sketches; The Miraculous Mandarin: Suite; Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta; Romanian Folk Dances
Double Decca 470 516-2 (2). Chicago SO, Solti
A self-recommending collection of Solti’s digital Bartók recordings which has special individuality and distinction. Solti had a great and natural affinity with Bartók and, although his Chicago performances may not have the searing intensity of his vintage LSO accounts (alas, not currently available), the extra warmth of the music-making brings out the lyrical qualities of the music. The Concerto for Orchestra has great zest and bold colouring; the Divertimento is superbly done, incisive and full-blooded; and the Hungarian and Romanian Dances have all the atmosphere one could wish for. In short, this is excellent value in the Double Decca series and brings particularly fine Decca sound.
(i–ii) Piano Concertos 1–3. Violin Concertos: (iii–iv) 1; (iii; ii) 2
Double Decca (ADD/DDD) 473 271-2 (2). (i) Ashkenazy; (ii) LPO; (iii) Chung; (iv) Chicago SO; all cond. Solti
If, in the Violin Concertos, Chung is rather forwardly balanced, the hushed intensity of the writing, as well as the biting Hungarian flavour, is caught superbly, thanks to Solti as well as to the soloist, and there is no sentimental lingering. In the Piano Concertos, the partnership between Ashkenazy and Solti works equally well. The Second and Third Concertos spark off the kind of energy one would expect from a live performance. The First Concerto (digital) is even tougher, urgent and biting, and the slow movements in all three works bring a hushed inner concentration, beautifully captured in warmly refined sound. Indeed, the recording throughout, whether analogue or digital, is of vintage Decca quality.
String Quartets 1–6
Decca 455 292-2 (2). Takács Qt
The Takács Quartet bring to these masterpieces the requisite virtuosity, tonal sophistication and command of the idiom, as well as passion. These are full-blooded accounts of enormous conviction, with that open-air quality which suggests the Hungarian countryside. The recording too is wholly natural. These works have been lucky on disc, but this Decca set remains unsurpassed.
(i–iii) Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion; (i) Out of Doors; Sonatina
Decca (ADD) 478 2467. (i) Kovacevich; (ii) Argerich; (iii) Goudswaard, Roo (with: (i; ii) MOZART: Andante with five Variations in G for Piano Duet, K.501. DEBUSSY: En blanc et noir)
Recorded in 1977, this strongly atmospheric and finely characterized performance of the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion still remains a top choice. This is most imaginative playing and the recording is exceptionally wide-ranging and truthful. It is difficult to imagine a more eloquent or better-recorded account of this powerful work. The rapport between the artists produces undoubted electricity, and sparks fly in the brilliant finale and in the Allegro of the first movement. Comparable rapport is also found in the delightful Mozart Variations which follow. Although they are taken at quite a brisk tempo, the playing is unfailingly sensitive and vital. Debussy’s En blanc et noir is one of the composer’s most neglected works. It comes from the last years of his life and is full of unexpected touches. This account, also from 1977, was then the finest version to have appeared, with both artists at their imaginative and sensitive best. The solo piano pieces were recorded in 1969 and emerge with immediacy and tremendous freshness here. Indeed, the piano sound is outstanding by any standards, and Stephen Bishop Kovacevich gives splendidly vivid readings and plays with tremendous fire and intensity. The opening of Out of Doors is thrillingly vibrant, as is the final ‘Chase’, and there is contrasting light delicacy in the intervening movements (Night’s Music is hauntingly atmospheric), as there is in the closing section of the Sonatina.
Allegro barbaro; 14 Bagatelles; 3 Burlesques; Dance Suite; 4 Dirges; 10 Easy Pieces; 2 Elegies; 7 Esquisses; First Term at the Piano; For Children, Books 1–4; 3 Hungarian Folksongs from Csik; 3 Hungarian Folk Tunes; 15 Hungarian Peasant Dances; Petite Suite; Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs; Kossuth; 9 Little Piano Pieces; Marche funèbre from Kossuth; Mikrokosmos (complete); Out of Doors; 4 Pieces; Rhapsody 1 (2 versions); Romanian Christmas Carols; 2 Romanian Dances; 6 Romanian Folk Tunes; 3 Rondos on Folk Tunes; Sonatina; Sonata; 3 Studies; Suite
Decca 478 2364 (8). Kocsis
Decca have restored Zoltán Kocsis’s coverage of the complete piano music to the catalogue, and it remains the classic set for the foreseeable future. Bartók playing doesn’t come any better than this – nor does piano recording. Kocsis penetrates to the very centre and soul of this music more deeply than almost any rival. Scrupulously attentive to the composer’s wishes, Kocsis can produce power and drama when required, but he also commands a wide-ranging palette and a marvellously controlled vitality. His playing calls to mind Bartók’s own injunction that performances must be ‘beautiful but true’.
Bluebeard’s Castle (DVD version)
Decca DVD 074 3254. Sass, Kováts, LPO, Solti (V/D: Miklós Szinetár)
Solti made his electrifying video recording of Bluebeard’s Castle in 1981. His two soloists could not have been better chosen, for both the dark-timbred Kolos Kováts and the rich-voiced Sylvia Sass are totally convincing in their roles as a grim, unmoving Bluebeard and an increasingly apprehensive but determinedly wilful Judith. The sets in Miklós Szinetár’s production are extraordinarily imaginative, creating an uncannily gloomy atmosphere as Duke Bluebeard and his wife make their way slowly through the dank, ill-lit passages of his castle, and always bringing a vivid surprise to the viewer as well as to Judith as each door is opened. The tension steadily increases until the seventh door reveals Judith’s own destiny. With the LPO responding with great concentration, Solti’s orchestral commentary is superbly controlled: the taut grip for which his conducting is celebrated is felt at its most magnetic, and the powerful closing scene is haunting. The recording and camerawork are of the highest quality and, for good measure, Chris Hassall has provided the translation for the subtitles
Kertész also set new standards when he made his analogue recording in 1966 with Walter Berry and Christa Ludwig, not only in the playing of the LSO at its peak and the brilliance of the recording, but also in the firm sensitivity of the soloists, with the natural Hungarian inflexions inspired by the conductor (Decca 466 377-2).
‘Maria’: DVD 1: Arias from: GARCIA: La figlia dell’aria. PERSIANI: Ines de Castro. MENDELSSOHN: Infelice. ROSSINI: La Cenerentola; Otello. BALFE: The Maid of Artois. HUMMEL: Air à la Tirolienne avec Variations. BELLINI: La Sonnambula. MALIBRAN: Oh Dolce Incanto (from L’Elisir d’amore); Rataplan. GARCIA: El poeta calculista. DVD 2: 'Malibran Rediscovered – The Romantic Revolution' (documentary)
Decca DVD 074 3252 (2)
This two-DVD set is Cecilia Bartoli’s tribute to Maria Malibran, one of the great legends in operatic history, and it includes much interesting repertoire. The first DVD is from a concert in Barcelona’s magnificent Palau de la Musica Catalana in November 2007, and includes some of the most sparklingly tuneful bel canto examples, not only with famous items of Rossini and Bellini, but with surprises such as Mendelssohn’s vibrant Infelice, with its pleasing violin obbligato. The Balfe aria (sung in English) is especially enjoyable. Hummel’s variations are brilliant and sparkling and are tremendous fun Bartoli’s personality comes through superbly here, as it does in the vivacious Rataplan number by Malibran herself. The items by Malibran’s father, Manuel Garcia, are well worth having, particularly the colourful piece from El poeta calculista, with its guitars and castanets. The concert was clearly a success and the excitement of the occasion comes over well in this handsomely produced DVD. The documentary on DVD 2, ‘Malibran Rediscovered’, talks about Bartoli’s relationship with her illustrious predecessor and her journey of discovery, highlights of which include a scene with Decca’s great opera producer, the late Christopher Raeburn.
The Garden of Fand; Mediterranean; Northern Rhapsody No. 3; November Woods; Tintagel
Lyrita (ADD) SRCD 231. LPO, Boult
Both The Garden of Fand and Tintagel precede Bax’s symphonies, and are his most inspired pieces, tone-poems rich in melodic invention and opulence of orchestral colour. They are glorious and every bit as evocative and atmospheric as any of Delius’s tone-pictures. Sir Adrian was a consistent champion of the composer and an eloquent interpreter of this appealing music.
Symphonies 1–7
Chan. 10122 (5). BBC PO, Handley
The seven symphonies of Arnold Bax (1922 39) bestride the inter-war years but are totally at variance with its turbulent ethos. Bax described himself as an ‘unashamed romantic’ and the symphonies are rich in invention and bold in colour, totally unlike any of his British or European contemporaries. Little known in Europe, the symphonies are now beginning to make their way, and the present box is no small measure the cause of this. Vernon Handley is in total sympathy with Bax’s muse and his direction is authoritative as well as idiomatic. Superb sound from the Chandos and BBC engineers. We would not be without this set.
Tintagel
EMI (ADD) 3 79983-2. LSO, Barbirolli (with DELIUS: La Calinda; In a Summer Garden; Irmelin Prelude; A Song of Summer; The Walk to the Paradise Garden. IRELAND: London Overture)
For collectors wanting Tintagel alone, Barbirolli’s LSO version is the finest ever recorded and is unlikely ever to be surpassed. The performance has a great romantic sweep and the full-bodied 1965 recording still sounds splendid. The couplings too are of a comparable vintage.
Although together representing a single overall anthology, the following five boxes are available separately. Each includes a booklet with first-class notes by the Beecham expert and aficionado, Lyndon Jenkins.
Sir Thomas Beecham, ‘The Great Communicator’ (a documentary by Jon Tolansky)
EMI (DDD/ADD) 9 09964-2 (4)
This documentary covers Sir Thomas’s life and career as impresario and conductor – Monteux admiringly dubbed him ‘Le Grand Bâton’ – through the memories and accounts of 25 eyewitness communicators, including John Amis, Geoffrey Brand, David Cairns, Lyndon Jenkins, Felix Abrahamian, Jon Vickers and many other contributors, including orchestral musicians, writers, critics, broadcasters, audience members, and also one of Sir Thomas’s sons. The voice of Sir Thomas himself is heard in previously unpublished rehearsal recordings from the EMI archives and in a spoken presentation to an invited audience. Musical illustrations are taken from EMI recordings made between 1916 and 1959, as well as a previously unpublished recording of a 1947 concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Beecham was ever resourceful, and when Walter Legge at EMI wanted him to record Sibelius’s Fourth Symphony, which was never as popular as Nos. 1, 2 or 5, the problem would be the cost of rehearsal time for such an unfamiliar work. ‘Leave that to me,’ Sir Thomas said, and he told Legge that he would take the work on a provincial tour. ‘You will be at every rehearsal with the score,’ he said; and every morning he rehearsed Sibelius’s Fourth and in the evening substituted it for whatever popular symphony was in the programme. Before he began, he gave the audience one of his inimitable speeches. He told them that he had been given to understand that they were over-familiar with the main programmed work and congratulated them on their perspicacity in asking him ‘to let them hear what is undoubtedly the greatest symphony written in the twentieth century’. The orchestra then played the Sibelius Fourth, and on return to the EMI studios the orchestra was fully prepared to make the recording.
I.M. recalls going to hear Beecham live on two occasions. The first was at the Royal Albert Hall during the war years, when Beecham had returned briefly to England. In his LPO programme was Chabrier’s España, which scintillated so infectiously that he felt he was hearing an orchestra for the first time. The second occasion was at a rehearsal in post-war Birmingham. Beecham went through the familiar repertoire selectively, and in the main was concerned with the inner balance, especially of the woodwind. After about half the allotted time he was obviously satisfied, for he said to the players, ‘We don’t need any more of this, do we,’ and, with a twinkle, ‘Shall we go home?’ ‘Yes, Sir Thomas,’ came the enthusiastic reply, and they did.
We are grateful, in re-surveying his many recordings, to draw on the notes provided by the Beecham expert and aficionado, Lyndon Jenkins, which are consistently illuminating and enjoyable to read.
‘The Classical Tradition’
HAYDN: (i) Symphonies 93; 94 (Surprise); 95; 96 (Miracle); 97; 98; 99; 100 (Military); 101 (Clock); 102; 103 (Drum Roll); 104 (London) (London Symphonies); (i–ii) The Seasons (oratorio) MOZART: (i; iv) Violin Concerto 3 in G, K.216; (i) Divertimenti 2 in D, K.131; 15 in B flat (Theme & Variations and Meneutto only); March in D (Haffner), K.249; (iii) Overtures: Don Giovanni; Le nozze di Figaro. Symphonies 29 in A, K.201; 31 in D (Paris), K.297; 34 in C, K.338; 35 in D (Haffner), K.385; 36 in C (Linz), K.425; 38 in D (Prague), K.504; 39 in E flat, K.543; 40 in G min., K.550; 41 in C (Jupiter), K.551. Thamos, King of Egypt, K.345: Entr’acte 2 (only)
EMI (stereo/mono) 9 09946-2 (10). (i) RPO; (ii) with Morison, Young, Langdon, Beecham Ch. Soc.; (iii) LPO; (iv) Gioconda de Vito
Mozart and Haydn were at the very heart of Beecham’s repertoire and he made his stereo recordings of Haydn’s London Symphonies in 1958/9. The recordings sound admirably full-blooded, with sound that is both full and vivid. The RPO performances are both sensitive and invigorating. The art of phrasing is one of the prime secrets of great music-making, and no detail in these performances goes unattended. They also have both drama and warmth and at times a unique geniality. The playing too has an inner life and vitality that put it in a class of its own.
