Naxos 8.572365. Mats Bergström (guitar)16 Preludios; Alborada (Capricho); Capricho árabe (Serenata); Estudio brilliante de Alard; Recuerdos de la Alhambra; Las Dos Hermanitas (Dos Valses); Gavota (Maria); 3 Mazurkas: Adelita; Marieta; Mazurka in G. Pavana; Polkas: Rosita; Pepita. Gran vals; Vals; Isabel (Johann Strauss II); Paquito; Vals in D
Naxos 8.572365. Mats Bergström (guitar)
Francisco Tárrega was the most influential Spanish virtuoso guitar player and composer of the nineteenth century, a charismatic romantic who, with a cigarette always in his mouth, apparently captivated his audiences. His memorable fluttering Recuerdos de la Alhambra, inspired by a visit to the Alhambra Palace in Granada, is justly famous (it is played superbly here), but his highly regarded 16 Preludios, delectable tiny miniatures, have comparable charm and individuality. No. 9 here surprisingly draws on Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, while the Serenata, Capricho árabe, is more exotic and the Alborada (Capricho) is also highly individual.The mazurkas, engaging dance pieces, a pavane, a gavotte, waltzes and polkas, are mostly named to catch the personality of their dedicatees. Isabel draws on two themes from Johann Strauss’s Kiss Waltz.
The Swedish guitarist Mats Bergström is a superb artist, playing with much feeling and with infinitely subtle shading of dynamic, while his Estudio brillante brings a closing burst of virtuosity. This may be comparatively lightweight music, but it gives enormous pleasure. The recording is quite perfect, made within an ideal ambience, and this is one of the two finest guitar recitals in the catalogue (the other is Julian Bream’s electrifying collection of the music of Albéniz and Granados).
(i–ii) Cello Concerto in A; Violin Concertos: (ii–iii) in D min., D.45; (iv; ii) in E min., D.56; in G, D.82; (iv–v) Violin Sonatas (for violin & continuo): in A; in G min.; in F, Op. 1/1, 10 & 12; in C, Op. 2/6; in G min. (Devil’s Trill)
Warner Apex 2564 61693-2 (2). (i) Zannerini; (ii) Sol. Ven., Scimone; (iii) Toso; (iv) Amoyal; (v) Farina, Moses
Here is a collection to make the listener understand why Tartini was so admired in his day. Spanning both halves of the eighteenth century as he did, he possesses the lyrical purity of Corelli and Vivaldi with a forward-looking sensibility that is highly expressive. Indeed, his invention is almost romantic at times and there are moments of vision which leave no doubt that he is underrated. The orchestral playing is committed, and the fresh, warm, analogue recording from the 1970s is pleasingly transferred. Tartini’s Sonatas take their virtuosity for granted; even the Devil’s Trill does not flaunt its bravura until the finale with its extended trills – considered impossibly difficult in his day. These works call for playing of the greatest technical finesse and musicianship. Pierre Amoyal plays them superbly; he makes no attempt to adapt his style to period-instrument practice. Instead his performances have a sweetness of tone and expressive eloquence to commend them and, though he is forwardly placed, the (unimportant) harpsichord continuo just comes through to give support. The violin is beautifully recorded. A most desirable pair of CDs.
Violin Concertos, Op. 1/1, 4–5 & 12; in C
Hyp. CDH 55334. Wallfisch, Raglan Bar. Players, Kraemer
Tartini’s Op. 1 was published in Amsterdam in 1728, but only included Nos. 1, 4 and 5 of the present set. No matter what their provenance, they are all most engaging works in three movements, although the first includes an additional and modestly paced Fugue à la brève. The performances here are splendid. Elizabeth Wallfisch may be playing a period instrument, but her timbre is smooth and polished, with no edginess, and the Adagio or Cantabile slow movements could not be sweeter. She is splendidly athletic in allegros, as are her alert accompanying group and they are very well balanced in the recording.
(Unaccompanied) Violin Sonatas: in A min., B:a3; in G min. (Sonata de Diavolo), B:g5; L’arte del arco, B:f11: 14 Variations on the Gavotte from Corelli’s Op. 5/10; Pastorale for violin in scordatura, B:a16
HM HMU 907213. Manze
Andrew Manze plays those genuinely fiendish trills in the finale of the Devil’s Trill Sonata quite hair-raisingly. Manze calls the opening Largo an ‘infernal siciliana’ (yet presents it with great poise and refined espressivo), and the central movement (hardly less remarkable) becomes a ‘demonic moto perpetuo’. Yet Corelli’s gavotte is played with engaging delicacy, the bravura left for the variations. The A minor Sonata also includes a set of variations, which again offers an amazing range of musical and technical opportunities, as does the colourful hurdy-gurdy finale of the Pastorale which ends so hauntingly. Manze’s playing is totally compelling and confirms that the music is ‘complete’ without a continuo. The recording is very real and immediate.
(i) The Protecting Veil; (ii–iii) The Last Sleep of the Virgin; (iv–v) Angels; Annunciation; The Lament of the Mother of God; (iv; vi) Hymns of Paradise; God is with us; (iii–iv; vi) Thunder entered her
EMI 2-CD 2 37691-2. (i) Isserlis, LSO, Rozhdestvensky; (ii) Chilingirian Qt; (iii) Simcock (handbells); (iv) Winchester Cathedral Ch., Hill; (v) Kingelborg; (vi) Kendall
This EMI Double joins Steven Isserlis’s outstanding account of The Protecting Veil to a choral collection. David Hill conducts the Winchester Cathedral Choir with David Dunnett at the organ, all very atmospherically recorded. Though some of the longer and more meditative pieces rather outstay their welcome, each one presents a sharply definitive vision, culminating in a magnificent Christmas proclamation, ‘God is with us.’ ‘Quiet and intensely fragile’ is Tavener’s guide to performances of the bonus item here, The Last Sleep of the Virgin.
Ex Maria Virgine (A Christmas Sequence for Choir & Organ)
Naxos 8.572168. Clare College, Cambridge, Ch., Timothy Brown; McVinnie or Jacobs (organ)
This makes an ideal CD for those collectors who are unfamiliar with Tavener’s music, for it covers the full range of his diverse choral writing, and indeed his imaginative organ effects. The title work, Ex Maria Virgine, was dedicated to Prince Charles and Camilla on their marriage. It has ten sections, displaying much choral variety, throbbing to ‘Nowell! Out of your sleep’, producing a chorale lullaby for ‘Sweet was the song’, vigorously extolling the ‘King of the Angels’ in Ave Rex Angelorum, then ‘Ding-donging merrily on high’, before gently ‘Rocking’ Mary’s babe to sleep. Unto us is born a son is both peaceful and fiercely triumphant, while Verbum caro plangently rises to a glorious close. The other motets here picture the Nativity, move radiantly through O Thou Gentle Light, closing with a portrayal of the Angels, set among delicate organ filigree. Throughout, the singing of Clare College Choir under Timothy Brown rises richly (and falls meditatively) for every occasion, and the two organists, James McVinnie and Simon Thomas Jacobs, make the very most of their many opportunities. Much of this music shows the composer at his most inspired, and the recording, produced by John Rutter in Norwich Cathedral, is outstandingly fine.
Requiem; Eternal Memory; Mahãshakti
EMI 50999-2 35134-2. Palmer, Knight, Thomas, Kennedy, RLPO & Ch, Petrenko
John Tavener’s second setting of the Requiem, commissioned to celebrate Liverpool as the European City of Culture in 2008, is the more moving when the composer had been told he was under sentence of death through persistent ill-health. He explains his theme, quoting the idea, ‘Our glory lies where we cease to exist,’ thinking to write about the after-life. The result is a characteristic example of Tavener’s ‘spiritual minimalism’, with evocative choruses and repeated mantras for the soprano in ostinato above the choir. Various movements echo those in the traditional Requiem, the Kyrie following the opening-movement Primordial White Light and Kali’s Dance which is the equivalent to the traditional Dies irae in its bite. The closing movement, Ananda, rounds the work off in a moving crescendo of choral sound, finally fading to nothing.
Mahãshakti is for solo violin, tam-tam and strings and is also highly evocative in its celebration of celestial feminine energy; and Eternal Memory is a deep meditation on the memory of death, including a brisk passage for solo strings. Excellent sound, though the chorus could be a little closer. Performances otherwise are first rate from soloists, chorus and orchestra under the inspired direction of Vasily Petrenko.
Missa Corona spinea. Motets: Gaude plurium; In pace
Hyp. Helios CDH 55051. The Sixteen, Christophers
The Sixteen, using professional singers (and secure female trebles), are magnificent and they sing gloriously throughout. Taverner’s inspiration is consistent and his flowing melismas are radiantly realized, with fine support from the lower voices; indeed, the balance and blend are nigh on perfect. The two motets are no less beautifully sung, and the recording, made in St Jude’s Church, Hampstead, is outstanding both in clarity and in its perfectly judged ambience. A superb disc and an astonishing bargain.
Mass: The Western Wynde; Alleluia, Veni, electa mea; O splendor gloria; Te Deum
Hyp. Helios CDH 55056. The Sixteen, Christophers
Western Wynde Mass is beautifully sung and recorded by Harry Christophers’ Sixteen in what must be regarded as an ideally paced and proportioned performance. But what makes this inexpensive Helios reissue doubly attractive is the collection of other works included. O splendor gloria carries the exulted mood inherent in its title (referring to Christ and the Trinity) and the Alleluia is equally jubilant. Most remarkable and individual of all is the masterly five-part Te Deum, a profoundly poignant setting, harmonically and polyphonically, even richer than the Mass, and using those momentary shafts of dissonance that can make music of this period sound so forward-looking. The recording is superb and this CD is obviously the place to start for those wanting to explore this excellent Helios series.
(i) Andante cantabile; (i–ii) Violin Concerto. Symphonies: (i) 4; (iii) 5
DG DVD 073 4511. (i) NYPO; (ii) Belkin; (iii) Boston SO; Bernstein
This superb collection not only shows Bernstein at his most inspired, communicating his own great pleasure in the music, but also his ability to implant his own charismatic personality on any orchestra. Here there is virtually no difference between the electrifying results in Boston and New York. For instance, although the interpretations of the two symphonies are different, the Fourth relatively straightforward, the Fifth with Bernstein responding literally to Tchaikovky’s marking, ‘con alcuna licenza’, the rich sweep of string-tone is common to each venue, but especially so in the Boston Fifth, where the second subject of the first movement and the glorious climax of the Andante cantabile are both almost overwhelming. Each work, too, has an electrifying coda, the kind that sends the audience and orchestra home thrilled and satisfied in equal measure, feeling again what wonderful symphonies these are, even if Tchaikovsky himself had nagging doubts about the uninhibited splendour of the closing peroration of the Fifth. Koussevitzky in Boston had felt his mission with Tchaikovsky was ‘to open the gate of heaven and let the people experience ecstasy’, and Bernstein followed his mentor’s ‘theme song’.
Capriccio italien, Op. 45; 1812 Overture, Op. 49; Fate, Op. 77; Festival Overture on the Danish National Anthem, Op. 15; Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32; Hamlet, Op. 67a; Manfred Symphony, Op. 58; Marche slave, Op. 31; Overture in F; Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture); The Tempest, Op. 18; The Voyevoda, Op. 78
DG Trio 477 053-2 (3). Russian Nat. O, Pletnev
Pletnev has a quite special feeling for Tchaikovsky’s music, gauging its highly charged emotional content and dramatic flair to perfection, and never losing sight of the disciplined mind which oversaw the musical design. There is no shortage of great performances of Romeo and Juliet and Francesca da Rimini, and Pletnev’s account with his Russian National Orchestra certainly ranks among them. But the special value of this set is that it offers rarities like The Voyevoda and the F major Overture in performances which are unlikely to be bettered for a very long time. When it first appeared, we placed his Manfred among the finest in the catalogue, and that judgement still holds. An essential purchase, particularly at so competitive a price.
Capriccio italien, Op. 45
RCA (ADD) 09026 63302-2. RCA Victor SO, Kondrashin – KABALEVSKY: The Comedians: Suite. KHACHATURIAN: Masquerade Suite. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Capriccio espagnol
Kondrashin’s 1958 recording of Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio italien has never been surpassed. The arresting opening still surprises by its impact, the brass fanfares – first trumpets, then horns, then full tutti – sonically riveting. The music is alive in every bar and a model of careful preparation, with the composer’s dynamic markings meticulously terraced. Kondrashin’s pacing throughout is absolutely right and the closing section is highly exhilarating. This is a stereo demonstration disc if ever there was one. And the couplings are pretty good too.
(i) Piano Concertos 1 in B flat min., Op. 23; 2 in G, Op. 44 (with two additional recordings of Andante; ed. Siloti & ed. Hough); 3 in E flat, Op. 75; Concert Fantasia in G, Op. 56. (Piano solo) None but the lonely heart, Op. 6/6; Solitude, Op. 73/6
Hyp. CDA 67711/2. Hough; (i) Minnesota O, Vänskä
This set is undoubtedly a key Tchaikovsky issue, and it includes one of the finest, most imaginative accounts of the great B flat minor Concerto ever put on record. Stephen Hough is not only a commanding soloist, playing with a sensitive balance of virtuosity and lyrical warmth, but time and again both he and the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä bring out magical detail in Tchaikovsky’s score which reveals the work as far more than a barnstorming popular warhorse. After an arresting opening from the horns, the main theme of the Allegro con spirito is played with unexpectedly rhythmic subtlety and lift, while the delicacy of the touching string pianissimos in the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ allusion in the second subject of the first movement is matched by Hough’s searching originality in the long cadenza, which is made an integral part of the recapitulation. The Andantino semplice is exquisitely delicate and then scintillating, with delectable bravura, and the closing climax of the brilliant finale carries all before it. The piano dominates the proceedings and the only minor criticism here lies in the balance of the strings, which might have been placed more forwardly, but their playing does not lack lyrical intensity.
The performers also relish the original structure of the Concert Fantasia, opening with its colourful Russian dance and with a large-scale cadenza taking the place of the development, giving an opportunity for considerable bravura from the soloist, which Stephen Hough tackles with much élan. Tchaikovsky holds back his main lyrical theme for the second movement, Contrastes, which is played very tenderly, and then an abundance of virtuosity from all concerned returns to finish the piece off spectacularly. This work was justly popular in the composer’s lifetime. Perhaps this recording will encourage its return to the repertoire.
The Second Concerto has seldom been successful, either on record or in the concert hall. In the best-known, early, mono recording on DG, by Cherkassky, the first movement was taken at a phlegmatic four-in-a-bar tempo and the result was leaden. Vänskä does not make this mistake and presents the music with thrilling vitality and flair, with the secondary theme providing sensitive contrast. The slow movement has a truly memorable main theme, which Hough phrases beautifully, and then the scoring turns into chamber music with the piano joined by solo violin and cello.
At early performances the work was ‘edited’ by Siloti, who cut the Andante by over six minutes in all. Here we have what Tchaikovsky wrote originally: the complete movement with its variations on the main theme plays for nearly 14 minutes, and not a minute too long in such a sensitive performance. The finale, with its catchy rondo theme, then explodes into sparkling exuberance, to close the performance with rumbustious vitality.
The single-movement Third Concerto began life as a symphony but, with only the first movement completed, Tchaikovsky resourcefully then turned it into a concerto, using three themes, including a catchy toccata-like dance motif and a calmer lyrical tune, plus a long cadenza. There is plenty of bravura writing for the pianist, and the work undoubtedly has its moments when as well played as it is here; but, although undoubtedly enjoyable, it is overall less successful than the Concert Fantasia. As a bonus Stephen Hough has arranged two of Tchaikovsky’s songs, each full of characteristic Russian melancholy, to make a pair of appealing encores.
(i) Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35; Sérénade mélancolique; Valse-Scherzo; (ii) Souvenir d’un lieu cher
Pentatone SACD PTC 5186 095. Fischer; (i) Russian Nat. O, Kreizberg; (ii) Kreizberg (piano)
There are almost countless recordings of this lovely concerto and one could recommend many of them: Repin, Vengerov, Chung, Bell, Milstein and, of course, Heifetz. But we have chosen Julia Fischer as she offers the ideal coupling of the Sérénade mélancolique, Valse-Scherzo and the Souvenir d’un lieu cher, for this includes the ‘Méditation’, the composer’s first idea of a slow movement for the concerto, later replaced by the Canzonetta. It comes here with the original piano accompaniment, played by the conductor. Moreover Fischer is characterful in every phrase she plays, with sparkle and a sense of fantasy in virtuoso passages and with an inner intensity when playing the intimate lyrical sections. She is greatly helped by the conducting of Yakov Kreizberg with the Russian National Orchestra which is both taut and sympathetic, with an ideal balance for the soloist, allowing the widest range of dynamic, and the SACD sound is impressively spacious and realistic.
(i) 1812 Overture. Capriccio italien
Decca (ADD) 475 8508. (i) Bronze French cannon, bells of Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Carillon, Riverside Church, New York City; Minneapolis SO, Dorati (with separate descriptive commentary by Deems Taylor) – BEETHOVEN: Wellington’s Victory
Just as in our listing of this famous Mercury record (now on Decca’s ‘Originals’) we have placed 1812 first, so in the credits the cannon and the glorious sounds of the Laura Spelman Carillon take precedence, for in the riveting climax of Tchaikovsky’s most famous work the effects completely upstage the orchestra. On this remastered CD the balance is managed spectacularly, with the ‘shots’ perfectly timed, while the Minneapolis orchestra are clearly enjoying themselves, both in 1812 and in the brilliant account of Capriccio italien. Deems Taylor provides an avuncular commentary on the technical background to the original recording.
Hamlet (Fantasy Overture), Op. 67a; Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture); The Tempest (Symphonic Fantasy)
DG 477 9355. Simón Bolívar SO of Venezuela, Dudamel
The Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela is founded on the government’s decision to provide classical music at the centre of the syllabus of every school in the country. Each has its own orchestra and the very best players have a chance to compete to play with the country’s central orchestra as recorded here. Thus an almost unbelievably high standard of musical and technical excellence has been achieved, mainly through the direction of its young maestro, Gustavo Dudamel. This is their astonishing recording début, one of the finest Tchaikovsky discs in the catalogue.
Dudamel really understands the composer, and especially the structure of his works, the control of their melodic lines, their flexibility and the way each section relates to what follows. Moreover, he conducts with complete spontaneity and encourages his young players to revel in the music’s passion, which they do grippingly. Hamlet, darkly atmospheric from the very opening, is played with resonant dramatic power and feeling, superseding Stokowski’s famous Everest recording in every respect. Romeo and Juliet is treated like a symphonic poem, beginning and ending poignantly with Friar Laurence’s music and flaring into the spectacular fight sequences between the two opposing families. The introduction of the great love theme is perfectly timed, and when it reaches its climax the strings play as if their very lives depended on it. The coda creates a true sense of despair and the closing crashing chords are perfectly managed.
The performance of The Tempest, an early work (1873), hitherto underestimated and neglected, springs to life with the beautifully played opening horn theme picturing the magic island, followed by a very Russian main theme, soon expanded by the brass. But the work’s atmosphere is hauntingly captured, with Caliban and Ariel making striking appearances and the lovers’ music infinitely touching and tender. Again, the passion of the playing sweeps the music along thrillingly to make a great climax, but the piece ends gently and nostalgically (introducing the horn theme), as it began. The recording is splendidly colourful and full-blooded and this memorable triptych represents one of the finest Tchaikovsky issues for many years.
Manfred Symphony; The Voyevoda (symphonic poem)
Naxos 8.570568. RLPO, Petrenko
We first heard Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony in the 1950s, conducted by Kletzki, live in Preston, Lancashire. But he offered only the first movement and the work (written in 1885, between the 4th and 5th Symphonies) has continued to remain something of a Cinderella in the concert hall. However, it has received several fine recordings, including those by Jansons, Ashkenazy and Pletnev, and even one by Toscanini, though severely truncated. Now comes a clear first choice from Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic which has received the finest recording of all, and which we have come increasingly to admire since it appeared in 2009. Throughout, Petrenko creates electrifying tension and achieves striking refinement of detail, while the orchestra clearly responds to his inspirational, flexibly romantic, and very Russian style.