In The Seasons Beecham, while not using a scholarly edition, makes the most of Haydn’s expressive tone-painting, and his team of soloists is as good as could be desired. Elsie Morison’s flexible voice and wide range are matched by Alexander Young’s finely controlled and rock-steady technique, while the bass, Michael Langdon, has a fine reserve of power. The Beecham Choral Society provides a backbone of sound which brings Haydn’s score vividly to life, and the recording is excellent.
The Mozart Symphonies have fine polish and a unique elegance which make them very different from today’s period-instrument approach, with beauty of timbre and warmth, especially in the strings, pre-eminent. These are Beecham’s pre-war recordings with the LPO (which he founded in 1932), made between 1937 and 1940 with Walter Legge as producer. The interpretations are both characteristically vital and relaxed, except for No. 29 in A major, which is perhaps too affectionate, even languorous. When this recording was issued on six 78-r.p.m. sides it competed with Koussevitzky’s Boston version which fitted neatly on to four, as his tempo for the opening movement was almost twice as fast as Beecham’s. Yet, heard independently, both readings worked effectively enough.
The D major Divertimento is a large-scale performance, but none the worse for that (with some superb horn-playing), but the highlight of the last disc is Gioconda de Vito’s memorable (1949) account of the G major Violin Concerto with its exquisitely played Adagio and light-hearted finale.
‘The Later Tradition’
BEETHOVEN: Symphonies 2; 7; (i–ii) Mass in C; (i) The Ruins of Athens (incidental music). BRAHMS: Symphony 2; Academic Festival Overture; (i) Song of Destiny. LISZT: (i; iii) A Faust Symphony. Orpheus; (i; iv) Psalm XIII. MENDELSSOHN: Overtures: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Die schöne Melusine. SCHUBERT: Symphonies 3 in D; 5 in B flat; 6 in C. R. STRAUSS: (v) Don Quixote, Op. 35; Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Op. 60 (excerpts); (vi) Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40; Feuersnot, Op. 50, Love scene. Intermezzo, Op. 72: Entr’acte in A flat. Salome: Dance of the 7 Veils. SUPPÉ: Overture, Poet and Peasant. WAGNER: Die Meistersinger Overture
EMI stereo/mono 9 18611-2 (8). RPO; with (i) Beecham Ch. Soc.; (ii) Vyvyan, Sinclair, Lewis, Nowakowski; (iii) Alexander Young; (iv) Midgley; (v) P. Tortelier; Lampe; (vi) Steven Staryk
After the Second World War Beecham returned permanently to England from America and, finding that he could not again take over artistic control of the LPO, in 1946 founded the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Among his last stereo recordings with this orchestra were Beethoven’s 2nd and 7th Symphonies, highly personal readings but still among the finest performances on disc. The Second brought a brilliant first movement and a contrasting, warmly beautiful Larghetto; the Seventh was an even more brilliant account, with a thrilling finale, the horns singing out spectacularly in the climaxes of the outer movements. The Mass in C was recorded in 1958, and Beecham provided a magnificent performance. Both Richard Lewis and Jennifer Vyvyan were in excellent voice, with Monica Sinclair and Marian Nowakowski a little way behind in sheer quality, but not so far as to spoil the ensemble. The chorus was first rate and, combined with the orchestra, afforded a wide and exciting dynamic range. The Ruins of Athens incidental music is equally vibrant, and the transfer is vivid and lively, with clear choral sound.
Though the opening of the transfer of Brahms’s Second Symphony brings some background noise, the sound is vivid enough and the Beecham magic makes this volatile reading consistently compelling. The accompanying booklet reveals that it was recorded at no fewer than six separate sessions, spread between November 1958 and November 1959. The quirkiness of the performance reflects that. The horns at the opening may be rather subdued, but the first movement is then urgently riveting at speeds faster than usual. Beecham is also on the fast side in the second-movement Adagio, but his fine detailing there and in the third movement is totally distinctive, and the finale brings an exhilarating close. The Academic Festival Overture and the rarer Song of Destiny are equally desirable, the latter sung in Vaughan’s English translation.
Beecham’s classic (1958) recording of Liszt’s Faust Symphony for long dominated the catalogue, and it is well transferred to CD, although Richard Gooch’s balance is rather forward, brightening the brass, notably so in the first movement’s famous dominating theme. But the splendid performance shows its conductor, an instinctive Lisztian, at his most illuminatingly persuasive. His control of speed is masterly, spacious and eloquent in the first two movements without dragging, brilliant and urgent in the finale without any hint of breathlessness. It provides a uniquely warm and understanding reading of this equivocal piece, hard to interpret.
Orpheus was inspired by an Etruscan vase in the Louvre depicting Orpheus singing to his lyre, and Beecham’s recording remains the most poetic and unaffected yet to be committed to disc. It sounds uncommonly fresh and spacious, and the performance is magical. The account of Psalm 13 is hardly less impressive. It is sung in English, with the legendary Walter Midgley gloriously open-voiced; but the recording here is drier and more monochrome. All the same an indispensable reissue.
Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture opens gently and magically, with the first tutti contrasting in its bold drama, and the closing section Elysian in its beauty. Die schöne Melusine is perhaps less inspired, but was another of Beecham’s favourites; and it is played with much affection, but it is the Poet and Peasant Overture that he transmutes from a pot-boiler into a work of dignity and lyrical memorability, to all but match the Die Meistersinger Prelude.
The triptych of Schubert Symphonies is another of his finest records, in which every phrase breathes. There is no substitute for imaginative phrasing and each line is shaped with distinction and spirit. The Allegretto of the Third Symphony is an absolute delight, matched by the delicacy of the opening of the Fifth and the simple lyrical beauty of its Andante, while few conductors have been as persuasive as Beecham in the Sixth, C major, Symphony. The sound is generally faithful and spacious.
Beecham with Tortelier recorded their mono version of Don Quixote in 1947 during Strauss’s visit to London. The playing is pretty electrifying, with the then newly formed RPO on their best form. Tortelier had performed the work under the composer himself and here he plays for all the world as if his life depended on it. There is great delicacy in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and some delicious playing from the RPO’s then leader, Oscar Lampe. The account of Ein Heldenleben, made in the same year, also remains a model of its kind, authoritative, marvellously paced and beautifully transparent in its textures. A glorious performance which long held sway until Karajan’s 1959 account came along. The other Strauss excerpts, hardly less seductive, were recorded in 1947, before the advent of the mono LP.
‘English Music’
DELIUS: (i) Brigg Fair; (i; iii) Violin Concerto; (i) Dance Rhapsodies 1 & 2; Fennimore and Gerda (Intermezzo); Florida Suite (rev. Beecham); Irmelin Prelude; Marche caprice; On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring; On the Mountains (Pas vidderne); Over the Hills and Faraway; Sleigh Ride; A Song Before Sunrise; Summer Evening; Summer Night on the River; (i; iv) Sea Drift; (i; v) The Song of the High Hills; (i; vi) Songs of Sunset; (i; vii) A Village Romeo and Juliet (complete opera). (i) BANTOCK: Fifine at the Fair. (i) BAX: The Garden of Fand. (ii) BERNERS: The Triumph of Neptune (ballet: excerpts). (ii) GERMAN: Gypsy Suite
EMI stereo/mono 9 09915-2 (6). (i) RPO; (ii) LPO; with (iii) Jean Pougnet; (iv) Gordon Clinton & Ch.; (v) John Cameron, Maureen Forrester, Beecham Ch. Soc.; (vi) Freda Hart, Leslie Jones, Luton Ch. Soc.; (vii) Margaret Ritchie, René Soames, Denis Dowling, Frederick Sharp, Lorely Dyer, Gordon Clinton, Dorothy Bond & Ch.
Few if any conductors have been associated more indelibly with a single composer than Beecham with Delius, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship; and this series of recordings of the major orchestral works, recorded between 1956 and 1957 at Abbey Road, is one of the highlights of the EMI catalogue. The remastering of the orchestral sound (mostly done in 2001) continues to demonstrate a technological miracle. The result brings these unsurpassed performances into our own time with great beauty and an uncanny sense of realism and presence. The delicacy of the gentler wind and string textures is something to marvel at, as is the orchestral playing itself. Beecham’s fine-spun magic, his ability to lift a phrase, is apparent from the very opening of Brigg Fair, which shows Delius at his most inspired and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at their most incandescent. It is good that the rarely heard Florida Suite, Delius’s first orchestral work (1888/90), is included, for it is brim full of delightful melody and orchestral colour. The tune we know as La Calinda makes its début in the first movement. This and the third movement both incorporate African-American folk dances which reflect Delius’s earler stay on a plantation in Florida. La Calinda, like the equally delectable Sleigh Ride, became two of Beecham’s celebrated ‘lollipops’, often used as concert encores. Jean Pougnet’s 1946 mono recording of the Violin Concerto is also welcome: it was later upstaged by Menuhin’s version, but here sounds wonderfully fresh.
Of the choral works, Beecham’s performance of Sea Drift conveys the surge of inspiration that so readily matches the evocative colours of Walt Whitman’s poem about the seagull, a solitary guest from Alabama, and the Song of the High Hills is permeated with a feeling of joy and exhilaration, whereas the Songs of Sunset brings a more sensuous mood in this setting of poems of Ernest Dowson.
The studio recording of A Village Romeo and Juliet was made in the days of 78s in 1948, and although the mono sound is limited in range it is well focused, and Beecham’s ability to mould Delius’s melodic lines gives it extra warmth. However, he also made a live radio recording with a similar cast for the BBC Third Programme only a week before he went into the EMI studios! The wonder is how different it is interpretatively. The timing alone provides an indication of the contrast, with the studio recording some 11 minutes shorter. Moreover the radio recording (available on Somm BEECHAM 12-2) is the one which sounds the more passionately spontaneous at almost every point. But in both versions René Soames as the hero, Sali, sings with fresh, cleanly focused tone, so the better-balanced studio version is worth hearing in its own right.
The four extra items by other composers on the last disc are treasurable. Beecham always had a soft spot for Bantock’s atmospheric and colourfully scored Fifine at the Fair, and his advocacy is so persuasive that one could wish for the piece to be restored to the repertoire. The early (1949) mono sound emerges warmly and vividly, with the CD transfer making the most of the 78 master. In Bax’s Garden of Fand, Beecham related its atmospheric feeling to the music of Delius, and it is played superbly here, especially by Jack Brymer in his spectacular clarinet cadenza, and by the strings in the lovely theme in the second part of the piece. The 1947 recording is a bit confined and two-dimensional, but it is again very well transferred to CD. German’s slighter Gypsy Suite, too, benefits from Sir Thomas’s affectionate treatment. But the highlight is undoubtedly Lord (Gerald) Berners’ suite, The Triumph of Neptune, drawn from the ballet performed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in London in 1926. The composer was often called the English Satie, and Satie’s love of circus music was echoed by Berners’ taste for the music hall. Beecham responded readily to the music’s mixture of wit and charm (it even, unexpectedly, includes a baritone voice singing an excerpt from ‘The Last Rose of Summer’). The 78s were long cherished by us and it is good to have this rare work back in the catalogue.
‘French Music’
BERLIOZ: (i) Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14; Overtures: (ii) Le Carnaval romain, Op. 9; (iii) Le Corsaire, Op. 21; Le Roi Lear, Op. 4. La Damnation de Faust: Danse des sylphes; Menuet des follets. Les Troyens, Act I: Trojan March; (iii; iv) Act IV: Royal Hunt and Storm. BIZET: (iii) L’Arlésienne: Suites 1 & 2; (i) Carmen: Suite 1; (iii) Patrie, Op. 19; Roma: Carnaval; (i) Symphony in C. CHABRIER: (ii) España; (iii) Joyeuse marche; (i) Gwendoline Overture. DEBUSSY: (iii) Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune; L’Enfant prodigue: Cortège et air de danse. DELIBES: (iii) Le Roi s’amuse (ballet music: suite). (i) FAURÉ: Dolly suite, Op. 56 (orch. Rabaud); Pavane, Op. 50. FRANCK: Symphony in D min. (orch. Rabaud). (iii) GOUNOD: Faust ballet music; Roméo et Juliette: Le Sommeil de Juliette. GRÉTRY: Zémir et Azor: Ballet music (ed. Beecham). (i) LALO: Symphony in G min. (iii) MASSENET: Cendrillon: Valse. La Vierge: Le Dernier sommeil de la Vierge. SAINT-SAËNS: Le Rouet d’Omphale; Samson et Dalila: Danse des prêtresses de Dagon; Bacchanale. VIDAL: Zino-Zina Gavotte
EMI stereo/mono 9 09932-2 (6). (i) Fr. Nat. R. O; (ii) LPO; (iii) RPO; (iv) Beecham Ch. Soc.
Attempts have frequently been made to explain the consistently scintillating quality of Beecham’s performances and his own explanation, ‘I simply get the best players, and let them play,’ undervalues the special genius of his music-making. Never more so than his 1959 account of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, still unsurpassed. It has a demonic intensity that is immediately compelling and holds the listener on the seat-edge until the work’s electrifying close. In EMI’s latest (2003) transfer, in which every detail is crystal clear, the strings have a rich sheen and the brass a sonority and depth more telling than in previous incarnations of the recording. Even the tolling bells of the finale deserve a credit for their remarkable tangibility, while the warm acoustic of the Salle Wagram, Paris, frames a concert-hall balance of remarkable realism. The tinglingly atmospheric accounts of the Royal Hunt and Storm (with chorus), the Trojan March and the Overture, Le Corsaire are no less memorable. The two mono recordings, Le Carnaval romain, played by the LPO and dating from 1936, and RPO’s Le Roi Lear, made in the Kingsway Hall in 1947, are also full of excitement.
Among the other symphonies Beecham recorded, the Bizet C major work stands out. Beecham’s magical touch is especially illuminating and the music sounds freshly minted. The oboe soloist in the slow movement distinguishes himself and the finale is full of zest. Bizet’s Roma Symphony was written some years later but is more uneven in quality, so Beecham chose to play and record its best movement, its gay finale, Carnaval, with its pleasing secondary tune, not taking it too fast in order to respond to the composer’s markings of plus vite and più presto towards the close.
Beecham is also masterful in the rhythmic bite he gives to the great syncopated melodies that swagger their way through the outer movements of the Franck Symphony in D minor – the second subject in the first movement, and the opening theme of the finale. But he has to work harder with the Lalo G minor work when the material is thinner and the argument in the first movement lacks tautness. However, the second-movement Scherzo, with its highly effective flute writing, partly compensates, inspiring Beecham to a delectably pointed performance.
He was undoubtedly at his finest in the two L’Arlésienne Suites of Bizet, still unsurpassed, and here the early (1956) stereo gives the woodwind striking luminosity, yet plenty of body. Beecham’s own arrangement of a suite from Grétry’s Zémir et Azor in his own words offered music which possessed ‘a lightness, a grace and a melodic invention surpassed only by Mozart’, and in his hands the Pantomime movement made an exquisite effect and audiences would sometimes not be able to resist giving spontaneous applause. This movement was often played separately as one of Beecham’s celebrated ‘lollipops’, as were the airy waltz from Massenet’s Cendrillon, Gounod’s fragile picture of Juliet asleep, and Vidal’s delectable Gavotte from his ballet, Zino-Zina.
No one conducts Bizet’s Carmen Prélude with quite Beecham’s flair, set off by an explosive cymbal crash, while in his hands the Patrie Overture, even though it is played by the English RPO, it is as ebulliently Gallic as La Marseillaise, with a degree of brashness for good measure. The Gwendoline Overture has contrasting charm. The seven numbers of Gounod’s elegantly vivacious Faust ballet music, delightfully characterized, were recorded in Walthamstow, along with the delicately fragile Last sleep of the Virgin of Massenet (another ‘lollipop’). But the incomparably effervescent performance of Chabrier’s España used the Kingsway Hall and is one of the highlights of this collection, both for its unique exuberance and for the amazingly realistic mono recording of the LPO, with the percussion condiment glittering. It was produced by Walter Legge in 1939. Complete on two 78-r.p.m. sides, with each recorded separately nearly two weeks apart, the result, when they are joined together as here, is absolutely seamless as if the music was put on disc at a single session.
Fauré’s Dolly Suite brings the consistently imaginative and poetic phrasing that distinguished Beecham’s best performances, and the Berceuse, Le Jardin de Dolly and Tendresse (in Rabaud’s orchestration) are exquisite, while Le Pas espagnol has the kind of dash one expects from Beecham’s Chabrier. Fauré’s enchanting Pavane was Beecham’s last recording, yet it is as captivating as any music which had come earlier. Similarly, Beecham’s unsurpassed account of Saint-Saëns’s Le Rouet d’Omphale brings delicacy of string textures and wind playing (notably the flute) which is utterly beguiling, with its closing section particularly haunting. By contrast the Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah, like Chabrier’s Joyeuse Marche, has wonderful dash and flair, and one can imagine the twinkle in Sir Thomas’s eye.
Surprisingly, he recorded little Ravel or Debussy, but the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune brings a ravishingly diaphanous web of sound, and the Cortège et Air de danse is exquisitely done. Delibes’ pastiche ballet score, Le Roi s’amuse, is given the special elegance that Sir Thomas reserved for music from the past, unashamedly re-scored to please the ear of later generations. After Delius this is all repertoire which showed him at his very finest. The remastering is marvellously managed, and all the recordings sound wonderfully vivid and fresh.
Piano Concertos 1–5 (CD version)
Ph. 462 781-2 (3). Brendel, VPO, Rattle
This Philips set is Brendel’s third and finest survey of the Beethoven concertos, made in Vienna with Rattle; each concerto was recorded immediately after live performances, producing extra spontaneity. The dynamic range is greater too with hushed pianissimos more intense. The ambience of the Musikverein casts a warm, natural glow over the sound and adds the necessary breadth to the Emperor. A fine set – Brendel admirers should be well satisfied.
(i–ii) Piano Concertos 1–5. (ii) Creatures of Prometheus: excerpts; (ii–iii) Symphonies 1–9; (ii) Overtures: Coriolan; Egmont; King Stephen; Leonora III. String Quartet, 14, Op. 131 (arr. for string orchestra); (ii; iv) Choral Fantasy; (v) Missa solemnis
DG DVD 073 4500 (7). (i) Zimerman; (ii) VPO; (iii) with G. Jones, Schwarz, Kollo, Moll, Konzertvereinigung & V. State Op. Ch. in No. 9; (ii; iv) with Homero Francesch, V. Jeunesse Ch.; (v) Moser, Schwarz, Kollo, Moll, R. Hilversum Ch., Concg. O; all cond. Bernstein
Bernstein’s outstanding Beethoven collection – including some of his finest Beethoven recordings – was recorded over the late 1970s and 1980s. The original intention was to include all five of the piano concertos, but the conductor’s death in 1990 prevented that, and Zimerman directed the first two concertos from the keyboard with impressive grip and command and with playing that is technically immaculate. In the last three concertos there is close support and unity of purpose between conductor and pianist. In many ways they are differing musical personalities, Zimerman commanding, poised and aristocratic, Bernstein displaying a full-blooded brilliant temperament. But their collaboration is a triumphant success and these readings are in many ways the most stimulating available, both compelling and thoughtful. No. 3 is quite inspired. (They are also available in a separate 2-DVD box: 073 4269)
The symphony cycle, dramatic, perceptive, rich in emotion but never sentimental, has a natural spontaneous quality. With Bernstein’s electricity matched against the traditional warmth of Viennese playing the results are consistently persuasive, and the cameras consistently show his pleasure and involvement in the music-making. First-movement exposition repeats are observed consistently and very effectively. The first two symphonies are presented as large-scale works with fast Allegros made sharply rhythmic.Yet there is an underpinning of classical elegance. The Eroica brings a strong, dramatic, though not over-forced approach, with a superb, dedicated account of the Funeral March. In No. 4 Bernstein’s taut manner brings out the compactness and geniality of the argument, and there is warmth and resilience too, with the finale especially involving. Bernstein has rethought his reading of the Fifth, giving it resonance and spaciousness as well as drama, ending with a blazing account of the finale. Joy and serenity are combined in the Pastoral, while in the Seventh the extra spring and exhilaration of the lilting rhythms of the first movement are balanced by the reposeful Allegretto, and the last two movements have the adrenalin flowing freely. The set culminates in a superb triumphant account of the Ninth with a fast, tense first movement, a resilient Scherzo, a hushed, expansive reading of the Adagio and a dramatic account of the finale. With such consistently fine performances and excellent video direction from Humphrey Burton, this is a very enjoyable set indeed. The overtures are lively and sympathetic, the Choral Fantasy is most engagingly done, and Bernstein and Beethoven are at their most seductive in the Creatures of Prometheus ballet music. But what caps the collection is the outstanding account of the Missa solemnis with a spiritual intensity matched by very few rivals. Edda Moser is not an ideal soprano soloist, but the others are outstanding, and the Bendictus is made angelically beautiful by the radiant playing of the Concertgebouw concertmaster, Herman Krebbers.
In performing the arrangement of the Op.131 String Quartet for full strings, Bernstein is following the practice of Toscanini and Mitropoulos, and there is no doubt as to the commitment and depth of the playing, nor the richness of its lyrical feeling. If such a transcription is to be made at all, it could not be done with more eloquent advocacy than it is here.
Violin Concerto in D, Op. 161
RCA (ADD) SACD 09026 61742-2. Heifetz, Boston SO, Munch – BRAHMS: Violin Concerto
His supreme mastery has Heifetz finding time for individuality and imagination in every phrase. For some, the comparative lack of serenity in the first movement (though not in the Larghetto, which is wonderfully poised) may be a drawback, but the drama of the reading is unforgettable. Heifetz’s unique timbre is marvellously captured on SACD, as is Munch’s conducting, with its distinctive character, notably its clarity and crispness. This recording is available either coupled to the Brahms Violin Concerto (with Reiner conducting in Chicago) or with the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (with Munch – SACD 61391-2). However, the Brahms coupling is one of the outstanding SACD transfers made by John Newton for RCA, with Heifetz’s unique timbre superbly captured.
Those seeking a modern recording which is both beautiful and stimulating should turn to Vadim Repin’s ravishing DG account (477 6596) with the VPO under Muti, in which the exquisitely sensitive slow movement recalls Schneiderhan’s vintage (1962) DG version. The coupling is a charismatic account of the Kreutzer Violin Sonata with Argerich. This is a favourite disc of I.M.’s.
Triple Concerto in C for Violin, Cello & Piano, Op. 56
EMI Masters (ADD) 6 31768-2. David Oistrakh, Rostropovich, Sviatoslav Richter, BPO, Karajan – BRAHMS: Double Concerto
Even in the days of star-studded recordings, the roster of artists on the EMI Masters reissue from 1969 is breathtaking. EMI plotted for a long time to capture the celebrated trio, and to have as spectacular a conductor as Karajan in addition is almost too good to be true. The results are aptly opulent, with Beethoven’s priorities between the soloists well preserved in the extra dominance of Rostropovich over his colleagues. This warm, expansive music-making confirms even more clearly than before that the old view of this as one of Beethoven’s weaker works is quite wrong. The three Soviet soloists revel in the multiplicity of ideas, with Richter in the spare piano part providing a tautening influence. The recording is over-reverberant, which clouds some climaxes, but this is not too serious.
Symphonies 1–9
Sony DVD 88697195389 (1–4); 88697195399 (5–8); 88697195409 (9). BPO, Karajan
Recorded in the early to mid-1980s at the Philharmonie, with Karajan himself overseeing the video production, this cycle is very recommendable indeed and shows the conductor at his finest. The performances are marvellously polished yet free from any kind of glamour or glitz. They have the musical strengths of all Karajan’s Beethoven cycles with the visual dimension that adds to the immediacy of effect. However, nowhere in the presentation material are the excellent soloists in the Ninth identified.
Symphonies 1 in C, Op. 21; 2 in D, Op. 36
Pentatone Surround Sound SACD PTC 5186 118. ASMF, Marriner
Although the atmosphere of the eighteenth century is still apparent in his first two symphonies, Beethoven made his immediate break away from tradition by opening the First with a discord. Not a very pungent discord, it is true, and it is immediately resolved. But it serves to establish the way forward.
Marriner presents both symphonies with a Mozart-sized orchestra. The result is lithe and fresh and with plenty of character. Dramatic contrasts are powerful, yet the music’s proper scale is retained and the result is completely satisfying. The 1970 recordings were originally made in quadraphony, and the result on SACD is of remarkably realistic quality with a natural balance for the strings, to make a splendid introduction to this repertoire.
Symphonies 3 in E flat (Eroica), Op. 55; 6 in F (Pastoral), Op. 68; 8 in F, Op. 93; Overtures: Coriolan; Creatures of Prometheus; Egmont; Fidelio
EMI Gemini 3 71462-2 (2). LPO, Tennstedt
Tennstedt’s outstanding and unerringly paced account of the Eroica derives from a 1991 performance in the Royal Festival Hall, and it has the true hallmark of a live occasion, natural spontaneity and gripping tension throughout. Nos. 6 and 8 were recorded at Abbey Road between 1984 and 1986. The fresh, alert, yet imaginative performance of the Pastoral brings a radiant reading of the finale, with beautiful string playing from the LPO. The Eighth is an equally enjoyable reading, in which the second-movement Allegretto is made into a Scherzo and the Minuet is spaciously lyrical. The overtures are all vividly dramatic. Altogether an unmissable bargain set for Tennstedt admirers, and a splendid general recommendation.
Testament SBT 1430. BPO, Karajan – R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben
Karajan’s Beethoven Fourth was recorded when the Berlin Philharmonic came to London in 1985. Its excellence speaks for itself and the coupling is equally memorable.
Symphonies 5 in C min., Op. 67; 7 in A, Op. 92
DG (ADD) SACD 471 630-2 or 447 400-2. VPO, Carlos Kleiber
A justly famous coupling that stretches back to the LP era. In Carlos Kleiber’s hands the first movement of the Fifth is electrifying, yet still has an underlying hushed intensity. The slow movement is tender and delicate; then, after a Scherzo in which the horns are superbly arresting, the finale emerges into pure daylight. In the Seventh the symphonic argument never yields to the charm of the dance. Incisively dramatic, his approach relies on sharp rhythmic contrasts and thrustful rhythms, with the finale racing to its conclusion with great impetus and the horns again dominating the texture.
Symphony 6 (Pastoral); Overtures: Coriolan; Creatures of Prometheus; (i) Egmont Overture and Incidental music: Die Trommel Gerühret; Freudvoll und leidvoll; Klärchens Tod, Op. 84
EMI (ADD) 5 67965-2. Philh. O, Klemperer; (i) with Nilsson
The Pastoral is I.M.’s favourite Beethoven symphony, and he first heard it in 1941 (in abbreviated form) in Walt Disney’s Fantasia, gloriously played by Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The swinging melody on which the finale is based is one of the richest that Beethoven (or anyone else for that matter) ever wrote, and in the film the climax accompanies the sun god, Apollo, driving his chariot across the heavens – a spectacularly appropriate visual conception.