The opening movement has great character, with the Manfred theme powerfully characterized. The first appearance of Astarte, Manfred’s beloved, brings ravishingly delicate string-playing, and the coda where the horns are instructed by Tchaikovsky to (lift up their instruments and) play pavillons en l’air is thrilling. But it is in the central movements that the performance rises to the greatest lyrical heights. The spray of the Waterfall Scherzo glitters iridescently and the lovely melting string melody representing the Alpine Fairy has never sounded more luscious. Similarly, the pastoral Andante, which can produce longueurs, flows with tenderness and warmth combined, Tchaikovsky’s melodic inspiration never flagging. The spectacular finale (with its rivetingly powerful organ entry) pictures the subterranean hall of Arimanes in the form of a globe of fire surrounded by spirits, with Nemesis and the Destinies. For the summoning of the spirit of Astarte, who announces Manfred’s coming death, Petrenko creates a moving rallentando as Manfred’s soul (in Byron’s poem) ‘hath ta’en its earthless flight; / Whither? I dread to think – but he is gone’.
The Voyevoda, written in 1891, is a much less successful work. Tchaikovsky himself destroyed the score after its first performance, but it was later reconstructed from the orchestral parts. It tells of a provincial governor who surprises his wife in flagrante delicto with her lover and instructs his servant to shoot her. In error the servant shoots his master instead, bringing a sudden end to the music. The work has characteristic moments and, though no masterpiece, when played as convincingly as it is here makes a fascinating bonus for the outstanding performance of Manfred.
The Nutcracker (ballet: complete)
EMI 6 31621-2 (2). BPO, Rattle
The Nutcracker (ballet: complete); Suites 3 in G; 4 in G (Mozartiana)
Australian Decca Eloquence 480 0557 (2). SRO, Ansermet
Ansermet’s 1958 Nutcracker is simply one of the best performances of this score committed to disc. This was undoubtedly one of the finest things Ansermet did in the early days of stereo, and the Decca recording still sounds remarkably rich and vivid, with a freshness and sparkle to match the composer’s approach. Ansermet’s feeling for orchestral colour and detail tells throughout, and the short dances of Act II have much piquancy of characterization. Indeed, the whole performance feels as magical as the story itself, and all admirers of this score (one of the composer’s finest) should acquire this release. The two very appealing Suites which fill up the second disc are not quite in this league of performance but they are affectionately played and enjoyable, if not ideally polished. Tchaikovsky wrote Mozartiana to bring ‘little-known Mozart pieces’ before the public. They are much better known now; if Tchaikovsky’s orchestration is a little anachronistic, it has a certain charm. The Third Suite has a warmly moulded Tchaikovskian Elégie as its slow movement and includes a superb set of variations as its finale, one of the composer’s least-known masterpieces, characteristically inventive. There is rich use of orchestral colour throughout, and a superb polacca for its finale, introducted with characteristic Tchaikovskian sleight-of-hand.
In terms of finesse and sheer beauty of texture the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra is in a different league from the Suisse Romande group. Rattle’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s wonderful score is fully worthy of it, in its detail, atmosphere and vividness, with some wonderful solo contributions from the BPO woodwind, and with the strings luscious in the Waltz of the Flowers. The EMI recording is excellent too, but there is an extra magic in Ansermet’s performance, and the Decca sound was ahead of its time, and fully worthy of it. Moreover, the Decca set costs very much less and has highly attractive couplings. We have enjoyed it greatly since it first appeared and continue to do so.
The Nutcracker; Sleeping Beauty; Swan Lake (ballets: complete)
Decca (ADD) 460 411-2 (6). Nat. PO, Bonynge
Tchaikovsky’s three great ballets are undisputed masterpieces of the genre – the only question for debate is, which of the three is the greatest. The answer, one is tempted to say, is whichever one is listening to at the time, for each is imbued with more inspiration and magic than most composers achieve in a lifetime. Richard Bonynge conducted all three in the 1970s and they remain firm recommendations, especially as they are now all available in an attractive bargain box set. In The Nutcracker, Bonynge’s approach is highly sympathetic and he secures brilliant playing from the National Philharmonic. Though it might be said that the opening is a little literal and lacking in a bit of atmosphere, from the Transformation Scene onwards the playing catches fire, and the latter part of the ballet finds the conductor on top form, with all the Characteristic Dances performed with style and brilliance. Swan Lake receives a strong and vigorous performance with the forward impulse of the music-making immediately striking. Decca have matched the interpretation with a somewhat dry acoustic, producing a leonine string-tone, though the remastering has increased the feeling of sumptuousness. The brightly lit sound-picture provides robust detail in place of glamour, but that goes with Bonynge’s theatrical interpretation. The brass sounds are open and vibrant, and the ‘fairy castle’ fanfares have here more of the atmosphere of a medieval tournament. There is a consistent freshness in this performance and many of the spectacular moments are thrilling. Again, in The Sleeping Beauty one is struck by Bonynge’s rhythmical pointing, which is always characterful. If the upper strings still lack sumptuousness, the overall sound is excellent by any standards. Bonynge is especially good at the close of Act II when, after the magical Panorama, the Princess is awakened. There is a frisson of tension here and the atmosphere is most evocative. As at the end of Swan Lake, the finale of Sleeping Beauty and the ‘Apothéose’ are almost overwhelming in impact.
Orchestral Suite 3 in G, Op. 55
Pentatone SACD PTC 5186 061. Russian Nat. O, Jurowski – STRAVINSKY: Le Baiser de la fée
Tchaikovsky’s Third Orchestral Suite is the most inspired of the four, and Vladimir Jurowski brings out the surging lyricism of all four movements. So the touching Elégie is warmly moulded, with phrasing that seems totally idiomatic. The rhythmic lightness of the second movement’s Waltz leads into a dazzling account of the third-movement Scherzo, taken at a genuine presto, yet with no feeling of breathlessness. But the work’s climax is the closing set of variations on a particularly attractive theme. When Tchaikovsky was in England to receive his honorary degree at Cambridge University (where he met and befriended Grieg) his skill with variations was singled out among his many talents. The attractive breadth of structural, yet derived, ideas, and the felicitous changes of orchestral colour show him at his most inspired, leading to a thrilling build-up to the polacca climax at the conclusion. Exceptionally vivid sound, recorded by Pentatone’s Dutch engineers in Moscow, spectacular in surround sound.
Swan Lake (highlights)
Australian Decca Eloquence (ADD) 442 9032. Concg. O, Fistoulari
This is a key recording, much admired in the early stereo era. Fistoulari was a great conductor of ballet music, and we have long admired this 1960 collection of highlights from Swan Lake which at the time of its first issue was revelatory. It is a real collector’s item and this is its CD début. It is essentially a relaxed reading, but the Concertgebouw Orchestra plays superbly and there is a wonderful sense of the theatre, combined with spontaneous music-making. For its date the recording is outstanding, too. At a little over 46 minutes’ playing time, this is very much a case of quality over quantity.
Symphonies 1–6; Capriccio italien; Manfred Symphony
Chan. 10392 (6). Oslo PO, Jansons
Jansons’s Tchaikovsky series, which includes Manfred, is self-recommending. The full romantic power of the music is consistently conveyed and, above all, the music-making is urgently spontaneous throughout, with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra always committed and fresh, helped by the richly atmospheric sound. If you want all six symphonies, this is a supreme bargain. Of course the complete Karajan set, made in the 1970s, displays the same superlative qualities we expect from this combination and is hardly less illuminating (DG 429 679-2). But Karajan does not include Manfred and the Jansons set is not displaced.
Symphonies 4–6 (DVD version)
DG Unitel DVD 073 4384. BPO, Karajan
Symphonies 4–5 (DVD version)
Sony DVD 888579849. VPO, Karajan
The Fourth and Fifth were recorded by Sony in 1984 at the Grossesaal of the Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic at a time when Karajan’s relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic was under some strain. The Fourth is one of the most commanding and compelling accounts of this great work we have heard, and one’s attention is riveted throughout. Karajan’s famous 1950s account of the Fourth with the Philharmonia Orchestra bore witness to his special relationship with this music, and this makes an equally strong impression. Excellent video presentation enhances its impact.
The alternative performances on DG were made in 1973 and show this extraordinary partnership at their most characteristic. None of Karajan’s Tchaikovsky performances was routine; and these recordings, made at the Philharmonie, have exemplary power and feeling. The Sony versions have marginally more focused camerawork, but these earlier versions, which Karajan himself oversaw in production, are hardly less satisfying.
Symphonies (i) 4; (ii) 5; (iii) 6 (Pathétique) (CD versions); (i) Serenade for Strings (Waltz and Finale only)
Andromeda ANDRCD 9107 (2). (i) VPO; (ii) O Sinfonica di Torino della RAI; (iii) BPO; all cond. Furtwängler
The recordings made between 1950 and 1952, this fascinating historic Furtwängler box is a curiosity well worth investigating. The Sackville-West/Desmond Shawe-Taylor Record Guide thought that in No. 4 Furtwängler’s conducting ‘lacks the fire he once brought to Tchaikovsky’s symphonies’, although they thought the strings ‘remarkably fine’. Certainly we find the climax of the first movement very impressive, although the finale, brilliantly played, lacks the last degree of free-flowing adrenalin.
The Fifth, however (deriving from acetates), is fully acceptable, with a superbly passionate slow movement. It was recorded live in Turin in 1951 and the inexperienced Italian audience provide unwanted clapping in the brief silence before the work’s final peroration. (This reminds us of a true story related in Sir Henry Wood’s autobiography, when at a Prom performance, at that same moment in the last movement he heard two ladies in the front row share the comment ‘We always fry ours in dripping’!)
The Berlin Philharmonic are on top form in the Pathétique (of which Furtwängler was a master) and this is comparable with his 1938 performance included in the conductor’s 21-disc EMI anthology (see above), although the present recording does not quite match the earlier one.
The excerpts from the String Serenade used to be available on a single HMV 78 disc, once treasured by I.M., and here, as in the other works, the transfers are generally well managed, although the violin timbre is inclined to be shrill. But for the conductor’s admirers this will be an indispensable set.
Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 33
DG (ADD) 447 413-2. Rostropovich, BPO, Karajan – DVOÁK: Cello Concerto
Rostropovich uses the published score rather than the original version which more accurately reflects the composer’s intentions. But this account, with Karajan’s glowing support, is so superbly structured in its control of emotional light and shade that one is readily convinced that this is the work Tchaikovsky conceived. The recording (made in the Jesus-Christus Kirche) is beautifully balanced and is surely one of the most perfect examples of DG’s analogue techniques.
Eugene Onegin (complete)
Decca (ADD) 417 413-2 (2). Kubiak, Weikl, Burrows, Reynolds, Ghiaurov, Hamari, Sénéchal, Alldis Ch., ROHCG O, Solti
Solti, characteristically crisp in attack, has plainly warmed to the score of Tchaikovsky’s colourful opera, allowing his singers free rein in rallentando and rubato to a degree one may not expect of him. The Tatiana of Teresa Kubiak is most moving – rather mature sounding for the ingénue of Act I, but with her golden, vibrant voice rising most impressively to the final confrontation of Act III. The Onegin of Bernd Weikl may have too little variety of tone, but again this is firm singing that yet has authentic Slavonic tinges. The rest of the cast is excellent, with Stuart Burrows as Lensky giving one of his finest performances on record. Here, for the first time, the full range of expression in this most atmospheric of operas is superbly caught, with the Decca CDs vividly capturing every subtlety, including the off-stage effects. For those wishing to see this opera on DVD, there is Graham Vick’s much-acclaimed Glyndebourne production from 1994. Not only is the production convincing, but the cast is too. However, it is Elena Prokina’s magnificent portrayal of Tatiana that is the crowning glory of this release. The video direction is admirably discreet, with no intrusive camerawork and with the eye being directed where one feels it ought to be (Warner DVD 0630 14014-2).
Iolanta (complete, CD version)
Melodiya MEL CD 10 01697 (2). Sorokina, Atlantov, Nesterenko, Mazurok, Bolshoi Theatre Ch. & SO, Ermler
About two years before this book went to print we had the good fortune to see a first-rate production of this opera at the London Guildhall School of Music and discovered that it is a small-scale masterpiece. It tells of Iolanta, daughter of King René, who is blind from birth but who, by her father’s orders, lives in ignorance of her affliction. Her doctor says a cure is possible, but only if she is told of her blindness and is eager to be cured. But the King refuses to take this course. Two knights arrive at the palace, Robert and Vaudémont. Robert was betrothed to Iolanta during his childhood, but he has not seen her and does not know that she is blind. In any case he wants to marry the Countess of Lotharingia. Because of some confusion over a red-and-white rose, Vaudémont then discovers Iolanta’s secret and, deeply touched, professes his love for her. The king is furious at his discovery, but the path is set for Iolanta, with the help of the doctor, and through her own determination to regain her sight, to join her new lover and husband. All ends happily.
Tchaikovsky was captivated by the story; his brother, Modest, wrote the libretto and the opera was first performed in 1892. Tchaikovsky’s music is delightful, full of melody and even with a reminder of Tatiana in the early music for the heroine. The performance here is understandably very Russian, with Tamara Sorokina a characterful Iolanta, if somewhat shrill in her upper range. However, Vladimir Atlantov is a strong, passionate Vaudémont with a fine tenor voice, and Evgeny Nesterenko a commanding King René. The choral and orchestral support under Mark Ermler is excellent, and the opera’s closing scene, when Iolanta first sees light, is truly memorable, for Tchaikovsky, as always, identified with his heroine’s plight. The 1976 recording is faithful and this is a delightful surprise that will give much pleasure. It is well worth seeking out as a Russian import. The set is attractively packaged, although, alas, without a translation.
Queen of Spades (Pique Dame) (complete, DVD version)
Decca DVD 070 434-9. Grigorian, Gulegina, Leiferkus, Gergalov, Filatova, Borodina, Kirov Op. Ch. & O, Gergiev (Producer: Yuri Temirkanov; V/D: Brian Large)
Pushkin’s dark story of a gambler’s growing obsession with discovering the secret that will bring him riches is taut and concentrated. It unfolds with gripping psychological intensity, all the more powerful for its understatement, Though Modest Tchaikovsky’s libretto differs in many respects from Pushkin’s story.
Dating from 1992, the Philips DVD, with the conductor Valery Gergiev looking very young, is a live recording of the Kirov Company’s grandly traditional production. It is handsome to look at and is very well staged. Yuri Temirkanov (Gergiev’s predecessor at the Kirov) produces and does not lose sight of the Rococo component in this wonderful opera. Yet it is a straightforward and clean-cut presentation, deftly using massive choruses to match the opulent costumes and scenery, and nearly all the cast is first rate. The cast differs slightly from the CD performance, though that too is thoroughly recommendable (Ph. 438 141-2 (3)).
Concertos: for 2 Corni da caccia in F, TWV 52:F3; for Violin & 3 Corni di caccia in D, TWV 54:D2. Overtures: for 2 Corni di caccia in D, TWV 55:D17; for 2 Corni di caccia & 2 Oboes in F, TWV 55:F3
MDG 605 1045-2. Deutsch Natural Horn Soloists, New Düsseldorf Hofmusik
The Deutsch Natural Horn Soloists are a superb group. They play here expertly, using hand horns without valves and demonstrating the most thrilling bravura, whether in partnership with oboes, where the interplay of the Réjouissance in the F major Overture (or Suite) is a real hit number, or in the Concerto in F, which reminds one a little of Handel’s Water Music. In the Concerto scored for three horns, the solo violin in the Grave slow movement gives expressive contrast before sharing the exuberant finale. With excellent recording, this is outstanding in every way, but not to be played all in one go!
Concertos, Overtures: (i) 5 Concertos for 2 Flutes, with Lute, Bassoon & Strings (Cap. 10 284); (ii) Chamber Concerto for Alto Recorder in G min., TWV 43:G3; (iii) Double Concerto in E min. for Recorder & Flute; (iv) Concerto for 3 Trumpets & 2 Oboes in D; (ii) Sonata in A for Recorder, 2 Scordato Violins & Continuo, TWV 43:A7; (v) Tafelmusik II: Trio in E min. for Recorder, Oboe & Continuo (Cap. 49 431); (vi) Overtures (Suites): in C, TWV 55:C3 (Hamburg Ebb and Flow) & C6; Overture in E min., TWV 55:C5 (Cap. 10 625); Overtures: in D (connected with a Tragicomical Suite); in F (Alster Echo), TWV 55:F11; in D, TWV 55:D15 (Cap. 49 428); (vii) Overtures (Suites): in D, TWV D18; TWV 55:D6 & D7; in F (Cap. 49 429)
Cap. 49 426 (5). (i) Dresden Bar. Soloists, Haupt; (ii) Huntgeburth, Berlin Bar. Company; (iii) Höller, Hünteler, Capella Colonsiensis, G. Fischer; (iv) Friedrich & soloists, Budapest Strings; (v) Passin, Gütz, Leipzig Bach Coll.; (vi) Capella Colonsiensis, Linde; (vii) Deutsch Bach Soloists, Winschermann
If you want a representative collection of Telemann at his best, this Capriccio box (with the five CDs in a slip case) is hard to better. The Concertos for a pair of flutes are continually inventive, and the two compilations of miscellaneous concertos and chamber music offer plenty of variety, not only in the music but also in the performances, although all are authentic in the best possible way. The Suites (Overtures) are all among the composer’s best, including the two most famous, both pictorial or progammatic, the Alster Echo and the Hamburg Water Music. The performances and recordings are excellent, as is the documentation. As far as we know, the discs are not currently available separately.
Flute Concertos in D, TWV:51:D2; in G, TWV:51:G2; Concerto for 2 Flutes, Violone in A min., TWV:53:a; Concerto for Flute, Oboe d’amore & Viola d’amore in E, TWV:53:E; Tafelmusik: Concerto for Flute & Violin in A, TWV:53:A2
EMI 5 03435-2. Pahud, Berlin Bar. Soloists, Kussmaul
An enchanting disc. Everything Emmanuel Pahud plays seems to turn to gold, and he has admirable support from his solo colleagues (including Albrecht Meyer (oboe d’amore) and Wolfram Christ (viola d’amore)). Throughout allegros are wonderfully nimble and light-hearted. The Berlin Baroque Soloists, directed by Rainer Kussmaul, accompany with wonderful finesse and warmth, and the recording is in the demonstration bracket.
Alster (Overture) Suite; La Bouffonne Suite; Triple Horn Concerto in D; Grillen-Symphonie
Chan. 0547. Coll. Mus. 90, Standage
The Triple Horn Concerto opens the programme with the hand-horns rasping boisterously. Then comes La Bouffonne Suite, with its elegant Loure and the extremely fetching Rigaudon, while the work ends with a touchingly delicate Pastourelle, beautifully played here. The Grillen-Symphonie (‘cricket symphony’) brings a piquant dialogue between upper wind and double-basses in the first movement, while the second has unexpected accents and lives up to its name Tändelnd (‘flirtatious’). The horns (four of them) re-enter ambitiously at the colourful Overture of the Alster Suite, add to the fun in the Echo movement and help to simulate the Hamburg glockenspiel that follows. The entry of the Alster Shepherds brings a piquant drone effect, but best of all is the wailing Concerto of Frogs and Crows, with drooping bleats from the oboe and then the principal horn. Standage and his group make the very most of Telemann’s remarkable orchestral palette and play with great vitality as well as finesse.