This account of the Pastoral stands out among Klemperer’s Philharmonia Beethoven recordings (alongside his live Testament version of the Choral Symphony – SBT 1177). It is famously controversial, with its legendary story of the Scherzo, taken by Klemperer at an unusually relaxed tempo. At the studio rehearsal the record’s celebrated producer, Walter Legge, stopped the performance with the comment, ‘Isn’t that a little slow, Otto?’ ‘You will get used to it,’ was the conductor’s immediate reply, and he continued in measured fashion as before. And indeed, such is the magnetism of the Philharmonia playing that one does indeed get used to it, and the performance overall is memorable for its combination of warmth and drama. The couplings are memorable too, and Birgit Nilsson is in her prime in the Egmont music.
Symphony 9 in D min. (Choral), Op. 125 (CD version)
LPO Live 0026. Popp, Murray, Rolfe Johnson, Pape, LPO Ch., LPO, Tennstedt
Klaus Tennstedt’s outstanding Choral Symphony was recorded live in October 1992 at the Royal Festival Hall. Terminally ill as he was, a fact widely known, this made each of his last concerts into an event, which added to tensions. The performance stands comparison with any rival version in the thrusting intensity of the playing, brisk in the first movement with timpani prominent, lilting in the Scherzo (though with no repeats observed), radiant in the slow movement, with the LPO strings at their most mellifluous, and violent at the start of the choral finale, leading to an exceptionally intense and well-coordinated account, with outstanding soloists and chorus. The sound, although on the dry side, is vividly clear.
Wellington’s Victory (Battle Symphony), Op. 91
Decca (ADD) 475 8508. Cannon & musket fire directed by Gerard C. Stowe, LSO, Dorati (with separate descriptive commentary by Deems Taylor) – TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 etc.
This most famous of all Mercury records (now released on Decca) was one of the most successful classical LPs of all time, selling some two million copies in the analogue era. Remastered for CD, it sounds even more spectacular than it ever did in its vinyl format, vividly catching Beethoven’s musical picture of armies clashing. The presentation, with excellent documentation, now comes as one of Decca’s ‘Originals’.
Piano and Wind Quintet in E flat, Op. 16
EuroArts DVD 2072308. James Levine, Ens. Wien-Berlin (with bonus items by Ligeti, Berio, Mozart & Françaix) (V/D Jean-Pierre Ponnelle)
In this coupling of equally inspired works for piano and wind instruments, we used to judge that Mozart scored marginally over Beethoven in felicity in using his simple forces. Not so here. Fine as the Mozart performance is, the Beethoven is even more memorable because of the unforgettably beautiful playing of James Levine, especially in the slow movement, which is presented with Elysian delicacy. In all other respects this is a treasurable performance, splendidly played and recorded, and most realistically videoed.
Piano Trios: 4 in B flat, Op. 11; 5 in D (Ghost), Op. 70/1; 7 in B flat (Archduke), Op. 97
Ph. (ADD) 464 683-2. Beaux Arts Trio
The Beaux Arts Trio are on top form here and the recording has been given a pleasing bloom by the CD transfers. All three performances are first rate and there is plenty of drama and intensity in the Ghost Trio to ensure that it matches its companions.
Septet in E flat, Op. 20; Sextet for Wind in E flat, Op. 81b
Hyp. Helios CDH 55189. Gaudier Ens.
The Septet is one of the young Beethoven’s most joyfully carefree inspirations and the Gaudier Ensemble play it with an infectious mixture of elegance and exuberance. The rarer Sextet for two horns and string quartet provides an equally winning coupling. Excellent sound makes this a highly desirable bargain.
String Quartets: Vol. 1: 1 in F; 3 in D; 4 in C min., Op. 18/1, 3 & 4; 10 in E flat (Harp), Op. 74; 13 in B flat, Op. 130; 14 in C sharp min., Op. 131 (EMI DVD 3 8567-9); Vol. 2: 2 in G, Op. 18/2; 7 in F (Rasumovsky 1), Op. 59/1; 11 in F min., Op. 95; 12 in E flat, Op. 127; 15 in A min., Op. 132 (EMI DVD 3 8580-9); Vol. 3: 5 in A; 6 in B flat, Op. 18/5 & 6; 8 in E min. (Rasumovsky 2), Op. 59/2; 9 in C (Rasumovsky 3), Op. 59/3; Grosse Fuge in B flat, Op. 133; 16 in F, Op. 135
EMI DVD 3 8592-9. Alban Berg Qt
Decca CD 454 062-2 (10) Italian Qt
The Alban Berg cycle is the only complete DVD cycle to have appeared so far. It was recorded in Salzburg in 1989, a couple of years after the fine LP (and later CD) set which the Alban Berg Quartet made for EMI. In terms of sheer quartet-playing these players are difficult to fault: ensemble is flawless, intonation perfect, and their mastery unimpeachable. The video presentation is totally free from affectation; the vision is straightforward and never draws attention to itself. Some readers may find the dynamic contrasts a shade exaggerated, but most collectors will find much musical satisfaction here.
The fine complete Quartetto Italiano survey, first issued on Philips and superbly stylish, is again available, and is undoubtedly the CD choice of preference for these masterpieces. The latest Philips remastering is most impressive, the sound much smoother than before. Moreover the Second and Third Rasumovsky Quartets, originally recorded quadrophonically, have additionally been reissued on the Pentatone label in very natural surround sound. With tempi perfectly judged and every phrase sensitively shaped, this separate disc is very desirable indeed (Pentatone SACD PTC 5186 176).
The Borodin Quartet’s survey is also deeply felt and their performances, recorded between 2003 and 2006, can also be recommended alongside the very finest of recent years, if not a first choice. Recorded in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the sound is satisfyingly warm and present (Chan. 10553 (8)) and the presentation is economical.
String Trios: 1 in E flat, Op. 3; 3 in G; 4 in D; 5 in C min., Op. 9/1–3; Serenade in D, Op. 8
Hyp. Dyad CDD 22069 (2). Leopold String Trio
The young Beethoven, in preparation for writing string quartets, composed the three Op. 9 String Trios in 1798. They have a winning originality, each well contrasted with the others. The six-movement Opus 3 Trio was composed three years earlier and, with its pair of Minuets framing the central Adagio, appears to have been modelled on Mozart’s Divertimento in the same key. It is most appealing, but the delightful seven-movement Serenade, published in 1797, is even more so. The performances by the Leopold Trio are particularly alive and fresh and the Hyperion recording is remarkably real and vivid.
Piano Sonatas 1–32
EMI DVD 3 68993-9. Daniel Barenboim (with masterclasses including Saleem Abboud Ashkar, Alessio Bax, Jonathan Biss, Shai Wosner, David Kadouch, Lang Lang)
Barenboim’s Beethoven cycle drew full houses and critical accolades in London a few years ago, and this set, deriving from eight concerts in Berlin, is hardly less imposing. This is Beethoven playing of the most impressive artistry and highest accomplishment, displaying a total concentration and profound musical intelligence. In addition to the cycle there are six masterclasses of almost an hour each, in which Barenboim coaches some excellent younger players; Barenboim is extraordinarily illuminating and full of insight, and his generosity of spirit and intuitive understanding are always in evidence. All pianists and music-lovers, whether expert or less knowledgeable, will learn a lot from them – as we have.
Piano Sonatas 1–32; Bagatelles, Opp. 119, 126
EMI Classics 5 62700-2 (9). Stephen Kovacevich
Regis (mono) RRC 9016 (9)
Piano Sonatas 8 (Pathétique); 14 (Moonlight); 21 (Waldstein); 23 (Appassionata); 25 in G, Op. 79; 26 (Les Adieux); 29 (Hammerklavier)
EMI Masters 9 65922-2 (2) (from above). Kovacevich
RCA (ADD) SACD 88697 68882-2 (Sonatas 8,14, 23, 26 & 29 only). Rubinstein
The catalogue is rich in Beethoven Piano Sonata cycles – Schnabel, the very first, Ashkenazy (Decca), Kempf’s, Paul Lewis, Gilels and Solomon’s outstanding mono cycle (Regis/9010), RRC, all enjoy legendary status. Stephen Kovacevich recorded his set between 1991 and 2003, and among modern accounts it is difficult to equal, let alone surpass. In terms of artistry and musical wisdom, it ranks alongside Solomon and in authority matches Kempff. Its Hammerklavier and C minor, Op. 111, are both magisterial and eclipse most rivals, while throughout the series the piano sound is wonderfully vivid and fresh. Those wanting a shorter selection of the named sonatas including the Hammerklavier should be happy with the two-disc set in the Masters series
The alternative group is Rubinstein’s very first recording of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and, like the other works on the RCA disc, it dates from the early 1960s. It is an unforgettable account, with an improvisatory feel to the opening movement, which is also felt in Les Adieux. The Pathétique contrasts a youthful zest in the outer movements with an Adagio cantabile of melting simplicity, while the Appassionata has all the surging impetus one could wish for. The master recordings, made in the Manhattan Center, were originally registered in three-track stereo and they have been superbly remastered by John Newton to bring a sense of remarkable realism and presence. This is one of Rubinstein’s very finest records and will give enormous satisfaction.
33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120
EuroArts DVD 3079238. Stephen Kovacevich (with BACH: Partita 4 in D, BWV 828. SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Op. 15)
Onyx CD ONYX 4035 (with BACH: Partita 4)
Stephen Kovacevich first recorded the Diabelli Variations in 1968. Forty years and much experience (including recording the 32 Sonatas and the Concertos) separate it from these newcomers. This extraordinary work explores the virtuosic possibilities of variation form – technical and intellectual – over the most ambitious span, yet always with a profound underlying emotional basis. It is custom built for Kovacevich. Nothing this artist does is less than compelling, and both these masterly new accounts enrich his discography with their sweep and control, and depth of feeling. Both are very well recorded, the EuroArts DVD live at the Verbier Festival, where Martial Barrault’s camera angles achieve a nice balance to catch both an overall picture and a close-up of his hands. Both DVD and CD include equally fine accounts of the Bach Partita, but the DVD offers also a memorably poetic account of Schumann’s Kinderszenen.
Fidelio (complete, DVD version)
DG DVD 073 4159. Janowitz, Popp, Kollo, Sotin, Jungwirth, Dallapozza, V. State Op. Ch. & O, Bernstein
Beethoven’s Fidelio is a rare opera with a happy ending, celebrating a brave, faithful and loving wife, Leonora, who hopes to save her imprisoned husband (Florestan) from certain death by disguising herself as a young man and seeking employment as the gaoler’s assistant at the prison in which he is held. Her task is made the more practical, since the gaoler’s daughter, Marzelline, falls in love with ‘her’ and the gaoler welcomes the ‘match’. Rescue comes just in time (heralded by the trumpet calls made famous in the Leonora Overture) and the villainous despot (Pizarro) ends up cast into the same cell in which his prisoner has previously languished. The music is powerfully lyrical and includes a moving Prisoners’ Chorus in which the gaoler sympathetically allows the other prisoners briefly to come out of their dungeon cells into the daylight.
Bernstein conducts a classic DVD account of Beethoven’s inspired score with an outstanding cast. This live recording is first class in every way. Gundula Janowitz sings gloriously as Leonora, with Lucia Popp radiant as Marzelline. All the male soloists are firm and clear, each of them at his peak, not least René Kollo as Florestan and Hans Sotin as Pizarro, the villain. The great finale of Act II in particular conveys a rare dedication. The production and sets are impressively realistic.
Beatrice di Tenda (CD version)
Decca (ADD) 433 706-2 (3). Sutherland, Veasey, Pavarotti, Ward, Opthof, Ambrosian Op. Ch., LSO, Bonynge
Beatrice di Tenda was Bellini’s last but one opera, coming after Sonnambula and Norma and before I Puritani (the latter written for Paris). It had an unfortunate birth, for the composer had to go to the law courts to wring the libretto from his collaborator, Romani, and it has been felt that the result is not dramatically compelling. The story involves a whole string of unrequited loves – X loves Y who loves Z who loves … and so on, and the culminating point comes when the heroine, Beatrice, wife of Filippo, Duke of Milan, is denounced falsely for alleged infidelity. Bellini always intended to revise the score, but failed to do so before his death. There is an impressive trial scene – closely based on the trial scene of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena – and the unfortunate Beatrice is condemned to death and executed despite the recantation of false witnesses. As it is, the opera remains essentially a piece for an exceptional prima donna with a big enough voice and brilliant coloratura. Joan Sutherland naturally made it her own, and though in this (1966) recording she indulges in some of the mooning one hoped she had left behind, the many dazzling examples of her art on the three CDs are a real delight. The other star of this set is Sutherland’s husband, Richard Bonynge, whose powers as a Bellini conductor are most impressive: just listen to the way he moulds the exhilarating Act I finale, with the beautifully sprung rhythms rushing headlong to a thrilling conclusion. The supporting cast could hardly be more impressive, with Pavarotti unusually responsive for a modern tenor. Outstanding recording too, vividly transferred to CD, with arias from Norma, I Puritani and La Sonnambula included as a bonus.