(i) Viola Concerto in G; (ii) Suite in A min. for Recorder & Strings; Tafelmusik, Part 2: (iii) Triple Violin Concerto in F; Part 3: (iv) Double Horn Concerto in E flat
Naxos 8.550156. (i) Kyselak; (ii) Stivín; (iii) Hoelblingova, Hoelbling, Jablokov; (iv) Z. & B. Tylšar; Capella Istropolitana, Edlinger
It is difficult to conceive of a better Telemann programme for anyone encountering this versatile composer for the first time and coming fresh to this repertoire, having bought the inexpensive Naxos CD on impulse. Ladislav Kyselak is a fine violist and is thoroughly at home in Telemann’s splendid four-movement Concerto; Ji i Stivín is an equally personable recorder soloist in the masterly Suite in A minor; his decoration is a special joy. The Triple Violin Concerto with its memorable Vivace finale and the Double Horn Concerto also show the finesse which these musicians readily display. Richard Edlinger provides polished and alert accompaniments throughout. The digital sound is first class.
Tafelmusik (Productions 1–3; complete)
DG 477 8714 (4). Col. Mus. Ant., Goebel
This is one of the most rewarding of all Telemann recordings. The playing of the Cologne Musica Antiqua is distinguished by dazzling virtuosity and unanimity of ensemble and musical thinking. They also have the advantage of very vivid and fresh recording quality; the balance is close and present without being too forward, and there is a pleasing acoustic ambience. At its bargain price this is very enticing indeed.
Kapitänsmusik, 1724
CPO SACD 777 176-2. Podkoscielna, Post, Vieweg, Abele, Telemannisches Coll. Michaelstein, Rémy
In Hamburg, Telemann often had to compose celebratory occasional pieces called Kapitänsmusik, consisting of an oratorio and serenata. The one on this CD was first performed in 1724 and this is the first time it has been performed complete since that time. The oratorio part has sacred texts, while the serenata part has secular texts, but both find the composer providing some extraordinarily good music. This music shows Telemann at his most flamboyantly creative, with some brilliantly florid, virtuosic writing, performed with comparable vigour by the soloists and the orchestra. The lively arias in both the oratorio and serenata are very exciting, and the opening of the serenata with its minor-keyed woodwinds is deliciously piquant and memorable, as is the aria which follows. One marvels time and time again at Telemann’s inventive orchestration, especially in his use of woodwind colouring, and this whole CD is one of flamboyant invigoration. Superbly recorded in SACD surround sound, warm yet sharply vivid. Full texts and translations are provided.
Mignon (complete)
Sony (ADD) SM3K 34590 (3). Horne, Vanzo, Welting, Zaccaria, Von Stade, Méloni, Battedou, Hudson, Ambrosian Op. Ch., Philh. O, Almeida
Thomas’s once-popular adaptation of Goethe has many vocal plums, and here a very full account of the score is given, with virtually all the alternatives that the composer devised for productions after the first, not least one at Drury Lane in London, where recitatives were used (as here) instead of spoken dialogue; an extra aria was given to the soubrette Philine and other arias were expanded. The role of Frédéric was given to a mezzo-soprano instead of a tenor, and here the appropriately named Frederica von Stade is superb in that role, making one rather regret that she was not chosen as the heroine. However, Marilyn Horne is in fine voice and sings with great character and flair, even if she hardly sounds the frail figure of the ideal Mignon. Nonetheless, with Alain Vanzo a sensitive Wilhelm, Ruth Welting a charming Philine and colourful conducting from Almeida, this is an essential set for lovers of French opera. The 1977 recording has a pleasingly warm ambience and the voices are naturally caught in the present transfer.
(i) Concerto for Double String Orchestra; (ii) Fanfare for Brass; (i) Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli; Little Music for String Orchestra; (iii) Suite in D for the Birthday of Prince Charles
Australian Decca Eloquence (ADD) 476 7960. (i) ASMF, Marriner; (ii) Philip Jones Brass Ens.; (iii) LSO, Colin Davis
A splendid Tippett anthology and an ideal introduction to this composer. Beginning with the striking Fanfare for Brass, it moves on to the charming Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles, full of attractive ideas and a distinct ‘Robin Hood’ atmosphere – the subject of the composer’s early folksong opera, parts of which were used in the score. Next comes Marriner’s classic Argo recording, featuring some of Tippett’s most inspired and approachable music. On any count, the Concerto for Double String Orchestra is one of the most beautiful works for strings written in the twentieth century. The Corelli Fantasia is a similarly sumptuous work, and the Little Music is very appealing too. Superb 1970s recordings and altogether an outstanding compilation.
‘Tippett Collection’: (i) Concerto for Orchestra; (ii) Concerto for Double String Orchestra; (ii–iii) Triple Concerto for Violin, Viola, Cello & Orchestra; (i) Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli; (iv) Fanfare for Brass; (i) Little Music for Strings; (v) Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles; Symphonies: (i) 1–2; (i; vi) 3; (v) 4; (vii) Sonata for 4 Horns; (viii) String Quartets 1–3; (ix) Piano Sonatas 1–3; (x) Midsummer Marriage: Ritual Dances
Decca 475 6750 (6). (i) LSO, C. Davis; (ii) ASMF, Marriner; (iii) with Pauk, Imai, Kirshbaum; (iv) Philip Jones Brass Ens.; (v) Chicago SO, Solti; (vi) with Harper; (vii) Tuckwell Horn Qt; (viii) Lindsay Qt; (ix) Crossley; (x) ROHCG O, Pritchard
For those wanting to explore Tippett’s music in depth, for the centenary of his birth Decca provided an even more extensive collection, which includes the four Symphonies, the first three conducted by Sir Colin Davis with the LSO fully committed, and the Fourth by Sir Georg Solti, who also offers the agreeable if less substantial Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles. Tippett himself described the Third as a hybrid symphony; he consciously follows the example of Beethoven’s Ninth in the transition to the final, vocal section, in which the soprano sings three blues numbers, and Heather Harper almost manages to mute the relative crudities of Tippett’s text. Solti’s brilliantly played account of the Fourth Symphony is comparably powerful, although there are depths and tenderness in this score yet to be uncovered. Certainly these recordings and performances have a special place in the catalogue, although (as Hickox has since shown) there are other dimensions to these scores which are not uncovered here.
(i) The Rose Lake; (ii) The Vision of St Augustine
RCA 82876 64284-2. LSO; (i) C. Davis; (ii) with Shirley-Quirk, L. Symphony Ch., composer
As Sir Colin Davis’s superb recording with the LSO demonstrates from first to last, The Rose Lake is arguably the most beautiful of all Tippett’s works. It was in 1990 on a visit to Senegal that the 85-year-old composer visited a lake, Le Lac Rose, where at midday the sun transformed its whitish-green colour to translucent pink. It led to this musical evocation of the lake from dawn to dusk, centred round the climactic mid-moment when the lake is in full song. The 12 sections, sharply delineated, form a musical arch, with the lake-song represented in five of them on soaring unison strings in free variation form.
That culminating masterpiece is well coupled with Tippett’s own 1971 recording, never previously available on CD, of his Cantata, The Vision of St Augustine. First heard in 1965, it is a work which can now be recognized as the beginning of his adventurous Indian summer. His reading is expansively atmospheric rather than tautly drawn, bringing out the mystery of the piece.
The Midsummer Marriage (complete)
Lyrita SRCD 2217 (2). Remedios, Carlyle, Burrows, Herinx, Harwood, Watts, Ch. & O of ROHCG, C. Davis
This outstanding (originally Philips) 1970 recording of Tippett’s masterpiece is a work that should be in the standard repertoire, alongside Britten’s Peter Grimes, for the music consistently has that inspired melodic flow which distinguishes all great operas. That Tippett’s visionary conception, created over a long period of self-searching, succeeds so triumphantly on record – if anything, with greater intensity than in the opera house – is a tribute above all to the exuberance of the composer’s glowing inspiration, his determination to translate the beauty of his vision into musical and dramatic terms. Any one minute from this 154-minute score should be enough to demonstrate the unquenchable energy of his writing, his love of rich sounds. There are few operas of any period which use the chorus to such glorious effect, often in haunting offstage passages, and, with Sir Colin Davis a burningly committed advocate and with a cast that was inspired by live performances in the opera house, this is a set hard to resist, even for those not normally fond of modern opera. The so-called ‘difficulties’ of the libretto, with its mystical philosophical references, fade when the sounds are so honeyed in texture and so consistently lyrical, while the story – for all its complications – preserves a clear sense of emotional involvement throughout. The singing is glorious, the playing magnificent and the recording outstandingly atmospheric, and the Lyrita transfer brings an extraordinary sense of realism, the feeling of sitting in the stalls inside an opera house with quite perfect acoustics – even though the recording was made in Wembley Town Hall.
Music for viols: Almain in F (for 4 viols); Fantasias 1, 12 & 14 (for 3 viols); Fantasia (for 6 viols); Galliard: Thomas Simpson (5 viols & organ); In Nomine II (for 3 viols); Pavane in A min. (for 5 viols & organ); Pavane in F; Ut re mi (Hexachord fantasia) (both for 4 viols). (Keyboard:) (i) Fancy for two to play. Pavan & Galliard: Earl Strafford. (Organ:) In nomine; Miserere; Voluntary. Verse anthems: Above the stars; O Lord, let me know mine end; Thou art my King
Naxos 8.550602. Rose Consort of Viols, Red Byrd; Roberts; (i) with Bryan
This well-planned Naxos programme is carefully laid out in two parts, each of viol music interspersed with harpsichord and organ pieces and ending with an anthem. It gives collectors an admirable opportunity to sample very inexpensively the wider output of Thomas Tomkins, an outstandingly fine Elizabethan musician whose music is still too little known. Perhaps the most remarkable piece here is the Hexachord fantasia, where the scurrying part-writing ornaments a rising and falling six-note scale (hexachord). The two five-part verse anthems and Above the stars, which is in six parts, are accompanied by five viols, with a fine counter-tenor in Above the stars and a bass in Thou art my King.
Music for harpsichord and virginals: Barafostus Dreame; 2 Fancies; Fancy for 2 to Play; Fortune my Foe; Galliard of 3 Parts; Galliard Earl Strafford; 2 Grounds; In nomine; Lady Folliott’s Galliard; Miserere; Pavan; Pavan Earl Strafford with its devision; Pavane of 3 Parts; A Sad Pavane for these Distracted Times; Toy made at Poole Court; What if a Day; Worcester Brawls
Metronome METCD 1049. Cerasi (virginals and harpsichord)
Carole Cerasi offers here the finest available collection of the keyboard music of the last of the great English virginalists, Thomas Tomkins. Indeed, it is the repertoire played on the virginals that stands out, especially her exquisitely spontaneous performance of A Sad Pavane for these Distracted Times, and her equally sensitive response to the dolorous Fortune my Foe (the two most extended pieces here). In contrast, the charmingly good-humoured Toy made at Poole Court is given the lightest rhythmic lift. She uses a modern copy of an early 17th-century Ruckers and it could hardly be more realistically recorded. The harpsichord pieces (using a copy of an instrument by Bartolomeo Stephanini) are more robust and often have exuberant decoration, as in the disc’s title-piece, Barafostus Dreame. Earl Strafford’s Galliard is another splendid example of her exciting bravura on the latter instrument, and the closing Ground with extended variations is a tour de force. The recording venue has a pleasing ambience and the balance is ideal if you set the volume level carefully.
Concerti musicali, Op. 6/1–12; Sonata a 4 in A min.
Signum SIGCD 157. Charivari Agréable, Kah-Ming Ng
This set is given the sobriquet ‘the original Brandenburg concertos’. Up to a point that is acceptable, but Bach’s Margrave of Brandenburg was a different person from Torelli’s employer, the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. However, Torelli did dedicate his Concerti musicali to Sophie Charlotte, Electress of Brandenburg, although nothing came of the dedication. But the Concerti musicali are a real discovery and they are most attractively presented here. Originally intended for strings alone, the Charivari have included oboes, recorders and bassoon and a continuo featuring chamber organ as well as theorbo and harpsichord. The result is most enjoyable: allegros are jolly and slow movements expressive and appealing, and Kah-Ming Ng brings the music to life vividly and spontaneously, helped by lively, truthful recording.
(i) Violin Concertos, Op. 8/8, 9 & 11; (i–ii) Double Violin Concertos, Op. 8/2, 4, 5, 6; (iii) Sinfonias for Trumpet in D (G 8); (iii–iv) for 2 Trumpets in D (G 23); Concerto for 2 Trumpets in D
Chan. 0716. (i) Standage; (ii) Weiss; (iii) Steele-Perkins; (iv) Blackadder; Col. Mus. 90
While Torelli’s earlier Concertos remain in the world of the concerto grosso, by the time he came to write Op. 8 (published in 1709) he had moved away to give his soloists independence. The lustrous, busy opening of Op. 8/2 is immediately enticing, but these are all attractive works, particularly No. 4 (where the pointed theme of the finale reminds one of ‘All we like sheep’) and No. 11, with its Largo e staccato central movement anticipating Vivaldi. The solo Concerto in E minor, Op. 8/9, is also a particularly fine work. Not surprisingly, the period performances here are first class. The rather more conventional Trumpet Concertos are also in confident hands, and the accompaniments throughout are characteristically stylish and the Chandos recording first rate.
BIZET: La Jolie Fille de Perth: Suite. COPLAND: El salón México. GOLDMARK: Rustic Wedding Symphony (2 movts only). KALINNIKOV: Symphony 1. MASSENET: Scènes alsaciennes (Suite 7). MEYERBEER: Dinorah Overture. SOUSA: El Capitán; Semper fidelis. SMITH: Star-Spangled Banner. MOZART: Sinfonia Concertante, K.364 (with Mischakoff, Cooley)
Testament mono SBT 1404 (2)
Most of these live radio recordings were made by Toscanini at the height of the Second World War, and the fervour of the playing plainly reflects that, most strikingly in the patriotic marches by Sousa and the American National Anthem. What is striking is that Toscanini in these recordings demonstrates little of the rigidity that marred so many of his NBC recordings for RCA. The ebb and flow of rhythm and phrasing in the rare Kalinnikov Symphony could not be more winning, and Toscanini’s timing in the Spanish-American rhythms of El salón México is perfect, with just the right degree of hesitation. Nor is the Mozart Sinfonia concertante rigid, with two of his NBC principals as soloists. With such colourfully tuneful rarities as the Dinorah Overture and the Scènes alsaciennes, along with the delightful Jolie Fille de Perth Suite, this makes a very winning collection. The sound too is full-bodied and generally less dry than in his commercial NBC recordings of the period, here very well transferred.
Final Alice
Australian Decca Eloquence 442 9955. Hendricks, Chicago SO, Solti
How rare it is to be able to recommend a late-twentieth-century work that is so immediately appealing. Commissioned to celebrate the Bicentennial of the United States in 1976, this instalment of Del Tredici’s sequence of Lewis Carroll settings has much to fascinate the ear, particularly in a virtuoso performance like this. Familiar texts are neatly assembled, with a minimum of violence to the original, to present a dramatic cantata for just one voice and orchestra. Barbara Hendricks proves a characterful and urgent guide, a vibrant narrator as well as a fine singer. Solti and his superb orchestra plainly enjoy the fun from first to last: it is good to welcome an extended work which sustains its length without pomposity and with immediate warmth of communication. The recording is outstandingly brilliant and its première release on CD is enormously welcomed.
Symphonies: (i) 1 in C min.; 2 (The Legendary); 3 in D min.; (ii) 4 in A (Sinfonia lirica); (iii) 5 in B min.; (ii) 6; (iv) 7; (ii) 8; (iv) 9 (Sinfonia semplice); 10. (ii) Suite from the ballet, Kratt; (iv) Toccata for Orchestra
BIS CD 1402/06 (5). (i) Swedish RSO; (ii) Bergen PO; (iii) Bamberg SO; (iv) Gothenburg SO; Järvi
Neeme Järvi’s survey of the Tubin Symphonies is here packaged, shorn of some of its couplings and presented in an attractive and competitive format (five CDs for the price of three). These are marvellous works, rich in invention and with the real breadth of the symphonist about them. Anyone who is attuned to the symphonies of Sibelius or Prokofiev will find themselves at home in this world. The opening of the Second Symphony is magical: there are soft, luminous string chords that evoke a strong atmosphere of wide vistas and white summer nights, but the music soon gathers power and reveals a genuine feeling for proportion and of organic growth. If there is a Sibelian strength in the Second Symphony, the Sixth, written after Tubin had settled in Sweden, has obvious resonances of Prokofiev – even down to instrumentation – and yet Tubin’s rhythmic vitality and melodic invention are quietly distinctive. The first two movements of the wartime Third Symphony are vintage Tubin, but the heroic finale approaches bombast. The Eighth is his masterpiece; its opening movement has a sense of vision and mystery, and the atmosphere stays with you. This is the darkest of the symphonies and the most intense in feeling, music of great substance. The Fourth is a highly attractive piece, immediately accessible, the music well argued and expertly crafted. The opening has a Sibelian feel to it, but the closer one comes to it, the more individual it seems. The Ninth Symphony is in two movements: its mood is elegiac and a restrained melancholy permeates the slower sections. Its musical language is direct, tonal and, once one gets to grips with it, quite personal. If its spiritual world is clearly Nordic, the textures are transparent and luminous, and its argument unfolds naturally and cogently. The Fifth makes as good a starting point as any to investigate the Tubin canon. Written after he had settled in Sweden, it finds him at his most neoclassical; the music is finely paced and full of energy and invention. The Seventh is a marvellous work and it receives a concentrated and impressive reading. As always with Tubin, you are never in doubt that this is a real symphony which sets out purposefully and reaches its goal. The ideas could not be by anyone else and the music unfolds with a powerful logic and inevitability. The Tenth Symphony is a one-movement piece that begins with a sombre string idea, which is soon interrupted by a periodically recurring horn call – and which resonates in the mind long afterwards. The recordings are absolutely first class.
(i) Danzas fantásticas; (ii) La oración del torero, Op. 34; La procesión del Rocio, Op. 9; (i; iii) Rapsodia sinfónica; (i) Sinfonia sevillana
Regis RRC 1299. Bátiz, with (i) LPO; (ii) Mexico City PO; (iii) Wibaut
The three LPO items were recorded in 1983 and originally released on HMV. The three Danzas fantásticas are understandably better known than the other two works included on the original LP. The Sinfonia is a programmatic triptych with an attractive nocturnal slow movement; the scoring of the outer movements (as in the Danzas) is gaudy but effective. The Rapsodia is a pleasant if not especially memorable piece for piano and orchestra. Bátiz is a sympathetic exponent of this repertoire and, with the LPO, he brings out the Latin colours and atmosphere. Two further colourful pieces have been added to this bargain release, with the Mexico City Philharmonic, also conducted by Bátiz. They are similarly well played and well recorded. An undoubted bargain.
Blood on the Floor (DVD version)
Arthaus DVD 100 430. Ens. Modern, Rundel (Director: Doris Götzl; V/D: Barrie Gavin)
With Peter Rundel conducting a group of German musicians, Blood on the Floor is a powerful piece, inspired by a painting of Francis Bacon. A complete performance is here introduced by a feature film. Characteristically, the idiom is abrasive with a jazz element important, making it attractive despite the unpleasantness of the subject with its element of drug addiction. It would be hard to imagine a better performance, very well played and recorded.
An Invention on ‘Solitude’ Cortège for Chris; 2 Elegies Framing a Shout; 3 Farewells; 2 Memorials; Sleep On; True Life Stories: Tune for Toru
Black Box BBM 1065. Nash Ens. (members)
Anyone coming new to Turnage could not do better than start here, for all this music is intensely expressive and instantly communicative. Its overriding character is thoughtful and contemplative, although An Invention on ‘Solitude’ is the exception for, while inspired by the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, the writing, for the same combination, ‘fluctuates between stillness and violence’. The Cortège for Chris (Christopher Van Kempen, the Nash Ensemble’s cellist who died in 1998) features both cello and clarinet, as well as a ruminative piano, while the Two Memorials are commemorated with haunting soliloquizing from the solo saxophone.