Norma (CD version)
Decca (ADD) 470 413-2 (3). Sutherland, Horne, Alexander, Richard Cross, LSO Ch., LSO, Bonynge
It was a measure of Joan Sutherland’s (and Bonynge’s) concern for musical values that she deliberately surrounded herself with singers who match her own quality and not (like some divas have done) with singers who stand no chance of distracting one from the star’s glory. She is joined here by an Adalgisa in Marilyn Horne whose control of florid singing is just as remarkable as Sutherland’s own, and who sometimes even outshines the heroine in musical imaginativeness. But fine as Horne’s contribution is, Sutherland here marked a new level of achievement in her recording career. Accepting the need for a dramatic approach very much in the school of Callas, she then ensures at the same time that something as near as possible to musical perfection is achieved. Her old trouble of diction with the words masked is occasionally present, and on the whole Sutherland’s old account of ‘Casta Diva’ on her early recital disc, The Art of the Prima Donna, is fresher than this. But basically this is a most compelling performance, musically and dramatically, and in this Sutherland is helped by the conducting of her husband, Richard Bonynge. On this showing, there have been few finer Bellini conductors in the recording studio, for in many of the conventional accompaniment figures he manages to keep the musical interest alive with sprung rhythms, and with the subtlest attention to the vocal line. The other soloists are all very good indeed, John Alexander and Richard Cross both young, clear-voiced singers.
One cannot mention this opera without reference to Callas, of course. Her two commercial EMI recordings, one mono (5 62638-2 (3)), one stereo (5 66428-2 (3)), both supremely conducted by Serafin, have much to commend them. The earlier set finds Callas in better voice, but the later recording boasts a finer cast, with Corelli and Christa Ludwig adding much to the electricity which a Callas recording usually generates.
I Puritani (CD version)
Decca (ADD) 417 588-2 (3). Pavarotti, Sutherland, Ghiaurov, Luccardi, Caminada, Cappuccilli, ROHCG Ch. & O, Bonynge
Ten years after her first recording of I Puritani, made in Florence, Joan Sutherland returned to this supremely enjoyable score of Bellini’s, an opera which requires, not one star but four great singers, which this 1973 recording certainly has. ‘Opera must make people weep, shudder, die through the singing,’ Bellini wrote to his librettist, and this sharply committed performance – with all the cuts opened up – brings to thrilling life the potentially limp story about Cavaliers and Roundheads. Sutherland’s singing here is brighter and fresher than in her earlier recording, with the lovely aria ‘Qui la voce’ no longer a wordless melisma, and the great show-piece, ‘Son vergin vezzosa’, is taken at a dangerously fast pace: the extra bite and tautness are exhilarating. Pavarotti, then the possessor of the most radiantly beautiful of tenor voices, shows himself a remarkable Bellini stylist, rarely if ever coarsening a legato line, unlike so many of his Italian colleagues. Ghiaurov and Cappuccilli make up a uniformly impressive cast list. The recording is vivid and atmospheric and one marvels at Bellini’s gorgeous melodies, some very exciting duets and one of the most thrilling of all operatic barn-storming finales, with Sutherland, Bonynge and all on electrifying form.
La Sonnambula (CD version)
Decca (ADD) 448 966-2 (2). Sutherland, Monti, Elkins, Stahlman, Corena, Ch. & O of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bonynge
This recording was one of the early Sutherland/Bonynge triumphs. It is, in fact, Richard Bonynge’s favourite opera, and although he recorded it again with an even starrier cast, this early version is perhaps marginally the finest. Sutherland is on top form. Her ‘Ah non giunge’ is fabulous, and this recording, unlike the later digital re-make, includes Bellini’s longer postlude, with the dramatic crashing chords which end the opera, but which were cut from the later recording. Bonynge’s conducting is in fact one of the great assets of this set, as outstanding in its way as his wife’s singing. If some commentators have taken a swipe at Bonynge’s conducting ability, this set proves that even early on in his career there was no question whatsoever of his tagging along on her coat-tails, for the playing and singing here, from a group not normally remarkable for alertness, has a crispness of discipline which had not been heard in opera sets from Italy for a long time. The Polonaise in Act II before Amina’s entry has a wonderful sparkle. The rest of the cast is no let-down. Nicola Monti has a charming voice, and though he does not always use it with imagination he gives continual enjoyment – which is more than you can often say about Bellini tenors. Both Sylvia Stahlman as Lisa and Margreta Elkins as Teresa sing most beautifully and with keen accuracy. Corena’s buffo-style Rodolfo has attractive vitality – indeed, at the time of the original review, we thought him rather coarse, but we would be glad to have some of his stylish singing character in today’s opera houses. The recording still sounds vividly dramatic and full, and this is a far better way of getting to know this curiously compelling opera than the new Decca DVD – spoilt by an unspeakably ghastly production.
(i) Violin Concerto. Passacaglia (realized by Borries & Venzago); Lulu: Symphonic Pieces. Piano Sonata, Op. 1 (orch. Verbey); 3 Pieces, Op. 6; Wozzeck: 3 Fragments. Der Wein (sung in (ii) French (iii) German). Transcription of Johann STRAUSS Jr: Wein, Weib und Gesang!
Chan. SACD CHSA 5074 (2). Gothenburg SO, Venzago, with (i) Keulen; (ii) Murray; (iii) McGreevy
An outstanding new collection of the key works of Berg, spanning the creative career of the composer, with a few novelties thrown in too. These include Theo Verbey’s superb orchestration of Berg’s solo Piano Sonata, which transforms the piece into virtually a new work. In the Passacaglia fragment (1913), each variation builds on the former one rather than on the original theme, and the result is an intense piece of orchestral writing, put together from the composer’s sketch by Christian von Borries. The concert aria, Der Wein (‘The Wine’) is heard here in two performances, one in the usual German by Geraldine McGreevy, and the other in French by the tenor, Robert Murray. The latter, in Baudelaire’s original French, is markedly sweeter in tone. The main orchestral works come off extremely well here: both the soloist and the conductor bring out all the colours which make up the Violin Concerto, and the orchestral suites from Wozzeck and Lulu have both intensity and atmosphere. The Three Pieces, Op. 6, have more warmth here than usual, though the finale has a fine sense of impending doom. The disc ends with Berg’s enjoyable arrangement of Strauss’s Wein, Weib und Gesang! Throughout, these performances benefit from superb Chandos SACD sound and excellent playing from the Gothenburg orchestra. The two CDs are offered for the price of one.
Wozzeck (complete)
Decca 478 3408 (2). Waechter, Silja, Winkler, Laubenthal, Zednik, Jahn, Malta, Sramek, VPO, Dohnányi – SCHOENBERG: Erwartung
Dohnányi, with refined textures and superb playing from the Vienna Philharmonic, presents an account of Wozzeck, cast from strength, that is not only more accurate than any other on record but also more beautiful. At midprice, coupled with Schoenberg’s Erwartung, this is an outstanding set in every way.
‘A Portrait’: Arias from: ROSSINI: Il barbiere; La Cenerentola; L’italiana in Algeri (with LSO, Gibson). MOZART: Così fan tutte; Le nozze di Figaro (with LSO, Prichard). GLUCK: Alceste. CHERUBINI: Medea (with ROHCG O, Gibson). HANDEL: Alcina (with LSO, Bonynge). BIZET: Carmen (with LSO, Abbado). Songs/Arias: MOZART: Ch’io mi scordi di te? … Non temer, amato bene (with LSO, Prichard). CHERUBINI: Ahi! Che forse ai miei di. CESTI: Intorno all’idol mio. PERGOLESI (attr.): Confusa, smarrita. SCARLATTI: Chi vuol innamorarsi; Elitropio d’amor; Qual mia colpa, o sventura … Se delitto è l’adorarvi; La Rosaura. LAVILLA: Cuatro canciones vascas. TURINA: Farruca. Saeta en forma de Salve a la Vergen de la Esperanza. GRANADOS: La maja dolorosa; El majo timido; El tra-la-la y el punteado (with Felix Lavilla, piano). FALLA: 7 Canciones populares españolas. GUERRERO: Sagrario’s Romanza. MARQUES: Margarita’s Romanza (O, cond. Lauret). ARÁMBARRI: Ocho canciones vascas (O, cond. Gombau)
Decca (ADD) 475 518-2 (2)
A truly memorable Teresa Berganza compilation. Naturally, there is a good sprinkling of her classic early operatic recordings of Rossini and Mozart, which sparkle as brightly as ever and have rarely been out of the catalogue. All the other items on the first disc, from the Gluck and Handel items to the Bizet, also show her on top form, a real star mezzo of character and style. The second CD is packed full of her native Spanish repertoire, most of which has not been widely available on CD before, some being transferred for the first time. Her recordings with Felix Lavilla, made at the beginning of the 1960s, are especially enjoyable, and on their original release were compared with Victoria de los Angeles. Undoubtedly the arias by Cherubini and Scarlatti, and others, would have gained from more than a piano accompaniment, but the classical quality of the singing is most beautiful, and the recording has transferred well to CD. The Ocho canciones vascas (‘Eight Basque Songs’) and Sagrario Romanza and Margarita’s Romanza derive from two EPs from the late 1950s, and these simple, naive songs are sung to perfection. The group of Basque songs is especially captivating: they were arranged in their present form by Jesús Arámbarri in 1931, and his discreet and delicate orchestral accompaniments subtly underline the mood of each item. The sound is a little dated and sometimes is not quite sharply focused, but they are warm and highly atmospheric. At bargain price, this is one of the most enterprising collections in Decca’s ‘Portrait’ series.
Divertimento in B flat, Op. 18; Partita for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 66; Serenade for Strings, Op. 12; (i) Sinfonia concertante for Oboe & Chamber Orchestra, Op. 84: Canzonetta (only). Symphony 3 in 1 Movement, Op. 74; Mont Juic (with Britten), Op. 9
Lyrita (ADD) SRCD 226. LPO, composer; (i) with Winfield
Lennox Berkeley was typical of the English composers whom Lyrita championed in the 1970s, and this beautifully planned collection introduces some of the most elegant and enjoyable music that he ever wrote. Chandos took over the Berkeley cause in the 1990s (and that of his son, Michael) but this is a very good place to start the music of the father. The Divertimento is enchanting, with its four stylish and highly inventive movements, while the String Serenade, similarly in four sections, is hardly less attractive and brings a beautiful Lento closing movement. In its rather weightier tone of voice the Partita belies that it was written originally with a youth orchestra in mind, while the fourth movement from the Sinfonia concertante makes a splendid interlude before the closing Symphony No. 3. This is a concise, one-movement work, slightly more austere in its lyricism, but with a popular element entering the finale. Here at times one has the feeling that the composer would have created an even stronger effect had he held the performance more tautly, but it remains a distinctive account. The recording, from the early 1970s, is first class, and the CD transfers only improve the sense of presence and realism. The programme opens with the charmingly spontaneous Mont Juic Suite which Berkeley wrote in collaboration with Benjamin Britten, two movements each (Berkeley contributing the opening pair), and the work was later published jointly as Berkeley’s Op. 9 and Britten’s Op. 12.
Overtures: Béatrice et Bénédict; Benvenuto Cellini; Le Carnaval romain; Le Corsaire. Roméo et Juliette: Queen Mab Scherzo. The Trojans: Royal Hunt and Storm
RCA 9026 61400-2. Boston SO, Munch (with SAINT-SAËNS: Le Rouet d’Omphale)
Berlioz overtures encompass much of the extraordinary original writing which made their composer one of the outstanding geniuses of the early Romantic era. They are dazzlingly orchestrated, consistently melodic, and hugely enjoyable show-pieces for orchestra. This RCA collection ranks alongside Munch’s classic account of Daphnis and Chloé, and is undoubtedly one of the great recordings of the last century. It comprises, among other delights, dazzlingly brilliant performances of four favourite overtures: the virtuosity of the Boston players, especially the violins in Béatrice et Bénédict and Le Corsaire, is breathtaking. But it is for the wonderfully poetic and thrilling account of the Royal Hunt and Storm from Les Troyens that this CD earns its accolade. The horn solo is ravishing and the brass produce a riveting climax as the storm reaches its peak. Then the sense of rain-drenched countryside is magically evoked as the horn steals back in the closing bars. The early stereo (1958/9) is remarkable: one really feels the hall ambience, and John Pfeiffer’s remastering is expert. Romeo and Juliet was recorded in 1961, and again one marvels at the articulation of the Boston violins and horns. The Saint-Saëns bonus is the earliest recording of all (1957). It is beautifully played and, after a robust climax, has the most delicate pianissimo ending.
However, Sir Colin Davis also made an outstanding recording of Berlioz overtures, with the Dresden State Orchestra, and it includes such rarities as Le Roi Lear, Waverley and the masterful Les Francs-juges Overture with its memorable main theme and sonorous writing for brass. It too is a splendidly played and recorded CD, available on RCA (82876 65839-2), but the Munch recordings remain unique and indispensable classics.
(i) Harold in Italy. Les Troyens: Ballet Music
LSO Live LSO 0040. (i) Zimmermann; LSO, C. Davis
Sir Colin Davis again demonstrates here his supreme mastery as a Berlioz interpreter in a recording of Harold in Italy, recorded live with the magnificent soloist, Tabea Zimmermann, who is rightly balanced as part of the orchestra instead of being spotlit, for this is an inspired concertante symphonic poem and not a concerto. The Ballet Music from Les Troyens provides an attractive and warmly atmospheric bonus. The disc is made the more attractive by its bargain price.
Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14
Pentatone Surround Sound SACD PTC 5186-184. Concg. O, C. Davis
In 1974 Sir Colin Davis chose the Symphonie fantastique for his first (Philips) recording with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, and in so doing entirely superseded his earlier version with the LSO. Pentatone returned to the original quadraphonic master tape for this reissue, which is spectacularly realistic. Gounod wrote about this extraordinarily original symphony that ‘with Berlioz all impressions, all sensations – whether joyful or sad – are expressed in extremes to the point of delirium’. The results place the disc as a primary recommendation, comparable with Beecham’s EMI version.
L’Enfance du Christ, Op. 25
Hyp. Dyad CDD 22667 (2). Rigby, Miles, Finley, Aler, Howell, Corydon Singers & O, Best
The atmospheric oratorio for Christmas, so different from any other Berlioz work, is beautifully recorded in sound which is immediate but warm. Matthew Best’s version offers a keenly dramatic view. So Alastair Miles conveys pure evil in Herod’s monologue at the start, and with words exceptionally clear Joseph’s pleas for shelter are movingly urgent. Jean Rigby is a fresh, young-sounding Mary, with Gerald Finley warm and expressive as Joseph. John Aler is a powerful reciter and Gwynne Howell a strong, benevolent-sounding father of the family. The famous Shepherds’ Chorus is beautifully sung and this makes an ideal choice for those wanting an intimate view and a superb, modern recording.
Les Nuits d’été (song-cycle)
Decca 475 7712. Crespin, SRO, Ansermet – RAVEL: Shéhérazade. DEBUSSY; POULENC: Songs
Crespin’s sheer richness of tone and a style which has an operatic basis do not prevent her from bringing out the subtlety of Berlioz’s writing. Le Spectre de la rose (a wonderful song) for instance has a bigness of style and colouring and an immediate sense of drama that immediately conjures up the opera house. But this is not a criticism. With Ansermet brilliantly directing the accompaniment this glowing performance is a tour de force. The Ravel coupling is equally inspired, and the superb transfers enhance the listener’s pleasure further. This supreme performance is truly legendary and fully worthy of a place among Universal’s ‘Originals’.
Requiem Mass, Op. 5
Pentatone Surround Sound SACD PTC 5186 -191 (2). Dowd, Wansworth School Boys’ Ch., L. Symphony Ch., LSO, C. Davis
Sir Colin Davis’s inspired Philips recording of the Berlioz Requiem was made in Westminster Cathedral. As in the companion issue of the Symphonie fantastique, quadraphonic sound was used and the set is reissued by Pentatone in four-channel surround sound. The result, especially in the Dies irae–Tuba mirum, outshines all other versions in amplitude and spectacle. The large-scale brass and drum climaxes are quite astonishing and the choral fortissimos glorious, helped by the fresh cutting edge of the Wandsworth School Boys’ Choir and the LSO’s incisive accompaniment. The result is a triumph.
Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17 (DVD version)
Arthaus DVD 102 017. Schwarz, Langridge, Meven, Bav. R. Ch. & SO, Colin Davis (V/D: Klaus Lindemann)
Sir Colin Davis is without peer as a Berlioz interpreter and it is good to have this fine (and often inspired) account of the master’s dramatic symphony on DVD. Recorded fairly early in his days in Munich with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, it has great fire and dramatic intensity – as well as the sensibility and poetic feeling we associate with him. Quite apart from the virtuosity of this wonderful orchestra, listeners will be riveted by the singing of the three soloists: Hanna Schwarz, whom we associate mainly with Wagner, the impeccable Philip Langridge and the splendid, dark-toned Peter Meven, who died in 2003. The video direction of Klaus Lindemann could hardly be bettered. A thrilling performance.
Les Troyens, Parts I & II (complete, DVD version)
DG DVD 073 4310 (2). Troyanos, Norman, Domingo, Monk, Plishka, NY Met. Op. Ch., O & Ballet, Levine
Les Troyens, Parts I & II (complete, CD version)
LSO Live 0010CD (4). Heppner, DeYoung, Lang, Mingardo, Mattei, Milling, L. Symphony Ch., LSO, C. Davis
Recorded at the Met. in 1983, this very fine account of Berlioz’s epic opera, Les Troyens, features the most starry cast of soloists, all at their peak, and is strongly directed by James Levine. Jessye Norman is magnetic in the Fall of Troy, commanding in her prediction of doom. Plácido Domingo is at his most heroic in both halves of the massive narrative, as Aeneas both in Troy and in Carthage. As Dido, Tatiana Troyanos is tough and tender, more vulnerable by far than as Cassandra in the first opera. The staging is nicely stylized with grandly traditional costumes and unobtrusive hangings in the set. The recorded sound is remarkably good, and Brian Large’s video direction is characteristically well managed. This version is very rewarding on all counts and it makes an obvious principal DVD recommendation for the foreseeable future.
For those seeking Berlioz’s Trojans on CD, Sir Colin Davis’s second live recording, made in the Barbican in London, magnificently crowns his whole career as a Berlioz interpreter on record, generally outshining even his pioneer version of 30 years earlier. The first wonder is that the sound of the chorus and orchestra is even fuller, more spacious, and certainly brighter and clearer than on the earlier, Philips recording, or even the opulent digital recording given to Charles Dutoit in his Montreal set for Decca. Davis is marginally faster in all five Acts, a degree more thrustful, with the excitement of a live occasion consistently adding extra intensity. The casting too is margially even finer than before. Petra Lang, a last-minute substitute as Cassandra, is superb, firm, rich and intense, investing every phrase with emotional power, instantly establishing her dominance in the very first scene. Opposite her Peter Mattei makes a powerful Choroebus. Both in The Fall of Troy and The Trojans at Carthage Ben Heppner excels himself, not just heroic with his unstrained Heldentenor, but finding a degree of refinement in the love duet of Act III that few rivals can match, let alone on disc. Michelle DeYoung may not be quite as rich and firm a Dido as Josephine Veasey on Davis’s earlier set, but the vibrancy of her mezzo is warmly caught by the microphones, and her death monologue is the more moving for the vulnerability she conveys. The rest make an excellent team without any significant shortcomings. Though the set comes on four discs at bargain price, full libretto and notes are provided, printed in very small type.
The Triumph of Neptune (ballet): extended suite; Fantaisie espagnole; Fugue for Orchestra; 3 Morceaux; Nicholas Nickleby (film music)
Olympia OCD 662. RLPO, Wodsworth
It was Sir Thomas Beecham who discovered and introduced us to the music of Lord Berners with The Triumph of Neptune ballet and its interpolated ‘Last rose of summer’ in the days of 78s. Nothing we have since discovered quite matches this in quirky audacity, but it all gives pleasure in its tongue-in-cheek individuality. Berners was a colourful eccentric. He dyed the pigeons at his house all the colours of the rainbow, had a clavichord installed in the back of his Rolls-Royce, and had a folly built in his garden, saying, ‘The great point of the tower is that it will be entirely useless,’ and he put up a notice which read, ‘Members of the public who commit suicide from the tower do so at their own risk.’ His inclusion in this book reflects our affection for his comparatively small output, and he would no doubt have been very amused that any of it would make the 1,000 greatest recordings. But he is a unique character, endlessly fascinating and never less than entertaining. Barry Wordsworth captures the music remarkably well. The Trois morceaux and the Fantaisie espagnole are Gallic in inspiration and are attractively imaginative. The Fugue for Orchestra, described as a ‘serious’ work by the composer, turns out to be the most amusing of the lot. The recording is good, but not in the demonstration bracket, but never mind that. Berners gave himself a very appropriate epitaph which sums up his character:
Here lies Lord Berners,
One of the learners.
His great love of learning
May earn him a burning,
But Praise to the Lord!
He seldom was bored.
And neither are we.
Reflections (an autobiographical film produced, directed and photographed by Peter Rosen): Introduction; Teaching; Mentors; Musical Ambassador; Composing; Tonality; American Music
Medici Arts DVD 3078728 NTSC. Soloists, Israel PO, Indiana University School of Music Op. Theatre, Rinat Ch., Jerusalem Academy Ch., Sharonit Ch.; cond. Bernstein, Lukas Foss, John Mauceri, Mark James. Leonard Bernstein (speaker), nar. Peter Thomas; Directed by Humphrey Burton & Yves-André Hubert (with bonus: MILHAUD: Le bœuf sur le toit (complete ballet), O Nat. de France, Bernstein)
Peter Rosen’s fascinating autobiographical interview with Leonard Bernstein, with supporting performance excerpts, dates from 1977, with much riveting archive film included and interspersed with short but vivid excepts from the Serenade, Symphonies 2 (Age of Anxiety), 3 (Kaddish), Mass, On the Town, West Side Story, Wonderful Town, etc., recorded in Israel. But the main content of the DVD is of Bernstein himself, cigarette in hand, charismatically reflecting on his life (beginning with his remarkable 1943 Carnegie Hall début as substitute for a sick Bruno Walter), the influence of Koussevitzky and others, his views on composition and his passionate adherence to tonalism as a creative basis and the importance of musical communication, at which he is peerless. An altogether unforgettable visual and aural experience, for no one communicates like Bernstein either vocally or in his music. If he had written only West Side Story, he would be a genius; as it is, he is uniquely gifted, America’s greatest musician. The scintillating account of Milhaud’s exhilarating Le bœuf sur le toit alone is worth the cost of the DVD – and what a joy he is to watch, enjoying himself hugely.
Symphonies: (i) 1 (Jeremiah); 2 (The Age of Anxiety); (ii) Chichester Psalms
DG (ADD) 457 757-2. Israel PO, composer; with (i) Ludwig; (ii) soloists from Vienna Boys’ Ch.
The Jeremiah Symphony dates from Bernstein’s early twenties and ends with a moving passage from Lamentations for the mezzo soloist (Christa Ludwig). As its title suggests, the Second Symphony was inspired by the poem of W. H. Auden, though no words are set to music in this purely orchestral work. The Chichester Psalms is one of the most attractive choral works written in the twentieth century; its jazzy passages are immediately appealing, as is the intrinsic beauty of the reflective passages. These live performances with the Israel Phiharmonic may lack the last degree of polish, but the warmth of the writing is fully conveyed in these excellent recordings. With a playing time of just under 80 minutes, this DG ‘Originals’ CD is excellent value.
Mass (for the Death of President Kennedy)
Sony SM2K 63089 (2). Titus (celebrant), Scribner Ch., Berkshire Boy Ch., Rock Band & O, composer
It is typical of Bernstein that he conceived this remarkable setting – among his most extended works – not just basing it on the Catholic Mass but as a piece embracing all religions. He wrote it for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, describing it as a ‘Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers’. It is a full-length entertainment, outrageously eclectic in its borrowings from a range between pop and the avant-garde. Its scenario boldly defies good taste, with the Celebrant finally smashing the holy vessel before the altar.
If the writing at times seems dangerously thin, the concentration of Bernstein holds the piece together, most strikingly of all in this first recording, conducted by the composer himself, intermittently available from Sony in different formats. Central to the performance’s success is the clear, finely focused singing of Alan Titus as the Celebrant, bringing tenderness as well as power to the keynote Simple Song, with its ‘Lauda, laude’ refrain. The echoes of West Side Story are many, with each section of the Catholic Mass amplified in Introits, Tropes and Meditations coming at suitable points. The work ends triumphantly with a section entitled Pax: Communion (‘Secret Songs’). A flawed work but a memorable one, indispensable to all admirers of America’s greatest musician/composer. The newest Naxos version under Marin Alsop (559622/23) also has many excellent qualities, but it is rather less intense and suffers from a Celebrant (Jubilant Sykes) who croons his part, not hitting the notes cleanly, under the note and sliding. The modern, digital recording is cleaner, but not always any clearer, and it is the composer’s own recording which remains an obvious first choice.
West Side Story (complete)
DG 457 199-2. Te Kanawa, Carreras, Troyanos, Horne, Ollman, Ch. & O, composer
The composer’s own recording of the masterly score to West Side Story, musically his greatest achievement, is now available on a single CD. There are those who suggest that the frankly operatic approach to its casting is less than ideal, but we find the result highly successful, for the great vocal melodies are worthy of voices of the highest calibre; Tatiana Troyanos, herself brought up on the West Side, spans the stylistic dichotomy to perfection in a superb portrayal of Anita. Moreover Bernstein’s son and daughter speak the dialogue most affectingly. With the composer conducting a superb instrumental ensemble group of musicians ‘from on and off Broadway’ the power of the music is greatly enhanced by the spectacularly wide dynamic range of the recording.
Wonderful Town
EMI DVD 9 67136-2. Criswell, McDonald, Hampson, Barrett, Gilfry, L. Voices, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Rattle
Reissued in EMI’s American Classics series, Wonderful Town was one of Bernstein’s earliest successes and it still stands up well. Here in a fizzing account, starrily cast, Rattle gives a performance that is vigorously idiomatic and warmly refined in the many lyrical moments. The two characterful sisters finding their feet in the big city are brilliantly characterized by Kim Criswell and Audra McDonald, not just charismatic but singing superbly. Thomas Hampson as Robert just as commandingly bestrides the conflicting problems of Broadway and the classical tradition, and Brent Barrett in the secondary role of Wreck delightfully brings in the cabaret tradition. Such numbers as ‘Ohio’, ‘A little bit in love’, ‘Conversation piece’ and ‘Wrong note rag’, rounded off by the big tune of ‘It’s love’, can be appreciated for their full musical quality, with Rattle and his talented Birmingham group relishing the jazzy idiom. Bright, forward sound to match. The only loss is the full text, included in the original booklet, and now replaced by a synopsis.