The Three Farewells are strangely obsessive: each has a hidden text, the second, Music to Hear for viola and muted cello, a Shakespeare sonnet. The finale, All will be well, was written as a wedding piece, and the composer observes ironically ‘the marriage didn’t last’. Not surprisingly, some of the most peaceful and serene writing comes in Sleep On, for cello and piano, a triptych framed by a lovely Berceuse and a restful Lullaby. The solo saxophone returns for the first of the Two Elegies and, after being exuberantly interrupted by the Shout – a spiky and restlessly energetic boogie – the piano (with the saxophone) ‘searches for and finds repose’.
The reflective closing Tune for Toru (a gentle piano piece) was written in response to the death of the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu and readily finds the stillness the composer was searching for in his Invention on ‘Solitude’. Superbly responsive performances throughout and vividly real recording, within an attractively spacious acoustic.
Symphonies: in C min., Bryan Cm2; in D, Bryan D4; in G min., Bryan Gm2
Chan. 9607. LMP, Bamert
The G minor Symphony, the second of Vaňhal’s symphonies in that key, is an absolute delight, full of good ideas and comparable with the Sturm und Drang of Haydn’s No. 39 or Mozart’s No. 25 in the same key. The C minor Symphony (1770) is also a work of originality, with an occasional foreshadowing of Beethoven. Matthias Bamert and the London Mozart Players give an excellent account of themselves, and are recorded with clarity and warmth.
Tuning Up; Amériques (original version); Arcana; Dance for Burgess; (i) Density 21.5. Déserts; (ii) Ecuatorial; (iii–iv) Un grand sommeil noir (original & orch. Beaumont versions). Hyperprism; Intégrales; Ionisation; (v–vi) Nocturna. Octandre; (v) Offrandes. Poème électronique
Decca 460 208-2 (2). Concg. O or Asko Ens.; Chailly; with (i) Zoon (ii) Deas (iii) Delunsch; (iv) Kardoncuf; (v) Leonard; (vi) Prague Philharmonic Male Ch.
This comprehensive coverage of the music of Varèse was given a 1999 Gramophone Award for Twentieth-Century Music. He first came to public notice in the 1930s when Percy Scholes chose him to represent the last word in zany modernity in his ‘Columbia History of Music’, but this mockery backfired. Octandre (one movement then recorded) sounds quirkily original now as it did then (it is played marvellously here). The witty opening Tuning Up sets the mood for writing which is ever ready to take its own course, regardless of tradition, and set new musical paths. Amériques, which follows, is heard in its original (1921) version, lavishly scored, with reminiscences of music by others, not least the Stravinsky of The Rite of Spring. It makes fascinating listening. Ionisation, less ear-catching, stands as a historic pointer towards developments in percussion writing. Poème électronique originated at the 1958 Brussels World Fair, where it was played through more than 400 loudspeakers inside the Philips pavilion. The montage of familiar and electronic sounds (machine noises, sonorous bells, etc.) comes from the composer’s original four-track tape. But all the works here are sharply distinctive and show the composer as a true revolutionary, usually decades ahead of his time. The vocal pieces are among the most fascinating aurally, not least Ecuatorial, a setting in Spanish, with bass soloist, of a Mayan prayer, brightly coloured and sharp, with brass, percussion, organ, piano and ondes martenot. Un grand sommeil noir is a rare surviving early song, lyrically Ravelian in feeling, heard here in both the original version with piano, and in an orchestration by Antony Beaumont. Nocturnal, Varèse’s haunting last piece, was left unfinished. Completed by Professor Chou, it is as extravagant and uninhibited as ever, featuring male chorus and a solo soprano voice, used melodically to evoke a mysterious dream-world. All the performances here are superbly definitive and this set would be hard to surpass. The recording acoustic, too, is open, yet everything is clear.
Fantasia on Greensleeves; (i) Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
EMI Masters (ADD) 6 31788-2. Sinfonia of London; (i) with Allegri Qt, Barbirolli (with DELIUS: Brigg Fair) – ELGAR: Introduction and Allegro for Strings, etc.
Barbirolli’s inspirational performance of the Tallis Fantasia now rightly takes its place among EMI’s ‘Great Recordings of the Century’. For many of us it is the composer’s supreme masterpiece, and Barbirolli’s ardour, combined with the magically quiet playing of the second orchestra, is unforgettable. The recording (made in the dead of night to ensure background silence) has magnificent definition and sonority, achieving dramatic contrasts between the main orchestra and the distanced solo group, which sound wonderfully ethereal. For the reissue EMI have added Delius’s Brigg Fair to the original Elgar couplings, making this Masters reissue an unbeatable bargain.
The Lark Ascending
EMI 5 62813-2. Kennedy, CBSO, Rattle – WALTON: Viola Concerto; Violin Concerto
Vaughan Williams’s Lark Ascending is of a modest length but, like the Tallis Fantasia, it is one of his most moving works. The millions of listeners to Classic FM picked the work as their first choice from the whole classical repertoire. Nigel Kennedy’s spacious and evocative account of this inspirational piece is beautifully recorded, and it makes an ideal coupling for the two Walton Concertos.
Symphonies: (i) A Sea Symphony (1). A London Symphony (2); (ii) A Pastoral Symphony (3). 4 in F min.; 5 in D; 6 in E min.; (iii) Sinfonia antartica (7). 8 in D min.; 9 in E min. (iv) Concerto accademico in D min. (v) Tuba Concerto. 3 Portraits from ‘The England of Elizabeth’; The Wasps Overture.
RCA (ADD) 82876 55708-2 (6). LSO, Previn, with (i–iii) Harper, (i) Shirley-Quirk, L. Symphony Ch; (iii) Amb. S., R. Richardson (speaker); (iv) Buswell; (v) Fletcher
Previn recorded the Vaughan Williams Symphonies over a five-year span from 1968 to 1972, and his achievement in this repertoire represented a peak in his recording career at that time. Here the nine symphonies plus their original fill-ups have been neatly compressed on to six CDs. The most striking performances are those which were recorded last, Nos. 2, 3 and 5; for these Previn achieves an extra depth of understanding, an extra intensity, whether in the purity of pianissimo or the outpouring of emotional resolution. For the rest there is only one performance that can be counted as disappointing, and that is of the symphony one might have expected Previn to interpret best, the taut and dramatic Fourth. Even that is an impressive account, if less intense than the rest. Otherwise, the great landscape of the whole cycle is presented with richness and detail in totally refreshing interpretations, brilliantly recorded and impressively transferred to CD. The extra items are worth having too, notably the two Concertos with responsive soloists.
(i) A Sea Symphony; (ii) Fantasia on Christmas Carols; Hodie (A Christmas Cantata)
EMI 9 68934-2 (2). (i) Marshall, Philh. O; (i–ii) Roberts, L. Symphony Ch.; (iii) Gale, Tear, Choristers of St Paul’s; (ii–iii) LSO; all cond. Hickox
Richard Hickox has recorded the Sea Symphony twice; the second version with Susan Gritton and Gerald Finley as soloists and with the advantage of SACD surround sound may be preferred by some readers (Chan. CHSA 5047). But this earlier (1990) EMI version is hardly less impressive and the two-disc set includes also the Christmas Carol Fantasia and the rare Hodie. Hickox directs a strong, warmly expressive reading of the Symphony. His relatively brisk speeds and his ability to mould melodic lines with an affectionate rubato – notably with the bright-toned, finely drilled London Symphony Chorus – never sounds breathless, and he relishes the sea-sounds that Vaughan Williams gives to the orchestra. The different sections in the longer outer movements are given strong cohesion, and the finale, ‘The Explorers’, ends in warmth rather than mystery on O my brave soul! Margaret Marshall is a bright, fresh soprano, and if Stephen Roberts is a little lacking in weight in the baritone solos, his singing is thoughtful and well detailed. Hickox also directs an urgent, freely expressive reading of the big Christmas cantata, Hodie, helped by refined and incisive choral singing from the combined choirs; and the Christmas Carol Fantasia proves an ideal bonus coupling, also warmly done.
A London Symphony (original, 1913 version)
Chan. 9902. LSO, Hickox (with BUTTERWORTH: The Banks of Green Willow)
A London Symphony was Vaughan Williams’s own favourite among his symphonies (and I.M.’s too). It was the one he had revised most often, first between 1918 and 1920, and later even more radically in the 1930s, with the definitive score finally published in 1936. What this revelatory recording demonstrates is that the 20 minutes or so of music that was excised included many passages that represent the composer at his most magically poetic. There is even a case for saying that in an age which now thrives on expansive symphonies – the examples of Bruckner, Mahler and Shostakovich always before us – the original offers the richer experience. Vaughan Williams undoubtedly made the work structurally tauter, but discursiveness in a symphony is no longer regarded as a necessary fault.
No one could make the case for this 1913 version more persuasively than Hickox. He draws ravishing sounds throughout from the LSO, with an unerring feeling for idiomatic rubato and a powerful control of massive dynamic contrasts. In this original version the first movement is no different, but each of the other movements here includes substantial sections completely eliminated later, some of them echoing Ravel of Daphnis and Chloé, including an extended one in the Scherzo. The sumptuous Chandos sound, with an extraordinarily wide dynamic range, adds to the impact of the performance, which comes with a short but valuable and beautifully played fill-up.
Symphony 6; Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
BBC Legends (ADD) BBCL 4256-2. L New, Boult (with BAX: Mediterranean. BERG: Lyric Suite. HADLEY: One Morning in Spring)
Sir Adrian made the first recording of the Sixth Symphony in the days of 78s, but this performance comes from the 1972 Cheltenham Festival and its companions from the late 1960s, so the recordings are in stereo. As is well known, he conducted the British première of Wozzeck which was much admired by the composer, and the Three Pieces from the Lyric Suite come from the Maida Vale Studios and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. A most desirable issue which collectors should seek out.
(i) Dona nobis pacem; (ii) Sancta Civitas
Naxos 8.572424. Bach Ch., Bournemouth SO, Hill, with (i) Pier; (ii) Staples; (i–ii) Brook; (ii) Winchester Cathedral Choristers, Winchester College Quiristers
Naxos here offers an ideal coupling of two parallel Vaughan Williams masterpieces, each seriously neglected. Both date from the inter-war period, when the composer was expressing disillusion after his experiences in the First World War. Both with Latin titles, they mark a departure from the composer’s earlier pastoral style towards expression far more abrasive, a style which also erupted in the ballet-score Job and the Fourth Symphony.
In vivid, atmospheric sound, David Hill directs his forces in performances which bring out all the savagery of the writing, not least in the violent use of timpani. Though Dona nobis pacem, written in 1936, is described as a cantata and Sancta Civitas of 1923 5 an oratorio, they both last just over half an hour, and are among RVW’s most atmospheric works, with a distant chorus evocatively used in Sancta Civitas. Dona nobis foretells the horror of the Second World War in its six movements with texts from the Bible as well as from Walt Whitman and John Bright, while Sancta Civitas depicts the battle between good and evil as expressed in the Book of Revelation. Not just the choruses but also the three soloists are outstanding: the American soprano Christina Pier in Dona nobis pacem, the tenor Andrew Staples in Sancta Civitas, and baritone Matthew Brook in both. A first-rate disc, made the more attractive at super-bargain price.
(i) On Wenlock Edge (song-cycle from A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad); (ii) 10 Blake Songs for voice & oboe; (i) 4 Hymns. (iii) Songs: Merciless Beauty; The New Ghost; The Water Mill
EMI 9 68939-2 (2). Ian Partridge, with (i) Music Group of London; (ii) Janet Craxton; (iii) Jennifer Partridge – WARLOCK: Capriol Suite; The Curlew; Songs
This is an outstandingly beautiful record, with Ian Partridge’s intense artistry and lovely, individual tone-colour used with compelling success in Vaughan Williams songs, both early and late. The Housman cycle has an accompaniment for piano and string quartet which can sound ungainly but which here, with playing from the Music Group of London, matches the soloist’s sensitivity; the result is both atmospheric and moving. The Ten Blake Songs come from just before the composer’s death: bald, direct settings that with the artistry of Partridge and Craxton are darkly moving. The tenor’s sister accompanies with fine understanding in two favourite songs as a welcome extra. The other (much rarer) items make an attractive bonus, with the Four Hymns distinctively accompanied by viola and piano. The Warlock anthology, provided as coupling, is hardly less desirable.
Complete Prelines, Overtures & Ballet Music
Chan. 9510 (4). BBC PO, Downes
Verdi overtures provide an astonishing variety of tunes and colour, and his ballet music, written for Paris productions of his operas, includes some of the most scintillatingly tuneful music he ever wrote. Edward Downes’s Verdi survey covers virtually all the overtures, preludes and ballet music, the latter full of charm when played so elegantly and recorded so beautifully. Original versions are included when available, so we get the first (1857) score of the Prelude to Simon Boccanegra and the brief (1862) prelude to La forza del destino, as well as the familiar, expanded, 1869 overture. The outstanding novelty is Verdi’s extended (1871) overture written for the Italian première of Aida. The shorter Prelude heard at the opera’s Cairo première was substituted at the last moment and the 1871 piece was never heard of again. The ballet music was, of course, an essential requirement if a work was to be performed at the Paris Opéra. Verdi often rose to the occasion and produced charming, tuneful music, felicitously scored. In the suite from Il trovatore (an unlikely subject for a balletic diversion) the delightful third section, La Bohémienne, is worthy of Delibes in its use of graceful violins and piquant woodwind. Not surprisingly, Downes has the full measure of this music. The finer overtures are played with bold characterization and dramatic fire. Nubucco, with its dignified sonority, and Giovanna d’Arco both show the BBC Philharmnonic brass at their finest in quite different ways, and Luisa Miller is another very strong performance. The strings play most beautifully in the Traviata Preludes. With such richly expansive recording, showing Chandos engineering at its most spectacular, the effect is less bitingly leonine than in Karajan’s two-disc survey. But even if not all this music is top-class Verdi, the Chandos set offers much to enjoy, and the spontaneity and elegance of the music-making are never in doubt.
Ballet music from: Don Carlos; Otello; I vespri siciliani
Australian Decca Eloquence (ADD) 480 045. Cleveland O, Maazel (with LEONI: The Prayer and the Sword: Incidental music)
Although there have been excellent comprehensive collections of Verdi’s ballet music from Downes (Chandos) and Almeida (Philips), this selection is the most exciting committed to disc. First, the playing is superlative, with the orchestra responding to Maazel’s electrifying direction with style and brilliance, making the most of Verdi’s tuneful and witty music. Secondly, it is treated to vintage Decca sound, making this one of the great recordings of ‘light’ music in the catalogue. Listen, for instance, to the oboe at the beginning of the third of the Four Seasons from I vespri siciliani or the woodwind playing in the final movement – exhilarating in its energy and bravura. Moreover, it is coupled with some charmingly attractive and very rare music by Leoni.
Requiem Mass (CD version)
EMI 6 98936 2 (2). Harteros, Ganassi, Villazón, Pape, St Cecilia Ac. Ch. & O, Pappano
Following Antonio Pappano’s award-winning version of Madama Butterfly, EMI shrewdly persuaded him to record the Verdi Requiem similarly with the St Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra in Rome, of which he is chief conductor. Having Italian forces performing this work adds to the warmth of this superb version. In every way it is a worthy successor to such classic recordings as Toscanini’s uniquely intense account from the days of mono, Giulini’s dedicated EMI version with the Philharmonia and the most starry quartet of soloists, as well as Barbirolli’s Rome version, a labour of love.
As in Puccini, Pappano has a natural feeling for phrasing and pacing in Verdi, and with forces close to him the result is spectacular, given even greater impact when the recording was made in the recently opened Parco della Musica in Rome, giving air and space to the sound. The dynamic range is very wide indeed, arguably too wide, when the murmured opening of the chorus is barely audible in the first few bars. Nevertheless, a fine achievement by the EMI engineers. The Dies irae is wonderfully thrilling. The women soloists may not be quite so starry a duo as Schwarzkof and Ludwig for Giulini, but Anja Harteros and Sonia Ganassi make a splendid match, firm and true; while it would be hard to imagine a finer account of the tenor’s role than that of Rolando Villazón, subtle beyond anything one might have expected from an Italianate tenor in the old days, with shading of dynamic beautifully handled. Similarly, René Pape is a highly intelligent bass-baritone, not as dark in colour as a full bass, but for that very reason better matched with the other soloists.
It is a sign of the times that the St Cecilia Chorus could hardly offer a sharper contrast with the slipshod Italian opera choruses of old, with the ensemble consistently excellent. The orchestra too bears witness to the fine standards latterly achieved by Italian orchestras, traditionally individualistic and undisciplined. Altogether a set to rival and even outshine the finest of the past.
EMI (ADD) 769300-2 (2). Freni, Carreras, Baltsa, Cappuccilli, Raimondi, Van Dam, V. State Op. Ch., VPO, Karajan
On EMI, Karajan’s is a performance of Aida full of splendour and pageantry, while yet it is fundamentally lyrical. On this point there is no feeling of Freni lacking power even in a role normally given to a larger voice, and there is ample gain in the tender beauty of her singing. Carreras makes a fresh, sensitive Radames, Raimondi a darkly intense Ramfis and Van Dam a cleanly focused King, his relative lightness no drawback. Cappuccilli gives a finely detailed performance of Amonasro, while Baltsa as Amneris crowns the whole performance with her fine, incisive singing. Despite some over-brightness on cymbals and trumpet, the Vienna orchestra’s sound for Karajan, as transferred to CD, is richly atmospheric, both in the intimate scenes and, most strikingly, in the scenes of pageantry, reflecting the Salzburg Festival production which was linked to the recording. The set has been attractively repackaged and remains first choice on CD, irrespective of price.
Un ballo in maschera (complete, DVD version)
Decca DVD 074 3227 (2). Pavarotti, Ricciarelli, Quilico, Blegen, Berini, Met. Op. Ch. & O, Patanè (Producer: Elijah Moshinsky; V/D: Brian Large)
This 1980 live performance is another of the productions from the New York Met. to show Pavarotti at his very finest, both as a singer and as actor (his dying scene of forgiveness is especially telling). He is in splendid voice as Riccardo and is partnered by Katia Ricciarelli as Amelia, also at her finest, and looking ravishing. Their great love duet in Act II is gloriously sung and Patanè rises to the occasion and creates a richly romantic orchestral outburst, all but anticipating Puccini. Among the others in this superb cast, Judith Blegen is a delightful Oscar with sparkling coloratura and Blanca Berini an unforgettable fortune-teller (Ulrica), virtually stealing the scenes in which she appears (with her eyes as well as her voice). Louis Quilico makes an effectively agonized Renato, Amelia’s unfortunate husband. The costumes are traditional, the sets practical. Patanè conducts throughout with flair and Brian Large’s video direction could hardly be bettered. Highly recommended.
For those looking for a CD version, a bargain DG set, with Domingo, Ricciarelli, Bruson, Obraztsova, Gruberová, La Scala, Milan, Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado, is strongly recommended. The Abbado reading is admirably paced and, with a splendid feeling for the sparkle of the comedy – and a superb cast, who all characterize beautifully – it is hard to fault (453 148-2 (2)).
Don Carlos (complete, DVD version)
Warner DVD 0630 16318-2. Alagna, Hampson, Van Dam, Mattila, Meier, Halfvarson, Théâtre du Châtelet Ch., O de Paris, Pappano
This fine Warner issue provides one of the clearest instances where DVD scores on almost every level over the equivalent CD set. Here you have the full three and a half hours of music on a single disc, as against three CDs on EMI. The sound on the DVD may be marginally less full than on the CD, but it would take someone with an exceptional ear to feel short-changed. The chorus is rather less crisply disciplined in places, but it rises splendidly to the big challenge of the Auto-da-fé scene of Act III. And where too many DVDs skimp on the number of index points, this one follows the normal CD practice of having them at every crucial point. All that, plus the advantage of having a visual presentation of Luc Bondy’s production. The sets are simple and stylized, the production never gets in the way of the music, with the costumes of Moidele Bickel (coloured black, white or crimson) close enough to seventeenth-century fashion not to distract from the drama. The score is tautly and warmly presented, as on CD, by Antonio Pappano, and the principals are as fine a team as have ever been assembled for this opera on disc – here using the original French text and the full five-Act score, complete with Fontainebleau scene. Karita Mattila gives the most masterly performance as the Queen, with one inspired passage after another, culminating in a supreme account of her Act V aria. Roberto Alagna is in superb voice too, firm and heroic, well matched against Thomas Hampson, noble as Rodrigo. José van Dam may not have the deep bass normal for the role of Philip II, but having a more lyrical voice brings compensating assets, and he contrasts well with the Grand Inquisitor of Eric Halfvarson. An outstanding issue. For those wishing for a CD version, Pappano’s excellent recording is available on EMI 5 56152-2 (3).
Falstaff (complete, CD version)
EMI 3 77349-2 (2). Gobbi, Schwarzkopf, Zaccaria, Moffo, Panerai, Philh. Ch. & O, Karajan
This 1956 Karajan recording presents not only the most pointed account orchestrally of Verdi’s comic masterpiece (the Philharmonia Orchestra at its very peak) but one of the most vividly characterful casts ever gathered for a recording. If you relish the idea of Tito Gobbi as Falstaff (his many-coloured voice, not quite fat-sounding in humour, presents a sharper character than usual), then this is clearly a first choice. The rest of the cast too is a delight, with Schwarzkopf a tinglingly masterful Mistress Ford, Anna Moffo sweet as Nannetta and Rolando Panerai a formidable Ford. On CD the digital transfer is sharply focused.
La forza del destino (1862 version; complete, CD version)
RCA (ADD) 74321 39502-2 (3). L. Price, Domingo, Milnes, Cossotto, Giaiotti, Bacquier, Alldis Ch., LSO, Levine
Leontyne Price recorded the role of Leonora in an earlier RCA version made in Rome in 1956, but the years between that and this recording from the mid-1970s have hardly touched her voice. The roles of Don Alvaro and Don Carlo are ideally suited to the team of Plácido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes so that their confrontations are the cornerstones of the dramatic structure. Fiorenza Cossotto makes a formidable rather than a jolly Preziosilla, while on the male side the line-up of Bonaldo Giaiotti, Gabriel Bacquier, Kurt Moll and Michel Sénéchal is far stronger than on any rival set. The sound is full and vivid, and this strong, well-paced version with an exceptionally good and consistent cast is strongly recommended.
Luisa Miller (complete, DVD version)
DG DVD 073 4027. Scotto, Domingo, Milnes, Morris, Giaiotti, Met. Ch. & O, Levine (Director: Nathaniel Merrill; V/D: Roland Ott)
Recorded at the Met. in New York in 1979, James Levine’s version of Luisa Miller consistently demonstrates his Verdian mastery, and not just in the best-known masterpieces. This production is superbly cast, with Renata Scotto agile, bright and characterful in the title-role, with Plácido Domingo singing gloriously as the enamoured Rodolfo and Sherrill Milnes comparably fine as Luisa’s father. This opera is unusual in not having the principal baritone as the villain, but here James Morris as Wurm and Bonaldo Giaiotti as Count Walter provide the necessary bite. Not only in Levine’s conducting but in the sets and costumes of Nathaniel Merrill’s production the attractive rustic element of the piece is effectively brought out.
For a CD version, you can’t go too far wrong with Maag’s Decca version (475 8496-2 (2)), with Caballé, Pavarotti, Milnes, Reynolds, L. Op. Ch. and the Nat. PO. Caballé gives a splendid (if not flawless) portrait of the heroine, and Pavarotti is full of creative, detailed imagination. As Federica, Anna Reynolds underlines the light and shade, consistently bringing out atmospheric qualities. With strong conducting by Maag, this recording has been vividly transferred to CD, now on Decca’s ‘Originals’ label.
Macbeth (complete, CD version)
Ph. 475 8393 (3). Bruson, Zampieri, Shicoff, Lloyd, Deutsche Oper, Berlin, Ch. & O, Sinopoli
Even more than his finest rivals Sinopoli presents this opera as a searing Shakespearean inspiration, scarcely more uneven than much of the work of the Bard himself. In the Banqueting scene, for example, Sinopoli creates extra dramatic intensity by his concern for detail and his preference for extreme dynamics, and Renato Bruson and Mara Zampieri respond vividly. Zampieri’s voice may be biting rather than beautiful, occasionally threatening to come off the rails, but, with musical precision an asset, she matches exactly Verdi’s request for the voice of a she-devil. Neil Shicoff as Macduff and Robert Lloyd as Banquo make up the excellent quartet of principals, while the high voltage of the whole performance clearly reflects Sinopoli’s experience with the same chorus and orchestra at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. The recording is vivid, well balanced and focused, but atmospheric.
For a DVD version of this opera, TDK’s live Parma version (Nucci, Valayre, Iori, Iuliano, Pascoli, Parma Teatro Regio Ch. & O, Bartoletti; Director: Liliana Cavani, V/D: Andrea Bevilacqua; TKK DVD DVWW-OPMACPA) goes straight to the top of the list because of Leo Nucci’s unforgettably powerful portrayal of Macbeth. Sylvie Valayre as Lady Macbeth, if not Callas, is physically attractive and resourcefully seductive in dominating in their joint Machiavellian plotting. Her voice has a certain amount of intrusive vibrato but is strong and clear, and her acting is vivid yet not overly melodramatic. Her sleepwalking scene (seemingly filmed separately) is most tellingly done and very well sung. Roberto Iuliano is an excellent Macduff. The rest of the cast give good support, especially the chorus, who sing superbly throughout, with Bartoletti preventing the closing sequence (with both principal characters dead) from being an anticlimax. The production is acceptable, although having the audience visible from either side of the stage is disconcerting. Moreover, the witches’ scenes are extraordinarily conceived, with the witches apparently doing their laundry, so that when Macbeth arrives he has to push his way through the washing! However, even with these distractions, this is all very compelling, especially the banquet scene in Act II, when Macbeth loses his reason; here both the principal characters are at their finest.
Nabucco (complete, CD version)
Decca (ADD) 478 1717 (2). Gobbi, Souliotis, Cava, Prevedi, V. State Op. Ch. & O, Gardelli
A masterly performance on Decca, with dramatically intense and deeply imaginative contributions from Tito Gobbi as Nabucco and Elena Souliotis as the evil Abigaille. Souliotis made this the one totally satisfying performance of an all-too-brief recording career, wild in places, but no more than is dramatically necessary. Though Carlo Cava as Zaccaria is not ideally rich of tone, it is a strong characterization, and Gardelli, as in his later Verdi recordings for both Decca and Philips, showed what a Verdian master he is, whether in pointing individual phrases or whole scenes, simply and naturally. Vivid and atmospheric 1965 sound completes a fine set, now reissued as one of Decca’s ‘Originals’. The one minor blemish is that the Viennese chorus, although richly expansive, lacks bite in Va pensiero.
Otello (complete, DVD version)
DG DVD 0734040. Vickers, Freni, Glossop, Malagu, Bottion, Deutsche Oper Ch., BPO, Karajan (Director: Karajan; V/D: Georges Wakhevitch)
Filmed in Munich and Salzburg in 1972/3, Karajan’s disc offers a vivid production taken from the Salzburg Festival, superbly cast. Jon Vickers sings gloriously in the title-role, a heroic tenor who sings cleanly and accurately and with great passion, totally unstrained. Though Mirella Freni’s soprano might seem a little lightweight for Desdemona, it is sweetly beautiful, a totally charming portrayal of the wronged heroine, with Peter Glossop at his peak as the most sinister Iago, again totally unstrained. The co-ordination that Karajan obtains from his fine team, not just soloists but chorus and orchestra too, is a model for any rival, with Wakhevitch adding to the impact in the visual element, often set in the open air, with a stormy seascape at the start, and architectural sets. The film was made in conjunction with an audio recording, and the only slight snag is that there is a minor cut in the big central ensemble of Act III.
Of the many very fine versions on CD, perhaps the top choice is Plácido Domingo’s third recording of Otello (DG 439 805-2 (2) – Studer, Leiferkus, Ch. & O of the Bastille Opera, Chung) which proves to be more freely expressive and even more involved than his previous ones; the baritonal quality of his tenor has here developed to bring an extra darkness, with the final solo, Niun mi tema, poignantly tender. Cheryl Studer gives one of her finest performances as Desdemona, the tone both full and pure, while Sergei Leiferkus makes a chillingly evil Iago, the more so when his voice is the opposite of Italianate, verging on the gritty, which not everyone will like. With plenty of light and shade, Myung-Whun Chung is an urgent Verdian, adopting free-flowing speeds yet allowing Domingo full expansiveness in the death scene. The Chorus and Orchestra of the Bastille Opera excel themselves, setting new standards for an opera recording from Paris, and the sound is first rate.
Rigoletto (complete, CD version)
Decca (ADD) 414 269-2 (2). Sutherland, Milnes, Pavarotti, Talvela, Tourangeau, Amb. Op. Ch., LSO, Bonynge
Just over ten years after her first recording of this opera, Sutherland appeared in it again, this time with Pavarotti, who is an intensely characterful Duke: an unmistakable rogue but a charmer too. Thanks to him and to Bonynge above all, the Quartet becomes a genuine musical climax. Sutherland’s voice has acquired a hint of a beat, but there is little of the mooning manner that disfigured her earlier assumption, and the result is glowingly beautiful as well as supremely assured technically. Milnes makes a strong Rigoletto, vocally masterful rather than strongly characterful.
Simon Boccanegra (complete, DVD version)
TDK DVD DVWW OPSIBOW. Hampson, Gallardo-Domâs, Furlanetto, Dvorský, Daniel, V. State Op. Ch & O, Gatti (Director: Peter Stein; V/D: Anton Reitzenstein)
It is rare that you have a quintet of principals who sing with such clear and rock-steady tone as those chosen for Peter Stein’s Vienna State Opera production of Simon Boccanegra in 2002. Thomas Hampson as Boccanegra is at his peak, singing and acting magnificently. He is deeply moving opposite Cristina Gallardo-Domâs as Maria in their great recognition scene, one of the most touching moments in all Verdi. Hampson is well matched by Ferruccio Furlanetto with his dark, finely controlled bass as Fiesco, his adversary, and by Boaz Daniel as Paolo. The great Council Chamber scene is not only sung superbly, starting with Hampson in his address, Plebe, Patrizi, but Gatti builds up to the ‘gulp’ moment unerringly. At this point the set is less minimally stylized and more realistic than in other scenes of this great opera, setting the seal on a fine version, well recorded.
Abbado’s 1977 recording of Simon Boccanegra (DG 449 752-2 (2) – Freni, Cappuccilli, Ghiaurov, Van Dam, Carreras, La Scala, Milan, Ch. & O) makes a fine choice for those wanting a CD version of this opera as it is one of the most beautiful Verdi sets ever made. The playing of the orchestra is brilliantly incisive as well as refined, so that the drama is underlined by the extra sharpness of focus. The cursing of Paolo after the great Council Chamber scene makes the scalp prickle, with the chorus muttering in horror and the bass clarinet adding a sinister comment, here beautifully moulded. Cappuccilli, always intelligent, gives a far more intense and illuminating performance than the one he recorded for RCA earlier in his career; and Ghiaurov as Fiesco sings beautifully too. Freni as Maria Boccanegra sings with freshness and clarity, while Van Dam is an impressive Paolo. With electrically intense choral singing as well, this is a set to outshine even Abbado’s Macbeth, and it is superbly transferred to CD – now at mid-price.
La traviata (complete, DVD version)
Decca DVD 071 431-9. Gheorghiu, Lopardo, Nucci, ROHCG Ch. & O, Solti (Director: Richard Eyre; V/D: Humphrey Burton & Peter Maniura)
As this DVD rightly claims, this famous Solti performance of La traviata captures one of the most sensational débuts in recent operatic history. Singing Violetta for the first time, Angela Gheorghiu made the part entirely her own. But the DVD can also claim a special plaudit for the magical opening, when the camera focuses closely on Solti while he conducts the Prelude, with every movement of his hands and the concentration in his eyes creating the music in front of us. He holds the tension at the highest level throughout, with the strings playing marvellously, and recorded with absolute realism. Then the curtain goes up and Bob Crowley’s superb stage spectacle spreads out before our eyes. The singing is glorious, and this is one of the DVDs that should be a cornerstone in any collection.
Defying the problems of recording opera live at Covent Garden, the Decca engineers here offer one of the most vivid and involving versions ever of La traviata. As on stage, Gheorghiu brings heartfelt revelations, using her rich and vibrant, finely shaded soprano with consistent subtlety. Youthfully vivacious in Act I, dazzling in her coloratura, she already reveals the depths of feeling which compel her later self-sacrifice. In Act II she finds ample power for the great outburst of Amami, Alfredo, and in Act III almost uniquely uses the second stanza of Addio del passato (often omitted) to heighten the intensity of the heroine’s emotions. Frank Lopardo emerges as a fresh, lyrical Alfredo with a distinctive timbre, passionate and youthful-sounding too. Leo Nucci, a favourite baritone of Solti, provides a sharp contrast as a stolid but convincing Germont.
There is a wealth of additional performances to choose from for those who just want a CD version. Joan Sutherland recorded the role twice, first in the early 1960s with John Pritchard and, excellent though that version is, her digital re-make in the late 1970s is even finer, cast with Pavarotti on superb form and with Bonynge’s finely sprung conducting, it is pretty unbeatable (Decca 430 491-2 (2)). Of course, Callas’s many fans will prefer her 1955 version with Giulini, in a vividly dramatic performance, though with sound which is far from ideal (EMI 5 66450-2 (2)).
Il trovatore (complete, CD version)
RCA (ADD) 74321 39504-2 (2). L. Price, Domingo, Milnes, Cossotto, Amb. Op. Ch., New Philh. O, Mehta
The soaring curve of Leontyne Price’s rich vocal line is immediately thrilling in her famous Act I aria, and it sets the style of the RCA performance, full-bodied and with dramatic tension consistently high. The choral contribution is superb: the famous Soldiers’ and Anvil Choruses are marvellously fresh and dramatic. When Di quella pira comes, the orchestra opens with great gusto and Domingo sings with a ringing, heroic quality worthy of Caruso himself. There are many dramatic felicities, and Sherrill Milnes is in fine voice throughout; but perhaps the highlight of the set is the opening section of Act III, when Azucena finds her way to Conte di Luna’s camp. The ensuing scene with Fiorenza Cossotto is vocally and dramatically electrifying.
Arias from: (i) Aida; (i; ii) Don Carlo; (ii) Ernani; Macbeth; (i) Otello; (ii) Nabucco
EMI Legends (ADD) 557760. Callas, with (i) Paris Conservatoire O; (ii) Philh. O; Rescigno
Classic Callas recordings, which should be in every opera lover’s collection. The Philharmonia recordings, made in 1958, marked Callas’s only visit to record at Abbey Road Studios. Much of the content shows the great diva at her very finest. Dismiss the top-note wobbles from your mind, and the rest has you enthralled by the vividness of characterization as well as musical imagination. It is sad that Callas did not record the role of Lady Macbeth complete. Here La luce langue is not as intense as the Act I aria and Sleepwalking scene, which are both unforgettable, and she holds the tension masterfully in the long Don Carlos scene. Abigaille, Elvira and Elisabetta all come out as real figures, sharply individual. Finely balanced recordings and sounding good in their Legends transfer. The Paris recordings (with the orchestra’s distinctive timbre) are exciting too, with the Desdemona from Otello commandingly taken, Aida’s Ritorna vincitor vehemently done, and O don fatale done as theatrically as you can imagine. With the bonus DVD of arias filmed in 1965 with the O Nat. de l’ORTF under Prêtre – compelling stuff – this one of the best Callas collections about, though no texts are included.
‘The Victoria Collection’: Requiem (Officium defunctorum) (with Alonso Lobo: Versa est in luctum); Lamentations of Jeremiah (for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday & Holy Saturday) (with Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla: Lamentations for Maundy Thursday); Tenebrae Responsories
Gimell GIMBX 304 (3). Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips
Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Requiem, the Tenebrae Responsories and the Lamentations, with their mystical intensity of expression, represent the peak of Spanish Renaissance music, even though their composer spent his earlier years (1565-87) in Rome. This admirable three-disc collection contains some of his most beautiful and celestially serene settings. The Requiem (or Officium defunctorum) is one of his very finest works. In their outstanding performance the Tallis Scholars achieve great clarity of diction: they are 12 in number, and as a result the polyphony is clear and so are the words. The presentation embraces also Alonso Lobo’s motet, Versa est in luctum, written for the funeral of Phillip II of Spain, which Victoria greatly admired, and appended to his score. The Lamentations of Jeremiah for the services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday have a serene but poignant simplicity which Peter Phillips captures movingly, with spacious tempi. As they proceed the number of voices Victoria uses gradually increases, with the final Jerusalem sections always expanding the scoring, so there is a crescendo not only within each Lament but within each set of three and then over the nine. This disc also includes the six-voice Lamentations for Maundy Thursday by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (c.1590 1664), born in Málaga, but who moved to New Spain (Mexico), where he became Maestro de Capella at Puebla Cathedral. The music (to quote Peter Phillips) ‘is spiced up with the augmented intervals beloved of every Iberian composer’.
The Responsories are so called because of the tradition of performing them in the evening in increasing darkness, as the candles were extinguished one by one. The Tallis Scholars’ performance is restrained but flawless in both blend and intonation. They are beautifully recorded throughout, and this well-documented set is offered at a special bargain price to commemorate (in 2011) the quatercentenary of Victoria’s death.
(i–ii) Bachianas brasileiras 3; Mômoprecóce; (iii) Guitar Concerto; (iv) Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone & Chamber Orchestra; (i) Piano music: A prole do bebê (suite); A lenda do caboclo; Alma brasileira (Chôros 5); Ciclo brasiliero; Festa no sertão; Impressões seresteiras
EMI Gemini 3 81529-2 (2). (i) Ortiz; (ii) New Philh. O, Ashkenazy; (iii) A. Romero, LPO, López-Cobos; (iv) Harle, ASMF, Marriner
In many ways this is one of the finest Villa-Lobos collections in the catalogue, certainly the most varied. His rather melancholy piano-piece A lenda do caboclo (‘Legend of a half-caste’) gives a clue to the unique identity of this music, for the composer’s mother was Hispanic, his father of Indian descent. No. 3 of the Bachianas Brasileiras, which dates from 1938, is the only one of the series to involve the piano. The Mômoprecóce began life in 1920 (while the composer was living in Paris) as a set of piano pieces called Carnaval das Crianças and it was reworked in its concertante form later. Like so much of Villa-Lobos’s music, the score is rowdy and colourful. Cristina Ortiz, herself Brazilian, is a natural choice for this repertoire. She plays with appropriate vigour, reflective feeling and colour, and Ashkenazy gives splendid support. The late-1970s recording is excellent, with the CD transfer adding a little edge to the high violins. Ortiz is equally impressive in the solo piano pieces (again very well recorded), which she plays with flair and at times with touching tenderness, as in Villa-Lobos’s portraits of the Clay and Rag Dolls, the third and sixth members of A prole do bebê (‘Baby’s family’), Angel Romero makes the most of the comparatively slight Guitar Concerto, bringing out its Latin feeling. The Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone is a more substantial piece with three well-defined movements, contrasted in invention. John Harle is a perceptive soloist with a most appealing timbre and this is one of the highlights of the set. The recordings in both these concertante works (made in 1984 and 1990 respectively) are well up to the best Abbey Road analogue standards.