Symphonies 1 (Sérieuse); 2 (Capricieuse); 3 (Singulière); 4 in E flat
BIS-CD 795/96. Malmö SO, Sixten Ehrling
The Berwald symphonies all come from the four years 1842–5, when he had returned to Sweden from Berlin where he had run an orthopaedic clinic. He spent much of the 1850s running a sawmill and sandworks in northern Sweden. The symphonies are highly individual and finely crafted; Sixten Ehrling’s fresh approach is admirable and the playing of the Malmö orchestra lively and well disciplined. The Sinfonie sérieuse was recorded in 1970 and is arguably the finest account of the work ever recorded, and there is plenty of sparkle in the E flat Symphony too.
Battaglia à 10; (i) Requiem à 15
Alia Vox AV 9825. (i) Soloists, La Capella Reial de Catalunya; Le Concert des Nations, Savall
Biber’s music is highly original and imaginative, using vocal and choral effects with equal resourcefulness. His Battle sequence has some bizarre instrumental effects, well realized by Jordi Savall and his group. They open with dance-like vigour and create plenty of light and shade. The closing Lament is gently touching. The Requiem is recorded, like the Missa Bruxellensis below, in Salzburg Cathedral, which Savall accommodates in a spacious performance that moves forward strongly – in every way a superbly eloquent account with splendid soloists. The overall balance is amazingly successful, the separation is natural but is all bathed in the richly resonant cathedral ambience. This is a magnificent disc in every way and almost certainly first choice for the Requiem.
Mystery (Rosenkranz) Violin Sonatas (complete)
Virgin 5 62062-2 (2). Holloway, Moroney, Tragicomedia
Biber’s set of Mystery (or Rosary) Sonatas for violin and continuo tells the Christian story in instrumental terms. There are 15 sonatas, divided into three groups: The Five Joyful Mysteries (the Annunciation; Visitation; Nativity; Presentation of the Infant Jesus; and the Twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple); The Five Sorrowful Mysteries (Christ on the Mount of Olives; the Scourging at the Pillar; Crowning with Thorns; Carrying of the Cross; and the Crucifixion) and The Five Glorious Mysteries (the Resurrection; Ascension; Descent of the Holy Ghost; Assumption of the Virgin; and Coronation of the Virgin). The work ends with an expressively powerful extended slow Passacaglia which becomes steadily more complex. John Holloway’s strong instrumental personality is very telling. Davitt Moroney (chamber organ or harpsichord) and Tragicomedia provide an imaginative continuo, using viola da gamba, lute, harp and a regal for the Crowning with Thorns. The recording gives a most vivid presence to the soloist.
Missa Bruxellensis
Alia Vox AV 9808. Soloists, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Le Concert des Nations, Savall
This gloriously festive Missa Bruxellensis – a late (perhaps final) work, dating from 1700 – is scored for two eight-voice choirs, groups of wind, strings, and a bass continuo of organs and bassoons. The disposition of the soloists, choristers and instruments in the stalls, around the transept, and in the cathedral choir was designed to add to the sense of spectacle, and the music is fully worthy of its ambitious layout. Its imaginative diversity, with continued contrasts between tutti and soli of great expressive power, shows the composer working at full stretch. The Kyrie opens in great splendour with the two antiphonal choirs and festive trumpets (cornets à bouquin). The closing Agnus Dei has the soloists singing radiantly, but with piercing dissonances from Biber’s extraordinary sustained suspensions, with the full forces then entering for the closing Amen. The performance here, superlatively recorded in the echoing – but never blurring – acoustics of Salzburg Cathedral, re-creates the work’s première and is truly inspired. This marvellous disc cannot be recommended too highly.
The Minotaur (DVD version)
Opus Arte DVD OA1000D. Tomlinson, Reuter, Rice, Watts, Langridge, Echalaz, ROHCG O & Ch., Pappano (Dir.: Stephen Langridge)
This, Birtwistle’s eighth opera, like Gawain, his earlier commission from Covent Garden, has a libretto by David Harsent, using a language nicely balanced between poetry and the vernacular, while Birtwistle’s idiom, always abrasive, has developed here a more lyrical strain. As in previous operas Birtwistle is not only preoccupied with Greek myth but with central characters who are anti-heroes. In The Minotaur the piece rises to a superb final climax when, after Theseus has killed the Minotaur (in this incarnation with a bull’s head and a human body), the monster is finally allowed to speak, so that the concluding monologue as he is dying echoes directly the Death of Boris in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, a likeness that Birtwistle intends. With typical ingenuity Birtwistle has created a lyrical thread passed from instrument to instrument symbolizing the thread that Ariadne gives to Theseus to lead him back through the Minotaur’s maze.
The impact of the opera is greatly heightened not just by the casting but by the staging by Stephen Langridge at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, very well filmed on this DVD with simple yet vividly atmospheric designs by Alison Chitty. The role of The Minotaur as a sort of Jekyll and Hyde figure was expressly designed for Sir John Tomlinson, famed Wotan from Bayreuth and centrally cast too in Birtwistle’s earlier Gawain. His voice may no longer be as steady as it was, but his singing could not be more moving. There are no reservations whatever about Christine Rice as Ariadne, superb in every way, and other fine contributions come from the bass-baritone, Johan Reuter, as Theseus and Philip Langridge as the Oracle, while Antonio Pappano, Music Director at Covent Garden, excels himself, conducting an electrifying performance with orchestra and chorus finely coordinated.
L’Arlésienne (incidental music): Suites 1–3 (Suite 3 compiled Minkowski); Carmen: Suite
Naïve V 5130. Lyon Nat. Opéra Ch., Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski
Minkowski’s compilation from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne offers the most generous available selection of music from this delightful score, fitting a third suite between the familiar Suites 1 and 2, with the chorus adding much beauty to the Pastorale, the Second Act Tableau and extra vividness to the Farandole. The orchestral playing is first rate in every way, with an especially delicate contribution from the flutes, and the famous string Adagietto is tenderly played Andante quasi Adagio, as the composer indicated. The Carmen Suite is vivaciously colourful and, throughout, the recording is of demonstration quality. As if this were not enough, the handsome packaging, in a beautifully printed book form, is a pleasure in itself, interspersed with famous French paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin and others.
Symphony in C – see under Beecham: ‘French Music’.
TDK DV-CLOPCAR. Obraztsova, Domingo, Buchanan, Mazurok, V. State Op., Ch. & O, Carlos Kleiber (Stage and V/D: Franco Zeffirelli)
Carmen (complete, CD version)
EMI 5 67357-2 (3). De los Angeles, Gedda, Micheau, Blanc, Fr. R. Ch. & O, Beecham
Zeffirelli’s 1978 live DVD recording will be hard to surpass. Eleana Obraztsova and Domingo are ideally cast as Carmen and Don José. They act very convincingly and sing gloriously (the Flower Song is as memorable as Carmen’s hit numbers). Moreover, for once there is a totally convincing Micaëla in Isobel Buchanan, who also sings ravishingly. Her Act III scene and aria is a highlight of the opera. From the opening Prelude Carlos Kleiber directs with fizzing vitality and drama, yet creates a warmly sympathetic backcloth for the voices in the lyrical writing: the close of Act II is unforgettable, as, of course, is the opera’s final scene. Zeffirelli’s production is predictably spectacular (especially in the outer Acts) and traditional in the best possible way, and the camera follows the action admirably. The sound cannot be faulted. The set is additionally offered in a reduced-price box with Giordano’s Fedora and Verdi’s Il trovatore, both with Domingo, and Il trovatore conducted by Karajan (TDK Gold Edition: DV-GOLDBOX2).
Victoria de los Angeles’s portrayal of Carmen is absolutely bewitching, and when in the Quintet scene she says ‘Je suis amoureuse’ one believes her absolutely. Naturally the other singers are not nearly as dominant as this, but they make admirable foils; Nicolai Gedda is pleasantly light-voiced as ever, Janine Micheau is a sweet Micaëla, and Ernest Blanc makes an attractive Escamillo. The hall acoustic makes the chorus sound very resonant but gives an attractive theatrical atmosphere to the solo voices, caught naturally and without edginess, and well balanced in relation to the orchestra. At its mid-price, this famous set reasserts its position near the top of the list of recommendations and makes a worthy addition to EMI’s ‘Great Recordings of the Century’. Beecham adds his own special touch to the orchestral interludes. The documentation cannot be faulted, including session photographs and a full translation.
(i) Adam Zero (ballet): Suite; Mêlée fantasque; Hymn to Apollo; (i–ii) Rout for Soprano & Orchestra; (iii) Serenade for Orchestra & Baritone; (iv) The World is charged with the grandeur of God
Lyrita SRCD 225. LSO, (i) cond. composer; (ii) with Rae Woodland; (iii) Shirley-Quirk, cond. Brian Priestman; (iv) Amb. S., cond. Ledger
This CD does not contain Bliss’s most memorable piece of music (the March from Things to Come – see below), but it does contain a varied and very attractive collection of pieces which show the composer at his most entertaining. The Dance of Spring from Adam Zero is exhilarating in its rhythmic drive and pounding timpani, while the following Bridal Ceremony – and especially the lively Dance of Summer – are equally enjoyable. The Mêlée fantasque (well named) is even more striking, with strong Stravinskian influences but with a characteristic elegiac section at its centre. After the Hymn to Apollo, although the rest of the programme is primarily vocal, it is in fact the orchestral writing that one remembers most vividly, for the Serenade has two purely orchestral movements out of three. The second, Idyll, shows Bliss’s lyrical impulse at its most eloquent. The orchestra is almost more important than the voice in Rout. The solo vocal performances throughout this CD are of high quality, and John Shirley-Quirk’s swashbuckling account of the gay finale of the Serenade must have pleased the composer greatly. In The World is charged with the grandeur of God, the invention is less memorable, and it is again the orchestration that shows the composer’s imagination at work, notably the atmospheric scoring for the flutes in the second section. The recordings date from the early 1970s and are of high quality.
Film Music: Caesar and Cleopatra: Suite; The Royal Palaces: Suite; Things to Come: Concert Suite; War in the Air: Theme. Welcome the Queen
Chan. 9896. BBC PO, Rumon Gamba
It seems extraordinary that Bliss’s great pioneering film score for Things to Come, some 45 minutes of music, became lost in its original form. Now, thanks to Philip Lane, we can at last hear this inspired music, a wonderfully orchestrated score, as Bliss conceived it, with the closing Epilogue full of Elgarian nobilmente spirit. The March – perhaps the composer’s finest inspiration – is played with tremendous verve here, and elsewhere the score’s dramatic moments make a great impact. Caesar and Cleopatra exists in a faded working manuscript, and again it shows him in inspirational form. The three Dance Interludes are all very different, yet conjure up a warm, nostalgic glow. War in the Air, with its Waltonesque opening fanfare, was a splendid title- and closing-credits piece of considerable panache. The Royal Palaces Suite displays plenty of regality and also shows the composer at his most diverting and tuneful in the charming Waltz from The Ballroom in Buckingham Palace; and altogether this splendid CD confirms Bliss as a composer of resource who could write good tunes to order – at least in the early part of his career. Bliss’s rollicking Welcome the Queen gets the CD off to a splendid start, and the Chandos recording is first class.
Checkmate (ballet): Suite
Hyp. Helios CDH 55099. E. N. Philh. O, Lloyd-Jones – LAMBERT: Horoscope; WALTON: Façade
David Lloyd-Jones is a highly sympathetic advocate of Bliss’s ballet suite, and he includes also the Prologue. The Hyperion recording, while warm enough to convey the score’s lyricism, has plenty of bite in the Red Knight’s Mazurka. This is most enjoyable, but it is the superb couplings that make this triptych both distinctive and even more desirable at Helios price.
(i) Clarinet Quintet. String Quartet 2
Naxos 8.557394. Maggini Qt; (i) with David Campbell
Bliss’s masterly Clarinet Quintet is given a searching account by David Campbell with the Maggini group; the latter go on to offer an equally dedicated performance of the Second Quartet, full of intensity and imagination. An altogether memorable coupling, very well recorded.
Schelomo (Hebraic Rhapsody) for Cello & Orchestra
DG (ADD) 457 761-2. Fournier, BPO, Wallenstein – BRUCH: Kol Nidrei; LALO: Cello Concerto. SAINT-SAËNS: Cello Concerto 1
Bloch’s most famous piece of music is undoubtedly Schelomo (‘A Voice in the Wilderness’) – a rhapsody for cello and orchestra. Its exotic, Semitic harmonies create a richly coloured atmosphere which is quite compelling and almost hypnotic. If Fournier is a bit too closely balanced in this fervent account from 1966, he is excellently supported by Wallenstein, and the sound, apart from the balance, is excellent.