(i) Chôros 1; (ii) Chôros 4 (for 3 horns & trombone); (iii) Chôros 6, 8 & 9
BIS CD1450. (i) Fabio Zanon; (ii) Dante Venque, Ozéas Arantes, Samuel Hamzem, Darrin Coleman Milling: (iii) São Paulo SO, John Neschling
The series of Chôros on which Villa-Lobos embarked in the 1920s, employ various instrumental combinations. The First (1920) is for solo guitar and the Fourth (1926) for three horns and bass trombone. The Sixth (also 1926) is the first for orchestra, and both the Eighth (1925) and Ninth (1929) employ Brazilian percussion instruments; the resulting sonorities, such as the caracaxa (child’s rattle) have great exotic appeal. Villa-Lobos absorbed into his system much of the contemporary music of the day, Debussy, The Rite of Spring, Le bœuf sur le toit and works of Les Six. Yet it is the richly textured exoticism, evoking the sounds of the Brazilian forest, the boundless vitality of the dance, which resonates in the memory. Villa-Lobos creates his own sound-world and there is an infectious life and atmosphere here. John Neschling, born in Rio de Janeiro, and a pupil of Swarowsky and Bernstein, gets an enthusiastic response from his fine São Paolo players, and the BIS recording team does them proud. A good entry point into this composer’s world.
‘Ultimate Vivaldi’: Disc 1: The Four Seasons; Triple Violin Concerto in F, RV 551; Quadruple Violin Concerto in B min., RV 580 (Accardo & soloists, I Solisti di Napoli). Disc 2: Concertos for Bassoon, RV 498 (Gatt); Flute, RV 441 (Bennett); Oboe, RV 456 (Black); 2 Oboes, RV 535 (with Nicklin); 2 Oboes, Bassoon, 2 Horns & Violin, RV 574 (as above, with T. & I. Brown; Davis); Piccolo Concerto in C, RV 443 (Bennett). Disc 3: Cello Concertos, RV 401; 411; 412; 413; 418; 424 (Schiff, ASMF, Marriner). Disc 4: Concertos for Guitar, RV 93; 356; 425; for 2 Guitars, RV 532; for 4 Guitars, RV 580 (Los Romeros (members), ASMF, I. Brown). Disc 5: Double Concerto for Guitar & Viola d’amore, RV 540, arr. Malipiero (Fernández, Blume, ECO, Malcolm). Glorias: in D, RV 588 & 589 (soloists, St John’s College, Cambridge, Ch., Wren O, Guest)
Decca (ADD) 475 8536 (5)
This is undoubtedly the highlight of Decca’s super-budget ‘Ultimate’ composer series. There is no better Vivaldi collection in the catalogue, led by Salvatore Accardo’s outstanding version of The Four Seasons and including a superb collection of miscellaneous concertos with outstanding wind soloists from Marriner’s Academy (plus the excellent Heinrich Schiff in the Cello Concertos), and members of Los Romeros (originally by Philips) in the works for guitar (originally for mandolin, lute or violins). The selection is capped by splendid accounts from St John’s of the two Glorias, including the more famous, RV 589. But it is a pity there are no accompanying liner notes.
(i) The Four Seasons, Op. 8/1–4; (ii) Bassoon Concerto in A min., RV 498; (iii) Double Concerto for 2 Oboes in D min., RV 535; (iv) Piccolo Concerto in C, RV 443
Decca (ADD) 475 7531. (i) Loveday; (ii) Gatt; (iii) Black, Nicklin; (iv) Bennett; ASMF, Marriner
Marriner’s 1969 recording of The Four Seasons with Alan Loveday has been our top recommendation for four decades, and it is still unsurpassed. It has an element of fantasy that makes the music sound utterly new; it is full of imaginative touches, with Simon Preston subtly varying the continuo between harpsichord and organ. The opulence of string-tone may have a romantic connotation, but there is no self-indulgence in the interpretation, no sentimentality, for the contrasts are made sharper and fresher. Indeed, its stylish success on modern instruments makes one wonder what the fuss about period performance is all about. It now comes back into the catalogue with three bonus concertos which are hardly less enjoyable.
L’estro armonico, Op. 3; (i) Bassoon Concerto in A min., RV 498; (ii) Flute Concerto in C min., RV 441; (iii) Oboe Concerto in F, RV 456; (i; iii–iv) Concerto in F for 2 Oboes, Bassoon, 2 Horns and Violin, RV 574
Double Decca 443 476-2 (2). (i) Gatt; (ii) Bennett; (iii) Black; (iv) Nicklin, T. Brown, R. Davis, I. Brown, Hogwood, Tilney, Heath; ASMF, Marriner
Those who have not been won over by the more abrasive sound of period instruments will find Marriner’s set no less stylish than those of his period-performance rivals. As so often, he directs the Academy in radiant and imaginative performances of baroque music and yet observes scholarly good manners. The delightful use of the continuo – lute and organ, as well as harpsichord – the sharing of solo honours and the consistently resilient string-playing of the ensemble make for compelling listening. The 1972 recording, made in St John’s, Smith Square, is immaculately transferred, and as a bonus come four of Vivaldi’s most inventive concertos, each with its own special effects.
La stravaganza, Op. 4
Double Decca (ADD) 444 821-2 (2). ASMF, Marriner
Marriner’s performances make this music irresistible. The solo playing of Carmel Kaine and Alan Loveday is superb and, when the Academy’s rhythms have such splendid buoyancy and lift, it is easy to accept Marriner’s preference for a relatively sweet style in the often heavenly slow movements. The contribution of an imaginatively varied continuo (theorbo and organ) adds much to the colour of Vivaldi’s score. The recordings, made in St John’s, Smith Square, in 1974, are of the highest quality, with CD transfers in the demonstration class.
(i) La cetra (12 Violin Concertos), Op. 9; (ii) Double Oboe Concerto in D min., RV 535; (iii) Piccolo Concerto in C, RV 443
Double Decca (ADD) 448 110-2 (2). (i) Iona Brown; (ii) Black, Nicklin; (iii) Bennett; (ii–iii) cond. Marriner; ASMF
For La cetra Iona Brown acts as director in the place of Sir Neville Marriner. So resilient and imaginative are the results that one detects virtually no difference from the immaculate and stylish Vivaldi playing in earlier Academy Vivaldi sets. There is some wonderful music here; the later concertos are every bit the equal of anything in The Trial between Harmony and Invention, and they are played gloriously. The recording too is outstandingly rich and vivid, even by earlier Argo standards with this group, and the Decca transfer to CD retains the demonstration excellence of the original analogue LPs, with yet a greater sense of body and presence. For the Double Decca reissue, two of Vivaldi’s most engaging wind concertos have been added, winningly played by three Academy soloists. The sound is just as fine as in the concertos for violin.
(i) Mandolin Concerto in C, RV 425; (i–ii) Double Concerto for 2 Mandolins in G, RV 532. Concerti con molti strumenti: Concerto for Violin & 2 Flutes diritti; 3 Oboes & Bassoon (dedicated to Sua Altezza Reale di Sassonia), RV 576; Concerto for 2 Violins in tromba marina, 2 Flutes diritti, 2 Mandolins, 2 Salmoè, 2 Theorbos & Cello, RV 558; Concerto for Violin solo, 2 Oboes & Bassoon (dedicated to S. Pisandel) (Dresden version), RV 319; Concerto for 2 Violins & 2 Cellos in D, RV 564; Concerto in C for 3 Violins, Oboe & 2 Flutes diritti, 2 Viole all’inglese, Salmoè, 2 Cellos, 2 Harpsichords & 2 Violins in tromba marina, RV 555
Virgin 5 45527-2. (i) Scaramuzzino; (ii) Maurer; soloists, Europa Galante, Biondi
Another excellent disc from Fabio Biondi and his outstanding period-instrument group. The two simple Mandolin Concertos are played intimately and are perfectly balanced. The Concertos con molti strumenti offer an extraordinary range of tone-colour, especially the extravagantly scored C major Concerto, RV 555. In the Largo of this work the violin plays an obbligato line to the two solo harpsichords, which are given alternating arpeggios in a pendulum style, embroidering them a piacimento (‘as they please’). Toussaint Loviko, who provides the excellent notes, tells us that Vivaldi’s girl musicians were hidden by grilles curtained with black gauze, so they were able to exchange instruments at will and were thus able to surprise their listeners.
Concertos for Strings in C, RV 115; in C min., RV 120; in D, RV 121 & 123; in D min., RV 129; in F, RV 141; in F min., RV 143; in G min., RV 153, 154 & 156; in A, RV 158 & 159
Naïve OP 30377. Concerto Italiano, Alessandrini
Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano offer 12 concertos played with great brio and expressive sensibility, and you have only to sample the first or the last of the concertos here, RV 159 and RV 123, to hear how deeply expressive are the brief slow movements, and how infectious are the Allegros. First-class recording ensures that this new series gets the strongest recommendation.
‘Concerti con molti istromenti’: Concerto funèbre in B flat for Oboe, Chalumeau, Violin, 3 Viole all’inglese, RV 579; Concerto in C for 2 Recorders, Oboe, Chalumeau, Violin, 2 Viole all’inglese, 2 Violins ‘in tromba marina’, 2 Harpsichords, RV 555; Concerto in D min. for 2 Oboes, Bassoon, 2 Violins, RV 566; Double Trumpet Concerto in D, RV 781; Concerto in F for Viola d’amore, 2 Horns, 2 Oboes & Bassoon, RV 97; Concerto in F for Violin, 2 Oboes, Bassoon, 2 Horns, RV 574; Concerto in D for Violin, 2 Oboes, 2 Horns, RV 562
Hyp. CDA 67073. Soloists, King’s Cons., King
This is one of the most attractive of all the CD grouplings of Vivaldi’s often extraordinarily scored multiple concertos, in which the period-instrument playing is not only expert, but constantly tweaks the ear. The braying horns often dominate, especially in RV 562 and RV 574. The oboes are used to decorate the Grave of the latter, and elegantly open the finale of the former, before a bravura violin sends sparks flying. The Concerto funèbre, not surprisingly, opens with a Largo and combines the remarkable solo combination of muted oboe, tenor chalumeau, a trio of viole all’inglese, accompanied by muted strings. Then (in RV 555) comes the most remarkable array of all. Vivaldi even throws in a pair of harpsichords for good measure, and they are given some most attractive solo passages and are used to provide a gentle rocking background for a most engaging violin soliloquy in the central Largo. Throughout, the solo playing is wonderfully stylish and appealing, and Robert King maintains a fine vigour in Allegros and an often gentle espressivo in slow movements. The recording is first class. Very highly recommended.
‘Concerti con molti istromenti’: Concerto in G min. for Oboe solo, Violin solo, 2 Flutes & 2 Oboes, RV 576; Concerto in G min. for Oboe solo, Violin solo, 2 Flutes & 2 Oboes, RV 577; Concerto in F for Violin, 2 Oboes & 2 Horns, RV 574; Concerto in F for Violin, 2 Oboes & 2 Horns, RV 569; Sinfonia for Strings in C, RV 192
Naïve OP 30283. Soloists, Freiburg Bar. O, Von der Goltz
We know of the excellence of Gottfried von der Goltz’s period-instrument Freiburg Baroque Orchestra from their outstanding DVD of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos. They are no less stimulating in these Vivaldi concertos, written for Dresden, to which they bring a remarkable range of instrumental colour and dynamic, much vitality and expressive finesse. Slow movements, usually played gently, are always memorable, as in the Grave of RV 569 or the Larghetto of RV 576, and the excellence of their horn players is demonstrated vigorously in RV 574. A splendid collection, vividly recorded.
Double Cello Concerto in G min., RV 531; Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Bassoon & Violin in F (La tempesta di mare), RV 570; Concerto funèbre in B flat for Violin, Oboe, Salmoè & 3 Viole all’inglese, RV 579; Flute Concerto in G min. (La notte), RV 439; Violin Concertos in D (L’inquietudine), RV 234; in E (Il riposo – per il Natale), RV 270; in A (Per eco in lontano), RV 552.
Virgin 5 45424-2. Europa Galante, Biondi
This collection of some of Vivaldi’s most imaginative concertos, played on period instruments, is just as attractive as its looks. All the special effects, from the ghost and sleep evocations in La notte to the echoing second violin in RV 552, are neatly managed, and the atmosphere of the Concerto funèbre is well sustained. This concerto features a theme taken from Tito Manlio, where it was used as part of a procession to execution, and the scoring is very telling. Fabio Biondi leads an excellent team of soloists and directs sparkling accompaniments, with a touch of vintage dryness to the bouquet of string-timbre. Excellent recording.
Double Concertos: for 2 Cellos in G min., RV 531; for Violin, Cello in F (Il Proteo ò sia il mondoa rovescio), RV 544; for 2 Violins in A (per eco in lontano), RV 552. Triple Concertos: for 3 Violins in F, RV 551; for Violin & 2 Cellos in C, RV 561. Quadruple Concertos: for 2 Violins & 2 Cellos in C, RV 561; in D, RV 564
Teldec 4509 94552-2. Coin and soloists, Il Giardino Armonico, Antonini
An exceptionally rewarding collection of concertos for multiple, stringed instruments. Christophe Coin leads an excellent team of soloists and the imaginative continuo (organ, harpsichord and archlute) adds to the colour of performances which are full of life, yet which also reveal the music’s more subtle touches and are remarkably free from the exaggerated stylistic devices often associated with period instruments. The recording is excellent.
Violin Concertos in D (L’inquietudine), RV 234; in E min., RV 273; in E flat (La tempesta di mare), Op. 8/5; Double Violin Concerto in D min., Op. 3/11; Double Violin Sonata in D min. (La Follia), RV 63. (i) Aria: Andromeda liberate: Sovvente il sole
DG 477 7463. Hope, COE, (i) with Von Otter
Some exhilarating playing here. This collection begins with a dynamic account of the ‘L’inquietudine’, where the brilliance of the virtuosic writing is tempered with a timbre of both warmth and beauty. The opening of the E minor Concerto sounds darkly imposing, while La tempesta di mare is as exciting as it gets. Anne Sofie von Otter sings her aria with great beauty (and what a meltingly haunting aria it is too!). The CD ends with a vibrantly stylish account of the Double Concerto in D minor, from L’estro armonico. Superb recording and top production standards from DG.
(i) Gloria in D, RV 588; Gloria in D, RV 589; (ii–iii) Beatus vir in C, RV 597; Dixit Dominus in D, RV 594; (iv; iii) Magnificat in G min., RV 610
Double Decca (DDD/ADD) 443 455-2 (2). (i) Russell, Kwella, Wilkens, Bowen, St John’s College, Cambridge, Ch., Wren O, Guest; (ii) J. Smith, Buchanan, Watts, Partridge, Shirley-Quirk, ECO, Cleobury; (iii) King’s College, Cambridge, Ch.; (iv) Castle, Cockerham, King, ASMF, Ledger
The two settings of the Gloria make an apt and illuminating pairing. Both in D major, they have many points in common, presenting fascinating comparisons, when RV 588 is as inspired as its better-known companion. Guest directs strong and well-paced readings, with RV 588 the more lively. Good, warm recording to match the performances. Dixit Dominus cannot fail to attract those who have enjoyed the better-known Gloria. What caps this outstanding Vivaldi compilation is the earlier King’s account of the inspired Magnificat in G minor. Ledger uses the small-scale setting and opts for boys’ voices in the solos such as the beautiful duet, Esurientes, which is most winning. The performance overall is very compelling and moving, and the singing has all the accustomed beauty of King’s. The transfer of an outstanding (1976) analogue recording is admirable, even richer than its digital companions.
(i) Stabat Mater, RV 621; Clarae stella scintillate (Motet), RV 625; Concerto funèbre in B flat for Violin, Oboe, Salmoè & 3 Viole all’inglese, RV 579; Concerto sacra in D for Violin & Cello, with Organ obbligato, RV 554a; Sonata 4 al Santo Sepolcro in E flat for Strings, RV 130
Naïve OP 30367. (i) Mingardo; Concerto Italiano, Alessandrini
The deep contralto timbre of Sara Mingardo is especially telling in Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, and she is very moving in the agonized closing section. This performance is appropriately framed by the Concerto funèbre and similarly solemn ‘Santo Sepolcro’ Sonata. The other concertos which frame the contrasting motet, ‘O bright stars shine forth’, match its very different mood, and Mingardo successfully lightens her voice and style. Fine performances throughout.
Orlando furioso (complete, CD version)
CPO 777 095- 2 (3). Desler, Kennedy, De Liso, Gregoire, Coro da Camera Italiano, Modo Antiquo, Sardelli
Orlando furioso has a complex plot tied up with Alcina and Orlando (which we know from Handel). Orlando is well named, of course, for he goes mad at the end of Act II but recovers at the end of the opera in time to bless the marriage of the real lovers, Angelica and Medoro. The opera takes a little while to get going, but soon produces some splendid music for Orlando (the brilliant mezzo, Anne Desler), the engaging soprano Angelica (Nicki Kennedy) and of course Alcina (Marina De Liso) while Medoro’s Act I aria ‘I break the chains’ is particularly dramatic. But all the solo singing is of quality and the Camera Italiano Chorus and Modo Antiquo complete a fine supporting group, directed with spirit by Federico Maria Sardelli. Excellent recording, too, makes this enjoyable listening.
Arias from: L’Atenaide; Catone in Utica; L’incoronazione di Dario; Griselda (with Sinfonia); Ottone in villa (with Sinfonia); Tito Manlio; Tamerlano (Sinfonia)
Hyp. Helios CDH 55279. Emma Kirkby, Brandenburg Cons., Goodman
This delightful collection was recorded in 1994 when Emma Kirkby was at the very peak of her form. Whether she is singing alone, or in duet with an oboe (as in Tito Manlio), or with herself in the echo aria, L’ombre, l’aure, e ancora il rio (from Ottone in villa) she continually delights the ear and the senses. And how gently touching she is in Non mi lusinga vana speranza from L’incoronazione di Dario, and how stirringly regal in the closing Se in campo armato, with trumpet, from Catone in Utica. Roy Goodman’s accompaniments with the Brandenburg Consort are a model of taste and maintain a nicely intimate atmosphere.
‘Heroes’: Arias from: Andromeda liberata; Demofoonte; Farnace; Giustino; L’Olimpiade; Orlando finto pazzo; Orlando furioso; Ottone in villa; Tieteburga; Il Tigrane; Tito Manlio
Virgin 3 63414-2. Jaroussky, Ens. Matheus, Spinosi
The French counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky here gives an astonishing virtuoso performance in 15 arias from Vivaldi operas, well chosen to represent the three main periods of his operatic output. Brilliant, florid arias alternate with warmly lyrical ones. His fast divisions are flawless, breathtaking in their daring, with no suspicion of any intrusive aspirate. Perhaps even more remarkable are the intense, expansive, lyrical arias, which offer a refreshing view of the composer in their warmth, notably a Larghetto aria from L’Olimpiade, a late work, and the even more extended E minor aria Vivaldi contributed to a Serenata jointly composed with others, Andromeda liberata. This is a thrilling disc of rarities, very well accompanied and clearly recorded.
Opera arias and scenas: Il Bajazet (Il Tamerlano): Anch’il mar par che sommerga; Dorilla in Tempe: Dell’aura al sussurrar; Il Farnace: Gelido in ogni vena; La Fida Ninfa: Alma oppressa; Dite, oimè; Griselda: Dopo un’orrida procella; Il Giustino: Sventurata navicella; Sorte, che m’invitasti … Ho nel petto un cor sì forte. L’Olimpiade: Tra le follie … Siam navi all’onde algenti; L’Orlando finto pazzo: Qual favellar? … Anderò volerò griderò; Il Teuzzone: Di trombe guerriere. Arias with unidentified sources: Di due rai languir costante; Zeffiretti, che sussurrate
Decca 466 569-2. Bartoli, Il Giardino Armonico (with Arnold Schoenberg Ch.)
This remarkable collection is valuable as much for its exploration of rare Vivaldi operas as for coloratura singing of extraordinary bravura and technical security. It is a pity that the programme (understandably) opens with the excerpt from Dorilla in Tempe, with its echoes of Spring from The Four Seasons, as the chorus, although enthusiastic in praising those seasonal joys, is less than sharply focused. But the following aria from Griselda, with its stormy horns and fiendish leaps and runs, shows just how expertly Cecilia Bartoli can deliver the kind of thrilling virtuosity expected by Vivaldi’s audiences of their famous castrato soloists. Farnace’s tragic aria, Gelido in ogni vena (based on the Winter concerto), shows the other side of the coin with some exquisite lyrical singing of lovely descending chromatics. In short, this is dazzling singing of remarkable music, most stylishly and vividly accompanied. Indeed, the Storm aria from Il Bajazet brings a delivery of such speed and sharpness of articulation that the rapid fire of a musical machine-gun springs instantly to mind. Moreover, Decca have done their star mezzo proud with fine documentation including full translations.
Götterdämmerung: Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey; Siegfried’s Death and Funeral Music. Lohengrin: Preludes to Acts I & III. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Overture. Das Rheingold: Entry of the Gods into Valhalla. Rienzi: Overture. Siegfried: Forest Murmurs. Tannhäuser: Overture. Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries; Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music.
EMI Gemini 586248-(2). BPO, Tennstedt
This bargain Gemini two-CD set comprises two early digital collections (1981 and ’83) of Wagner’s orchestral music which were quite a sonic revelation in the early days of compact disc. With steely metallic cymbal clashes in the Ride of the Valkyries and a splendid thwack at the opening of the Entry of the Gods into Valhalla, the sense of spectacle is in no doubt. The sound could ideally be more opulent in the middle and bass (the brass is also a bit dry), but the brilliance is demonstrable. There is plenty of weight – the climax of Siegfried’s Funeral March has massive penetration – and fine detail too, especially in the atmospheric Forest Murmurs. Tennstedt amalgamates something from the combined Furtwängler and Klemperer traditions with his broad, spacious reading, and the playing throughout is of the finest quality, always maintaining a high level of tension. The opening and closing sections of the Tannhäuser Overture are given a restrained nobility of feeling without any loss of power or impact. Similarly, the richly contoured string melody at the opening of Rienzi is elegiacally moulded, and later, when the brass enter in the allegro, there is no suggestion of the bandstand. In the Act I Lohengrin Prelude, Tennstedt lingers in the pianissimo sections, creating radiant detail, then presses on just before the climax.
Der fliegende Holländer (complete, DVD version)
DG DVD 073 4433. Rundgren, Ligendza, McIntyre, Bav. State Op. Ch. & O, Sawallisch
Der fliegende Holländer (complete, CD version)
DG 437 778-2 (2). Weikl, Studer, Sotin, Domingo, Seiffert, Ch. & O of German Op., Berlin, Sinopoli
The Bavarian State Opera production has taken some time to reach us on DVD. It was recorded in May 1974 and the production filmed the following autumn. The adaptation by the Czech director Václav Kâslík is the second to appear on film (there was a monochrome and highly individual version in 1964 by Joachim Herz) and it succeeds in gripping the viewer visually as successfully as does Wolfgang Sawallisch musically. Indeed Sawallisch is the reason to investigate this set, for he gets gloriously eloquent playing from his wonderful Bavarian forces. No complaints about the soloists either: Catarina Ligendza makes an excellent Senta and Donald McIntyre is an effective Dutchman. The colour is as good as can be expected for a performance now 35 years old.
Sinopoli’s CD version is also an intensely involving performance, volatile in the choice of often extreme speeds. The choral singing is electrifying, and the line-up of principals is arguably finer than any other. Cheryl Studer is a deeply moving Senta, not just immaculate vocally but conveying the intense vulnerability of the character in finely detailed singing. Bernd Weikl is a dark-toned, firmly focused Dutchman, strong and incisive. Hans Sotin is similarly firm and dark, nicely contrasted as Daland, and the luxury casting may well be judged from the choice of Plácido Domingo as an impressive, forthright Erik and Peter Seiffert as a ringing Steersman. Full, vivid sound and a top choice in this opera.
Lohengrin (complete, CD version)
DG 437 808-2 (3). Jerusalem, Studer, Meier, Welker, Moll, Schmidt, V. State Op. Ch., VPO, Abbado
That Abbado’s speeds are generally faster than Solti’s rival Decca set (with the Act III Prelude a notable exception) means that the complete opera is squeezed on to three instead of four discs, giving it a clear advantage. As Elsa, matching her earlier Bayreuth performance on Philips, Cheryl Studer is at her sweetest and purest, bringing out the heroine’s naïvety more touchingly than Jessye Norman (on Solti’s Decca set), whose weighty, mezzo-ish tone is thrillingly rich but is more suited to portraying other Wagner heroines than this. Though there are signs that Siegfried Jerusalem’s voice is not as fresh as it once was, he sings commandingly, conveying both beauty and a true Heldentenor quality. Where Plácido Domingo for Solti, producing an even more beautiful tone, tends to use full voice for such intimate solos as In fernem Land and Mein lieber Schwann, Jerusalem sings them with tender restraint and gentler tone. Among the others, Waltraud Meier as Ortrud and Kurt Moll as King Heinrich are both superb, as fine as any predecessors; and though in the role of Telramund, Hartmut Welker’s baritone is not ideally steady, that tends to underline the weakness of the character next to the positive Ortrud.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (complete, DVD version)
DG DVD 073 4160 (2). Jerusalem, Weikl, Prey, Haggender, Clark, Schiml, Schenk, Bayreuth Festival Ch & O, Stein (Director: Wolfgang Wagner; V/D: Brian Large)
It is extraordinary largesse that we are so spoilt for choice with DVDs of Die Meistersinger, and several alternative versions will give great satisfaction. Wolfgang Wagner’s production in 1984 assembled an exceptionally starry cast, with not a single weak link and with many strengths. This DVD offers a recording, made live but without an audience. The exception is the great Quintet in Act III, which appears to have been recorded separately with the singers miming their roles, a small flaw in what is otherwise an immaculate and revelatory film, directed by Brian Large. Wolfgang Wagner’s sets and costumes are grandly traditional, and add greatly to the impact of the piece. Siegfried Jerusalem as Walther is one of the most heady-timbred of Heldentenoren, and sings with heroic tone in the Prize Song, making a magnificent climax. Bernd Weikl is a characterful, strong-toned Sachs and Mari Anne Haggender is a vivacious Eva, singing very sweetly, shading her tone down beautifully for the Quintet. Hermann Prey as Beckmesser is both characterful and unusually mellifluous of tone, not guying the character too much, and Manfred Schenk as Pogner, Graham Clark as David and Marga Schiml are all first rate. An outstanding version, with Horst Stein pacing the massive work splendidly.
The Mastersingers of Nuremberg (CD version, sung in English)
Chan. (ADD) 3148 (4). Remedios, Curphey, Hammond-Stroud, Bailey, Dempsey, Mangin, Sadler’s Wells Ch. & O, Goodall
This recording of The Mastersingers in English, made by the BBC at Sadler’s Wells in February 1968, marks an iconic moment in the history of opera in England. That is so not just because Goodall here demonstrates how strong the team of Sadler’s Wells singers was in Wagner, but the whole project pointed the way forward to the emergence in due course of English National Opera at the Coliseum, a genuine ‘Volksoper’ rival to the grand international company at Covent Garden.
Goodall had been hibernating for many years, having earlier made a name for himself conducting (among much else) the first performance of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. It was then an inspired choice to have him conduct Wagner at Sadler’s Wells, and he seized it eagerly, as this glowing performance amply demonstrates in every bar. Goodall himself patiently helped to train the singers of the 1960s Sadler’s Wells company in singing Wagner as he wanted it. His speeds are almost always very slow, but the singers respond superbly, revelling in the expansiveness instead of finding it a trial.
Alberto Remedios was then at his peak as a Wagner tenor, pure and unstrained throughout, rising magnificently to the challenge of the Prize Song in Act III, an exhilarating moment which sends you away joyfully, as the audience here plainly felt. Norman Bailey too was an outstanding Sachs, firm and focused, the wise philosopher; Noel Mangin is a clear-toned Pogner, and Gregory Dempsey is a bright, lively David, well contrasted with Remedios, while Derek Hammond-Stroud is a delightfully characterful Beckmesser, pointing the humour infectiously, though maybe the voice is too firm and strong for this character.
The women in the cast are not quite on this level, but Margaret Curphey as Eva sings with winning firmness and purity, and Ann Robson is a lively Magdalene. It is striking that not one of the singers has even the suspicion of a wobble, and the excellent casting equally involves the other Masters and the Nightwatchman sung by Stafford Dean. Consistently adding to the glow of the performance is the singing of the chorus and the playing of the orchestra. It is astonishing, remembering the variable quality of latter-day companies, that the team at Sadler’s Wells in the 1960s was so fine, quite a revelation. The radio recording captures the atmosphere thrillingly, a credit to the 1968 engineers, as well as to those making this transfer.
Parsifal (complete, CD version)
DG 477 6006 (4). Domingo, Meier, Struckmann, Selig, Bankl, Anger, V. State Op. Ch. & O, Thielemann
Christian Thielemann conducts an incandescent account of Parsifal, recorded live at a sequence of performances at the Vienna State Opera in June 2005. The performance is crowned by the magnificent singing and acting of Plácido Domingo in the title-role. It is astonishing that in his sixties he can produce such glorious, cleanly focused tone, powerful and even youthful-sounding, in keeping with the character of the young hero. Even in a live account his voice remains fresh to the end of this long opera. Comparably fine is the Kundry of Waltraud Meier, in glorious voice, attacking even the most exposed top notes with freshness, clarity and precision. Though the others are rather less impressive, they all sing well, with Franz-Josef Selig darkly powerful if occasionally unsteady as Gurnemanz and Falk Struckmann as Amfortas initially gritty-toned, later focusing more cleanly in Act III. Wolfgang Bankl is an excellent Klingsor, attacking the role incisively, while Ain Anger as Titurel completes a well-balanced team. Thielemann remains the hero, alongside Domingo, bringing dedication to this quasi-religious score combined with passion and dramatic bite. He keeps speeds flowing well, while letting the music breathe spaciously, with the choral singing magnificent throughout, and with the recording – made in collaboration with Austrian Radio – vividly atmospheric. This now takes pride of place for this opera, even ahead of Karajan’s deeply spiritual and equally dedicated account.
Der Ring des Nibelungen (DVD version) Das Rheingold
Warner DVD 2564 62318-2. Tomlinson, Clark, Finnie, Von Kannen, Hölle, Kang, Svendén, Bayreuth Festival O, Barenboim (Director: Harry Kupfer; V/D: Horant H. Hohlfeld)
Die Walküre
Warner DVD 2564 62319-2 (2). Elming, Secunde, Tomlinson, Finnie, Evans, Hölle, Bayreuth Festival O, Barenboim (Director: Harry Kupfer; V/D: Horant H. Hohlfeld)
Siegfried
Warner DVD 2564 62320-2 (2). Jerusalem, Clark, Tomlinson, Von Kannen, Evans, Kang, Svendén, Bayreuth Festival O, Barenboim (Director: Harry Kupfer; V/D: Horant H. Hohlfeld)
Warner DVD 2564 62321-2 (2). Jerusalem, Evans, Brinkmann, Bundschuh, Kang, Von Kannen, Bayreuth Festival O, Barenboim (Director: Harry Kupfer; V/D: Horant H. Hohlfeld)
Harry Kupfer’s Bayreuth production of the Ring cycle, recorded in 1991 and 1992, involves minimal stylized sets, evocatively lit. Generally conventional costumes, with occasional modern touches as in male characters wearing trilbies (not everybody’s choice), result in a cycle which tells the complex story of each part of the tetralogy as clearly and graphically as possible. Under the direction of Wolfgang Wagner each section was filmed as a straight performance in the Festspielhaus but without an audience, giving more air to the sound.
Rheingold opens in a shimmering green light with the Rhinemaidens dancing and the gold shining from a great cavity in the river bed. Alberich is characterfully sung by Günter von Kannen with firm, clear tone, as he steals the gold. The gods, waiting to enter the newly built Valhalla, are pictured in a simple, bare setting, and are again controversially depicted, with many of them wearing green fronds, and with John Tomlinson in dark glasses as Wotan, their powerful leader. Linda Finnie sings with fresh, clear tone as Fricka and Graham Clark makes a picturesque Loge, preening himself in a blond wig. The giants, Fasolt and Fafner (Matthias Hölle and Philip Kang both excellent) are then portrayed as genuinely gigantic figures with prosthetic arms and enormous bodies. Wotan’s and Loge’s coup in stealing the gold back from Alberich in Nibelheim is then atmospherically portrayed, and so is the handing of the gold to the giants in payment for their work, including the Tarnhelm and the Ring. The Rainbow Bridge in the final scene is suggested by vertical strip lighting in the relevant colours, illuminating Daniel Barenboim’s powerful conducting, a thrilling conclusion.
Die Walküre benefits not just from an excellent cast with no weak links but from the thrustful conducting of Daniel Barenboim, giving full weight to the big moments like the opening of Wotan’s Farewell in Act III. The Kupfer settings are similar to those in Rheingold, with space-age implications in the minimal sets, evocative lighting and clever use of long perspectives. Poul Elming as Siegmund (wearing fatigues!) comes out with ringing top notes, yet sings with the most tender emotion on greeting Sieglinde, beautifully sung by Nadine Secunde. Linda Finnie as Fricka makes the role seem nobler than usual, opposite the compelling Wotan of John Tomlinson. Anne Evans sings magnificently as Brünnhilde, fresh and bright, with clear, firm tone.
In Siegfried the Harry Kupfer production ingeniously conveys such tricky moments as the arrival of the bear in Act I and the flying of the Woodbird in Act II very graphically without descending into unwanted comic effects. Here the light soprano, Hilde Leidland, sings freshly and clearly. Graham Clark as the shifty Mime is splendidly contrasted with the strong Siegfried of Siegfried Jerusalem, the most mellifluous Heldentenor of his generation. As the Wanderer, John Tomlinson remains a tower of strength, poignantly struck down at his defeat at the hands of the callous Siegfried. The climax of Act III with Anne Evans at her peak as Brüunnhilde is exhilarating, aided by Daniel Barenboim’s powerful conducting.
Götterdämmerung opens with the Norns literally weaving their thread, and with Anne Evans in radiant voice singing superbly opposite the fine, clear Siegfried of Siegfried Jerusalem. The clarity of sound in the Rhine Journey is a delight, and in the Gibichung Hall scenes the Hagen of Philip Kang is genuinely sinister. Eva-Maria Bundschuh as Gutrune sings very sweetly, though Bodo Brinkmann as Gunther is too wobbly. The Alberich of Günter von Kannen is again excellent, and Barenboim brings out the darkness of the score most compellingly. In the calling of the Vassals in Act II the Bayreuth Chorus makes the most of its brief moment, all, like Siegfried himself, wearing boiler suits. The final Immolation scene is vividly done, with Anne Evans rising superbly to the challenge, though Kupfer’s device, after the fall of Valhalla, to have members of a modern audience watching TV sets is an odd intrusion for the final curtain, and one not welcomed by I.M.
Der Ring des Nibelungen (complete, CD version)
Decca (ADD) 455 555-2 (14). Nilsson, Windgassen, Flagstad, Fischer-Dieskau, Hotter, London, Ludwig, Neidlinger, Frick, Svanholm, Stolze, Böhme, Hoffgen, Sutherland, Crespin, King, Watson, Ch. & VPO, Solti
Testament 141 412 9 (14). 1955 Bayreuth recording, cond. Keilberth (details below)
It would be to take the easy option to suggest that the top choice for Wagner’s epic Ring cycle on CD is Solti’s pioneering version for Decca, especially now it is so nicely packaged and relatively inexpensive. Indeed, it is hard to go wrong with that choice, the peak of achievement for the conductor and many of his cast, commanding and magnificent.
Also, readers might also be interested to hear Deryck Cooke’s ‘An introduction to the Ring’, released in conjunction with the Solti Ring, a scholarly lecture, with its riveting discourse demonstrating just how many of the leading ideas in the Ring develop from one another, springing from an original germ (Decca 443 581-2 (2)).
Decca have also reissued Boehm’s fine (1967) Bayreuth Festival set, which captures the unique atmosphere and acoustic of the Festspielhaus very vividly. Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde and Wolfgang Windgassen as Siegfried are both a degree more volatile and passionate than they were in the Solti cycle. Gustav Neidlinger as Alberich is also superb, as he was in the Solti set, and the only major reservation concerns the Wotan of Theo Adam in a performance searchingly intense and finely detailed, but often unsteady of tone even at that period. The sound, only occasionally restricted, has been vividly transferred (Decca 478 2367 (14)).
However, Testament have released Joseph Keilberth’s recordings, taken live from the 1955 Ring cycle at Bayreuth, which was the very first recording in stereo, some years before the Decca set, which was recorded in the studio. This earlier set had been languishing in the archives, and it was thanks to the enterprise of Stewart Brown of Testament that finally, after much negotiation, the cycle appeared.
When Wieland Wagner invited Keilberth to conduct the Ring at Bayreuth, he was consciously aiming to present a reading manifestly contrasted with that of Hans Knappertsbusch’s spacious and contemplative version. Keilberth, by contrast, is urgent and passionate, and the thrust of the performance makes the result intensely exciting, inspiring the great Wagnerian singers in the cast to give of their finest. Testament have released the complete cycle at mid-price, and the individual operas are discussed below. However, in the complete boxed set, the first version of Götterdämmerung with the original cast is included and, fine though that is, the cast of the second cycle of the Ring at Bayreuth is even finer – see below.
Das Rheingold (complete, CD version)
Testament (ADD) SBT2 1390 (2). Hotter, Neidlinger, Lustig, Weber, Bayreuth Festival O, Keilberth
Keilberth’s complete recording of the Ring cycle emerges on disc for the first time, half a century late, as a constant revelation. The first astonishing thing is the clarity of the voices and the cleanness of the separation between them, scarcely rivalled by any more recent recordings. Vivid and immediate, the three Rhinemaidens are sharply defined in contrast with each other, with directional effects very clear. It means that the orchestra is relatively recessed, but the atmospheric beauty of the Bayreuth orchestra’s playing is well caught, and the big climaxes come over vividly, as for example Donner’s smiting of the anvil (even though no metallic clattering is conveyed). Another thrilling moment comes in Wotan’s final monologue with the first emergence of the Sword Theme. Keilberth’s conducting throughout is electrically intense, far more dynamic than that of his fellow Bayreuth conductor, Hans Knappertsbusch.
Die Walküre (complete, CD version)
Testament SBT4 1391 (4). Varnay, Hotter, Brouwenstijn, Vinay, Greindl, Bayreuth Festival O, Keilberth
Hans Hotter’s interpretation of the role of Wotan is well known from a number of versions, but here he not only sings with urgency, his voice is in wonderfully fresh condition, perfectly focused. ‘Wotan’s Farewell’ has never been more powerfully presented, with his agony over having to punish his favourite daughter most movingly conveyed. Astrid Varnay as Brünnhilde is similarly moving, and so are Gré Brouwenstijn as Sieglinde and the darkly baritonal Ramón Vinay (Toscanini’s choice as Otello) singing Siegmund, with Josef Greindl massive of voice as Hunding. The end of Act I, when the twins fall into each other’s arms, brings another great orgasmic moment, and the recording, originally made by Decca and now beautifully reprocessed, far outshines in quality the radio recordings of Bayreuth that have appeared on various labels.
Siegfried (complete, CD version)
Testament SBT4 1392 (4). Windgassen, Kuen, Hotter, Varnay, Neidlinger, Bayreuth Festival O, Keilberth
Fine as the recording of the 1955 Walküre is in the Testament processing, the Siegfried of that year is even more impressive, with even greater weight in the orchestral sound, with the brass and timpani astonishingly vivid. In this section of the Ring cycle that is particularly important, when Wagner more than ever relies on darkened orchestration. The voices are vividly caught too, with a wonderful sense of presence, and Wolfgang Windgassen as Siegfried (also the Siegfried of the Solti cycle) is in gloriously fresh voice, superbly contrasted with the mean-sounding but comparably well-focused tenor of Paul Kuen as Mime. Gustav Neidlinger too is clear and incisive as Alberich, with Josef Greindl darkly majestic as Fafner. The duetting of Varnay and Windgassen as Siegfried and Brünnhilde then makes a thrillingly passionate conclusion in Keilberth’s thrustful reading.