(i) Cello Concerto 9 in B flat (original version, revised Gendron); (ii–iii) Flute Concerto in D, Op. 27 (attrib.; now thought to be by Franz Pokorny); (iv) Symphonies 3 in C; 5 in B flat, Op. 12/3 & 5; (v) Guitar Quintets 4 in D (Fandango); 9 in C (La Ritirata de Madrid); (vi) String Quartet in D, Op. 6/1; (iii) String Quintet in E, Op. 13/5: Minuet (only)
Decca 438 377-2 (2). (i) Gendron, LOP, Casals; (ii) Gazzelloni; (iii) I Musici; (iv) New Philh. O, Leppard; (v) Pepe Romero, ASMF Chamber Ens.; (vi) Italian Qt
Surely no one can hear Boccherini’s ‘Minuet’ without thinking of The Lady Killers – it is a real charmer of a work and, of course, has to be included on any ‘Best of Boccherini’ collection, such as this. In fact, Boccherini wrote much music of equally melodic appeal and this inexpensive two-CD set is a good way to start to explore it. It includes Gendron’s version of the Cello Concerto; it was he who pioneered the return of the original version (without Grützmacher’s re-working), and what an enjoyable work it is too. Equally pleasing (and one can see why it was attributed to Boccherini) is the Flute Concerto, a splendidly sparkling galant work with a very catchy finale. Splashes of Spanish colour are found in the Guitar Quintet No. 4 with its Fandango finale, and in the Quintet No. 9 (‘La Ritirata di Madrid’), both works reflecting his time spent in that country. Both receive excellent performances from Pepe Romero and the ASMF Chamber Ensemble. The Symphonies are full of vitality in these excellent performances under Raymond Leppard and are very well recorded. The Italian Quartet’s performance of the D major Quartet is notable for its freshness and refinement – and its minor-keyed slow movement is as memorable as its charming finale. All these recordings encourage one to explore more of this composer’s output, and with many fine recordings available from CPO, Naxos, Hyperion, Virgin, Chandos and others, there is plenty of exploring to do.
Cello Quintet (for cello & strings), Op. 37/7
Australian Decca Eloquence 421 637-2. ASMF, Marriner – MENDELSSOHN: Octet, Op. 20
Boccherini’s Quintet is an inspired piece and makes this disc worth getting for its own sake, though the coupled performance of the Mendelssohn Octet is a particularly fine one. The opening movement is curiously haunting, and while the following Menuett is charmingly light in spirit, and its finale as jolly as can be, the slow movement has great eloquence, making this a more substantial work than might be expected from this composer. The 1968 recording remains rich and full.
Harp Concerto in 3 Tempi in C
Decca (ADD) 425 723-2. Marisa Robles, ASMF, Brown – DITTERSDORF; HANDEL: Harp Concertos, etc.
Boïeldieu’s Harp Concerto is a work which brings real delight. This (originally Argo) recording is still in the demonstration class and very sweet to the ear. The finale lingers in the imagination long after the music has ended: its mixture of melody, wit and a touch of melancholy is very seductive. To make this reissue even more attractive, three beguiling sets of variations have been added, including music by Beethoven and a Theme, Variations and Rondo Pastorale attributed to Mozart.
La Dame Blanche (opera: complete)
EMI 3 95118-2 (2). Rockwell Blake, Naouri, Fouchécourt, Deletré, Massis, Delunsch, Brunet, Dehont, Vajou, R. France Ch., Paris Ens. O, Minkowski
Boïeldieu’s engaging overture to La Dame Blanche is one of the true miniature masterpieces of light music. (It is worth including here a true story of the experience of a first-class bassoon player (William Greenlees) who went straight from the Royal Manchester College of Music to a seasonal summer engagement with the Spa Orchestra at Scarborough. They gave concerts daily, playing everything from sight – something for which British musicians are famous. Bill was warned by his professor at the College to beware of The White Lady Overture, in which the bassoonist turns a page immediately before the second subject arrives, heralded by fast solo bassoon arpeggios (noticeably audible with a small orchestra). Having watched out carefully for the arrival of the piece on a daily basis, Bill realized that his moment had come only when he turned the page of La Dame Blanche and realized that he had been caught out! Instantly translating the title in his head, with great resource he looked quickly at the key signature and quickly filled in the gap by playing a tempo semiquaver scales in the correct key. Afterwards the conductor, Jan Hurst, congratulated him for being the first bassoonist in the history of the concerts not to break down altogether!)
The opera itself is a charmingly delicate score which uses the Scottish-based melodies (from the opera) which the composer infused with a typically Gallic flavour to piquant effect. The opera was hugely successful in its day, but this is its first complete modern recording, and it is a delightful set in every way. Completed in 1826, this light-hearted adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s novel sparkles from first to last, helped by the inspired direction of Marc Minkowski with an excellent team of soloists who all sing with a natural feeling for the idiom. This is a piece which, with its many lively ensembles, points directly forward to Donizetti’s Daughter of the Regiment and even to Offenbach’s two gendarmes from Geneviève de Brabant. Good teamwork in this opera is more important than great solo singing; but here the cast has no weak link, with the outstanding Rossinian tenor, Rockwell Blake, matched by the others, not least by Annik Massis as Anna and Mireille Delunsch as Jenny. For some non-French speakers there may be rather too much dialogue, but that can easily be excised on CD. Warm, well-balanced sound. It is now available at bargain price, though, alas, without texts or translations.
‘Overtures and Ballet Music of the Nineteenth Century’ (with (i) New Philh. O, or (ii) LSO): Disc 1: (i) Overtures: AUBER: Marco Spada; Lestocq. ADAM: Giralda; La Poupée du Nuremberg. LECOCQ: La Fille de Madame Angot. THOMAS: Mignon. PLANQUETTE: Les Cloches de Corneville. BOIELDIEU: Le Calife de Bagdad; La Dame Blanche. (ii) Ballet Music: MEYERBEER: Le Prophète: Coronation March. MASSENET: La Navarraise: Nocturne. GOUNOD: La Reine de Saba, Act II: Waltz. BIZET: Don Procopio. Disc 2: (ii) Overtures: DONIZETTI: Roberto Devereux. ROSSINI: Torvaldo e Dorliska. MAILLART: Les Dragons de Villars. OFFENBACH: La Fille du tambour-major. VERDI: Giovanna d’Arco. HÉROLD: Zampa. WALLACE: Maritana. AUBER: La Neige. MASSENET: Chérubin, Act III: Entr’acte; Don César de Bazan: Entr’acte Sevillana; Les Erinnyes: Invocation. GOUNOD: Le Tribut de Zamora, Act III: Danse grecque. SAINT-SAËNS: Henry VIII, Act II: Danse de la gypsy. DELIBES: Le Roi l’a dit, Act II: Entr’acte
Double Decca (ADD) 466 431-2 (2)
This superb programme is based on three Richard Bonynge LPs, two with the LSO and one with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, again from the late 1960s early 1970s. The repertoire of once-popular music is deliciously programmed, and although some of the repertoire is available elsewhere (the Zampa and Mignon Overtures, for example) much of it is still only heard on these recordings. Of the three Auber overtures – all of them rarities – Marco Spada has a most evocative opening, suggesting a sunrise, before bursting into one of the composer’s typical galloping Allegros; Lestocq contains a memorably wistful theme on the oboe, before again launching into an irresistibly jaunty Allegro, while La Neige, more subtle than usual, shows the composer’s gift for writing catchy tunes quite early in his career. Adam’s Giralda and La Poupée de Nuremberg display all the delicacy and skill we know from his ballet scores; the former includes glittering castanets for a dash of local colour while the latter features an unexpected passage for string quartet. Boieldieu’s charming La Dame Blanche is as light as thistledown and The Caliph of Bagdad has never sounded more resplendent. Lecocq’s La Fille de Madame Angot is quite felicitous. Among the LSO performances, Maritana stands out. Bonynge presents this with great affection, the melodramatic opening arresting and the hit tune, ‘Scenes that are Brightest’, lusciously presented. Rossini’s Torvaldo e Dorliska is interesting in including the second subject of the Cenerentola Overture, while Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux even draws on ‘God Save the Queen’. Offenbach’s winning La Fille du tambour-major is piquantly scored, ending with an exuberant Can-can played with superb gusto. We also turn to the LSO for the ballet music. Besides a brilliant account of Meyerbeer’s Coronation March, there is a series of bon-bouches, including Massenet’s haunting Invocation, a cello solo from Les Erinnyes) and the Nocturne from La Navarraise. Gounod’s Grande valse from La Reine de Saba sounds as though it has been left over from the Faust ballet music, while Saint Saëns’s Gypsy Dance from Henry VIII, with its ominous timpani strokes, turns into a tuneful valse macabre. The programme ends with a charming pastiche Minuet from Delibes’s Le Roi l’a dit. Bonynge is a complete master of this repertoire, which he clearly loves, and all this music is chic and poised in his hands and, of course, brilliantly played, so that enjoyment is assured.
‘The World of Borodin’: (i) In the Steppes of Central Asia. Prince Igor: (ii) Overture; (ii–iii) Polovtsian Dances; (iv) Symphony 2 in B min. (v) String Quartet 2: Nocturne; (vi) (Piano) Scherzo in A flat; (vii–viii) Song: Far from the shores of your native land; (vii; ix) Prince Igor: Galitzky’s Aria
Decca 444 389-2. (i) SRO, Ansermet; (ii) LSO, Solti; (iii) with L. Symphony Ch.; (iv) LSO, Martinon; (v) Borodin Qt; (vi) Ashkenazy; (vii) N. Ghiaurov; (viii) Z. Ghiaurov; (ix) L. Symphony Ch., LSO, Downes
It is not often that a composer’s output can be encapsulated on a single disc in 76 minutes. Solti’s Prince Igor Overture shows him at his finest and the Polovtsian Dances follow on excitingly. Ansermet’s contribution, In the Steppes of Central Asia, too is impressive, as are the Nocturne and the solo vocal items. But the highlight of the disc is Martinon’s unsurpassed (1960) LSO account of the Second Symphony, ideally paced, where the sound has remarkable presence and sparkle. Indeed, the opening of this striking symphony grabs you by the throat in this recording and makes an unforgettable impression, though it is the colour of the score and its memorable tunes which give the most lasting impression.
The Immortal Hour (opera: complete)
Hyp. Dyad CDD 22040 (2). Kennedy, Dawson, Wilson-Johnson, M. Davies, George Mitchell Ch., ECO, Melville
Enormously successful in its day, to modern ears much of The Immortal Hour may seem like Vaughan Williams and water. But with its famous hit, the Faery Song, its simple tunefulness is most appealing. This fine performance, conducted by a lifelong Boughton devotee, brings out the hypnotic quality which had 1920s music-lovers attending peformances many times over, entranced by the lyrical evocation of Celtic twilight. The excellent cast of young singers includes Anne Dawson as the heroine, Princess Etain, and Maldwyn Davies, headily beautiful in the main tenor rendering of the delightful Faery Song. Warm, reverberant recording, enhanced by its CD format, this engaging opera is not to be missed at its reissued Dyad price.
Faust et Hélène; Psaume 24; Psaume 130; Du fond de l’abîme; D’un matin de printemps; D’un soir triste
Chan. 9745. Dawson, Murray, Bottone, MacKenzie, Howard, CBSO Ch., BBC PO, Y.-P. Tortelier
There is a haunting and often poignant quality to the music of Lili Boulanger, in part because she died so young. Faust et Hélène has astonishing beauty and a natural eloquence. Like Psaume 24, Du fond de l’abîme and the other music on this disc, it offers testimony to an altogether remarkable talent. There is a distinguished team of soloists (Lynne Dawson and Bonaventura Bottone in the cantata and Ann Murray in one of the Psalms) and first-rate contributions from the Birmingham chorus and the BBC Philharmonic under Yan-Pascal Tortelier. An altogether magical collection.
(i) Piano Concerto 1, Op. 11; (ii) Violin Concerto, Op. 33
Dutton CDLX 7169. BBC Concert O, Handley, with (i) Michael Dussek; (ii) Lorraine McAslan
The Piano Concerto is an early work, composed when Bowen was nineteen. There are some reminiscences of Saint-Saëns and Litolff, but the piece has refreshing fluency and charm. The Violin Concerto failed to find a persuasive champion and soon disappeared from the repertoire until this excellent recording restored it to circulation. As an eight-year-old boy, York Bowen made his début in a Dussek concerto, so it is appropriate that Michael Dussek, who is descended from the composer, should play it here.
(i) Piano Concertos 2 (Concertstück), Op. 17; 3 (Fantasia), Op. 23. Symphonic Fantasia, Op. 16
Dutton CDLX 7187. (i) Dussek; BBC Concert O, Handley
This couples the Second Concerto (subtitled Concertstück) with the Third (1907) and the Symphonic Fantasia, which no less a conductor than Hans Richter championed with the LSO. Bowen was still in his early twenties when they were written and these pieces all have a youthful freshness and generosity of feeling. Excellent notes from Lewis Foreman enhance the appeal of these most welcome and admirably performed issues.
Ballade 2; 3 Miniatures, Op. 44; 3 Pieces, Op. 20; from 3 Preludes: 2 & 3; 3 Serious Dances, Op. 51; 3 Songs without words, Op. 94
Chan. 10506. Celis
24 Preludes, Op. 102; Sonata 6 in B flat min., Op. 160; Reverie, Op. 86
Chan. 10277. Celis
The Dutch pianist Joop Celis proves an enthusiastic and highly virtuosic exponent of York Bowen and he offers a valuable anthology of his solo piano music. Apart from the shorter pieces, he is very impressive in the magnificent Sixth Sonata, and even more rewarding in the 24 Preludes, eclectic but with something unmistakably English about them.
The B flat minor Sonata, Op. 160, was York Bowen’s last composition, composed just before he died in 1961, and he never wrote anything finer. It is a magnificent work. But it is the 24 Preludes, in all the major and minor keys, written just before the Second World War, which demonstrates the full range of Bowen’s piano writing. Stephen Hough has already recorded a selection, but the Dutch pianist, Joop Celis, gives us the lot and shows us just how fascinating and rewarding they are. There are touches of Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Debussy, and they stem from the spiritual world of Brahms – yet, like in the Sonata, there is something unmistakably English about them. Fine, realistic recording makes this a most desirable issue.