Götterdämmerung (complete, CD version of 2nd cycle recording)
Testament (ADD) SBT4 1433 (4). Mödl, Windgassen, Hotter, Ilosvey, Neidlinger, Greindl, Brouwenstijn, Bayreuth Festival Ch. & O, Keilberth
Recorded in 1955 during the second cycle of the Ring at Bayreuth under Keilberth, this is an important supplement to the complete Keilberth cycle that Testament issued earlier, with arguably two important cast-changes making it even more attractive: Martha Mödl instead of Astrid Varnay, more powerful if less girlish, and Hans Hotter as Gunther certainly finer than Hermann Uhde, who was rested in order to sing in the Bayreuth Fliegende Holländer. Wolfgang Windgassen as Siegfried is again remarkable, not just for his unstrained power but for the moments of tenderness.
Keilberth’s conducting is incandescent, more urgent than Hans Knappertsbusch or Furtwängler, making the big dramatic moments totally thrilling, surging with excitement, with the fulfilment of the final scene movingly caught. The impact is all the greater thanks to the excellent stereo sound obtained by the Decca engineers, even if the string focus can be a little fizzy. As before, words are astonishingly clear.
Tannhäuser (complete (Dresden) DVD version, plus Paris Bacchanale)
DG DVD 073 4446 (2). Wenkoff, G. Jones, Weikl, Sotin, Bayreuth Festival Ch. & O, C. Davis (Stage Director: Götz Friedrich; V/D: Thomas Olofsson)
This 1978 Tannhäuser was the first time a production had been filmed complete at Bayreuth; considering that, the visual balance and the sound are remarkably impressive. Obviously the artists were aware that history was being made, and the concentration and tension of the performance are unmistakable. The sets are not opulent but are faithful to the composer’s intentions, and Sir Colin Davis’s conducting is full of inspiration and vitality. The star performance is Dame Gwyneth Jones’s gloriously sung Elisabeth and Venus, but Spas Wenkoff is strong in the title-role and Bernd Weikl is a superb Wolfram. The production offers the original Dresden version, plus the Paris Bacchanale, handled with effective eroticism. All in all, a remarkable achievement.
Tannhäuser (complete (Paris) CD version)
DG 427 625-2 (3). Domingo, Studer, Baltsa, Salminen, Schmidt, Ch. & Philh. O, Sinopoli
Plácido Domingo as Tannhäuser for Sinopoli brings balm to the ears, producing sounds of much power as well as beauty. Sinopoli here makes one of his most passionately committed opera recordings, warmer and more flexible than Decca’s Solti version, always individual, with fine detail brought out, always persuasive and never wilful. Agnes Baltsa is not ideally opulent of tone as Venus, but she is the complete seductress. Cheryl Studer – who sang the role of Elisabeth for Sinopoli at Bayreuth – gives a most sensitive performance, not always even of tone but creating a movingly intense portrait of the heroine, vulnerable and very feminine. Matti Salminen in one of his last recordings makes a superb Landgrave and Andreas Schmidt a noble Wolfram, even though his legato could be smoother in O Star of Eve.
Tristan und Isolde (complete, DVD version)
DG DVD 073 4439 (2). Jerusalem, Meier, Hölle, Struckmann, Bayreuth Festival Ch. & O, Barenboim
Tristan und Isolde (complete, CD version)
EMI 9 6686402(3) (3). Stemme, Domingo, Fujimura, Pape, Bär, ROHCG Ch. & O, Pappano
Barenboim’s DVD is not a recording of a live performance but was made over a seven-day period, without an audience, in 1995. The result is very successful indeed, having the best of both worlds and offering an inherent spontaneity. The production is plain and the performance not voluptuous either, but with a splendid partnership of Siegfried Jerusalem at his finest and the rich-voiced Waltraud Meier also at her freshest, and the casting topped by Matthias Hölle’s resonant bass as King Mark. Barenboim is in his element and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra provide a richly intense backing
When Plácido Domingo suggested to EMI that as a culmination to his unique career he would like to record Tristan und Isolde, the record company boldly took up the challenge and with luxury casting produced what is instantly recognizable as a classic recording, worthy successor to the great Furtwängler version of 1952 with Flagstad as Isolde. The glory of this set is not only the radiant singing of Domingo, still in glorious, full-throated voice in his sixties, but the warmly understanding conducting of Antonio Pappano with the Covent Garden Orchestra, more volatile than that of Furtwängler but just as concentrated. Domingo, at once heroic and lyrical, not only offers the most beautiful assumption on disc since Windgassen for Boehm at Bayreuth in 1966, but he sings with a passion beyond that of most Heldentenoren, and he is matched by the tenderly girlish Isolde of Nina Stemme. Hers may not be a big, noble soprano like those of Flagstad or Birgit Nilsson, and in Act II she comes to sound a little stressed, but with fine projection and subtle shading her portrait is the more passionate and more feminine. Mihoko Fujimura as Brangäne is clear and tender too – her warnings in the love duet creep exquisitely on the ear – and René Pape as King Mark is unmatched by any contemporary. Olaf Bär with his lieder-like command of detail is a fine Kurwenal, with such stars as Ian Bostridge as the Shepherd and Rolando Villazón as the Young Sailor filling in smaller parts. The set includes a bonus CD-ROM with libretto and synopsis.
Symphonic Poems 1 (The Passing of Beatrice); 3 (Sister Helen); 5 (Sir William Wallace); 6 (Villon)
Hyp. CDA 66848. BBC Scottish SO, Brabbins
Like Hamish MacCunn, William Wallace was born in Greenock, near Glasgow. Sir William Wallace’s Scottish character is immediately obvious at the brooding opening; the main theme, ‘Scots wha’ hae’, emerges only slowly but is celebrated more openly towards the end. Villon, an irreverent medieval poet, was a hero of a different kind, and Wallace’s programme draws on the thoughts of his philosophical ballads (which are named in the synopsis) in music that is both reflective and vividly colourful. The very romantic Passing of Beatrice is a sensuous vision of Paradise, lusciously Wagnerian with an unashamedly Tristanesque close, reflecting the heroine’s final transformation. The scoring is sensuously rich, yet it retains the spiritually ethereal quality of the narrative, rather as Wagner does in Parsifal. The final piece here is based on Rossetti. What is so remarkable is not only the quality of the musical material throughout these works, but also the composer’s skill and confidence in handling it: they are musically every bit as well crafted as the symphonic poems of Liszt. Clearly the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra enjoy playing them. The result is remarkably satisfying.
(i) Capriccio burlesco; (ii) Music for Children; Portsmouth Point Overture; (i) The Quest (ballet suite); Scapino Overture; (ii) Siesta; (i; iii) Sinfonia concertante
Lyrita SRCD 224. Composer, with (i) LSO; (ii) LPO; (iii) Katin
When Walton made these recordings he was in his late sixties, and his speeds had grown a degree slower and safer. If Portsmouth Point loses some of its fizz at so moderate a speed, there is no doubting the commitment of the playing, brought out superbly by the vintage Lyrita sound. By contrast Scapino suffers hardly at all from the slower speed, rather the opposite, with the opening (if anything) even jauntier and the big cello melody drawn out more expressively. Siesta too brings out the piece’s romantically lyrical side, rather than making it a relatively cool intermezzo. The Capriccio burlesco and the ten little pieces of the Music for Children are delightful too, with the subtleties of the instrumentation beautifully demonstrated. Much the biggest work here is the Sinfonia concertante, and in the outer movements the performance lacks the thrust that Walton himself gave it in his very first, wartime recording in which Phyllis Sellick was a scintillating soloist. Yet Peter Katin is a very responsive soloist too, and the central slow movement is much warmer and more passionate, with orchestral detail rather clearer. It is good too to have the first stereo recording of the suite from Walton’s wartime ballet based on Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’, The Quest, only a fraction of the whole, but a magical score, bright and colourful and unfailingly enjoyable.
(i) Cello Concerto; (ii) Viola Concerto; (iii) Violin Concerto. Scapino; Coronation Marches: Crown Imperial; Orb and Sceptre; Façade Suites 1 & 2; Henry V: Suite. Symphonies 1 & 2; Variations on a Theme of Hindemith; (iv) Coronation Te Deum; Belshazzar’s Feast.
Decca 470 508-2 (4). (i) Cohen; (ii) Neubauer; (iii) Little; (iv) Terfel, L’inviti, Wayneflete Singers, Winchester Cathedral Ch.; Bournemouth Ch. & SO, Litton or Hill
Decca’s four-disc Walton Edition offers consistently fine versions of all the composer’s most important orchestral works, some of them unsurpassed by rival versions, with Andrew Litton an idiomatic Waltonian with a natural feeling for the jazzy syncopations. This set brings together the three Litton discs previously issued by Decca, but with important additions. The third of the four CDs, never originally issued with the others, contains outstanding versions of the Viola Concerto and Hindemith Variations, plus the two Walton Façade Suites.
Where most latter-day interpreters of the Viola Concerto have taken a very expansive view of the lyrical first movement, Andante comodo, Paul Neubauer comes nearer than anyone to following the example of the original interpreters on disc, Frederick Riddle and William Primrose, in adopting a flowing tempo, encouraged by the composer. It makes Neubauer’s and Litton’s far more persuasive than other modern versions, with no expressive self-indulgence and with the brisker passages in this movement also taken faster than has become usual. Neubauer’s tone is taut and firm to match, clean rather than fruity, with the central Scherzo taken excitingly fast. He then relaxes beautifully for the hauntingly lovely epilogue, ending on a whispered pianissimo. Litton also encourages wide dynamic contrasts, with the big tuttis bringing an element of wildness in brassy syncopations. The Hindemith Variations also delivers a performance with contrasts heightened, not just of dynamic but of speed, extreme in both directions. This goes with an exceptional transparency in the orchestral textures, well caught in the recording and bringing out the refinement of Walton’s orchestration. Façade, predictably, is a fun performance, although the warm acoustic runs the danger of taking some edge off these witty parodies.
Two of the other discs are the same as before, with Tasmin Little’s heartfelt reading of the Violin Concerto very well coupled with Litton’s outstanding account of the Second Symphony and Scapino, and Robert Cohen’s thoughtful reading of the Cello Concerto in coupling with the First Symphony. Not since Previn’s vintage recordings of Walton has a conductor so thrillingly conveyed the element of wildness in Walton’s finest inspirations, notably in the First Symphony. Litton’s success lies not just in his ability to screw up tension to breaking point but also in his treatment of the jazzy syncopations which are a vital element in this music. Like Previn – and, for that matter, Walton himself – Litton treats the jazz rhythms with a degree of idiomatic freedom, consistently making the music crackle with electric energy. In the Symphony, Litton more than anyone makes the finale into a fitting culmination, bold and brazen, resolving into the concluding climax triumphantly on a shattering outburst of timpani.
In the Cello Concerto, Litton is both mercurial and tender and his hushed, meditative approach is powerfully compelling. The way that Cohen makes the opening note of the slow finale seem to emerge from afar is magical. Tasmin Little as the soloist in the Violin Concerto gives the most tenderly beautiful performance, matching Litton in her control of Waltonian contrasts between tender lyricism and sparkling wit. Like Litton, she is able to hold full tension through pauses, often daringly extending them as in a live performance, so that the cadenzas in the first and last movements have rare intensity. This is a work which has generated many inspired performances, not least from woman violinists, and Little in spontaneity and tenderness is unsurpassed.
Litton’s powerful account of Belshazzar’s Feast brings a fresh, cleanly focused choral sound that, with the help of keenly atmospheric recording, points up more clearly than usual the terracing between the different groupings of voices. Recorded in Winchester Cathedral, the reverberation time is formidably long, yet, thanks to brilliant balancing, there is ample detail and fine focus in exceptionally incisive choral and orchestral sound. The great benefit is that this emerges as a performance on a bigger scale than its rivals, with the contrast between full chorus and semi-chorus the more sharply established. Bryn Terfel is a most dramatic baritone soloist, pointing the words as no one else has with deeply expressive and individual colourings, notably in the ‘shopping list’ – ‘Babylon was a great city’ – and in his spine-chilling narration describing the writing on the wall. This disc also includes the two coronation marches – Crown Imperial is particularly stirring – the Coronation Te Deum (sounding suitably imposing and very richly recorded) and the Henry V Suite, with David Hill, chorus-master in Belshazzar, ably standing in for Litton in Orb and Sceptre and the Te Deum.
Sadly, the classic accounts of Previn’s version of the First Symphony and Szell’s account of the Second are currently unavailable on CD. However, the composer’s own performance of the First Symphony is available, coupled with his version of Belshazzar’s Feast, on EMI.
Viola Concerto; Violin Concerto
EMI 5 62813-2. Kennedy, RPO, Previn – VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: The Lark Ascending
(i–ii) Viola Concerto; (i; iii) Violin Concerto; (iv) Partita for Orchestra; Symphony 1 in B flat min.; (iv–v) Belshazzar’s Feast
EMI stereo/mono 9 68944-2 (2) (i) Y. Menuhin; (ii) New Philh. O; (iii) LSO; (iv) Philh. O; (v) Bell, Philh. Ch.; cond. composer
Nigel Kennedy’s achievement in giving equally rich and expressive performances of both Concertos makes for an ideal coupling, helped by the unique insight of André Previn as a Waltonian. Kennedy on the viola produces tone as rich and firm as on his usual violin. The Scherzo has never been recorded with more panache than here, and the finale brings a magic moment in the return of the main theme from the opening, hushed and intense. In the Violin Concerto Kennedy gives a warmly relaxed reading, in which he dashes off the bravura passages with great flair. He may miss some of the more searchingly introspective moments, but there are few Walton recordings as richly rewarding as this, helped by warm, atmospheric sound, and with the bonus of a highly sensitive account of Vaughan Williams’s masterly evocation of The Lark Ascending.
However, the EMI collection has great historical interest as the composer, for many years his own finest interpreter, directs throughout. Fine performances (made in 1968/9) of both Concertos from Menuhin, who is in reasonably good form in the Violin Concerto and makes a very good showing in the masterly Viola Concerto. But many Waltonians will not approve of the extremely slow account of the Viola Concerto first movement, and undoubtedly Nigel Kennedy’s performances of both works are superior. However, it is good to have such an important recording as that of the First Symphony, sharply illuminating and resurrected after some years of unavailability. Belshazzar’s Feast obviously has authenticity too, but the singing of the Philharmonia Chorus, although good, is not ideally incisive; and some reservations could be expressed about Donald Bell’s contribution, which might have been more imaginative. The recording is extremely clear, if a little on the dry side. The Partita is generally more successful. It was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra and first performed in 1958. The writing is typical of Walton’s earlier style, having something of the hurly-burly of Portsmouth Point, and the finale, Giga burlesca, more than once reminds the listener of Scapino.
Onyx 4016. Ehnes, Vancouver SO, Tovey – KORNGOLD; BARBER: Violin Concertos
Ehnes gives perhaps the finest of all accounts of Walton’s Violin Concerto on record. He sets his seal on his performance from the magical opening bars onwards, played exquisitely by soloist and orchestra alike, and all the way through the work brings out its full emotional thrust without vulgarity or exaggeration. Unlike most latter-day interpreters, Ehnes has taken note of the example of the work’s commissioner and dedicatee, Jascha Heifetz. Where latterly the work has generally spread to well over half an hour, Ehnes takes exactly 30 minutes, and the result again is all the stronger. He is helped by the powerful playing of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under its music director, Bramwell Tovey. An outstanding disc in every way, with its equally outstanding couplings.
(i) Façade (complete); (ii) Orb and Sceptre; (iii) Siesta; Overtures: Portsmouth Point; Scapino
Australian Decca Eloquence mono/stereo 480 3783. (i) Sitwell, Pears, E. Op. Group Ens., Collins; (ii) LSO, Sargent; (iii) LPO, Boult (with BAX: Coronation March (LSO, Sargent). BLISS: Welcome the Queen (LSO, composer))
Anthony Collins’s 1954 recording of Façade is a gramophone classic. With their cut-glass accents and beautifully manicured diphthongs, Pears and Sitwell, richly musical in their inflexion, are in complete sympathy with this wonderful work. Dame Edith Sitwell had one of the richest and most characteristic of speaking voices, and here she recites her early poems to the witty music of the youthful Walton with relish. Peter Pears is hardly less arresting in the fast poems, rattling off the lines like the Grande Dame herself, to demonstrate how near to nonsense pure poetry can be. Of course, there are flaws in Dame Edith’s contribution over rhythm. She has no idea whatever of offbeat accentuation or jazz syncopation in Old Sir Faulk, but any such criticism fades in the richness of her characterization. The sound is sharply defined and vivid in a way few digital recordings can match. Boult’s mono recordings of the Walton shorter works make an intelligent coupling: both Scapino and Siesta come off very well, and even if Portsmouth Point doesn’t quite match the earlier, 78-r.p.m. recording in rhythmic bite, it is very good by any standards. Sargent’s Orb and Sceptre and Bax’s Coronation March offer both relaxed and effective readings of these royal favourites, while Bliss’s lusty and lively version of his own Welcome the Queen (in stereo) is as enjoyable as ever. However, it is for Façade that this CD is an essential purchase.
Façade: Suites 1 & 2
Hyp. Helios CDH 55099. E. N. Philh. O, Lloyd-Jones – BLISS: Checkmate (ballet): Suite. LAMBERT: Horoscope: Suite
Brilliantly witty and humorous performances of the two orchestral suites that Walton himself fashioned from his ‘Entertainment’. This is music which, with its outrageous quotations, can make one chuckle out loud. Moreover it offers, to quote Lambert, ‘one good tune after another’, all scored with wonderful felicity. The playing here could hardly be bettered, and the recording is in the demonstration bracket with its natural presence and bloom. A very real bargain.
Sinfonia concertante for Orchestra with Piano (original version)
Dutton CDLX 7223. Stott, RPO, Handley – BRIDGE: Phantasm. IRELAND: Piano Concerto
Kathryn Stott, warmly and strongly accompanied by Vernon Handley and the RPO, gives an outstanding reading of the Sinfonia concertante’s original version, and the result seems to strengthen what is a consistently memorable work, built from vintage Walton material. First-rate recorded sound (originally on Conifer) and couplings that are both generous and apt, particularly the splendid version of the Ireland Piano Concerto.
As You Like It; Hamlet
Chan. 10436X. Gielgud, Bott, ASMF, Marriner
Thanks to the diligence of Christopher Palmer, Walton’s score for Hamlet offers some 40 minutes of music, a rich and colourful suite, superbly played and recorded, and much enhanced by the contribution of Sir John Gielgud in two of Shakespeare’s soliloquies, ‘O that this too, too solid flesh’ and ‘To be or not to be’. The selection of music from the pre-war film of As You Like It makes a valuable fill-up. It adds the splendid setting of Under the greenwood tree in a radiant performance by Catherine Bott. Marriner and the Academy draw out all the romantic warmth of both scores, and the sound is richly atmospheric to match.
The Battle of Britain: Suite. Escape Me Never: Suite. The First of the Few: Spitfire Prelude and Fugue. Three Sisters; A Wartime Sketchbook
Chan. 8870. ASMF, Marriner
The Spitfire Prelude and Fugue, from The First of the Few, was immediately turned into a highly successful concert-piece: from its imposing fanfare opening to the thrilling fugue, it is rightly one of the composer’s most popular pieces. But we owe it to Christopher Palmer that there is the ‘Wartime Sketchbook’, drawing on material from three of the wartime films, plus scraps from the much later Battle of Britain film music, and not least the theme from the credits of the film Went the Day Well, which opens the Suite. It is undoubtedly one of the most stirring pieces ever written; by that we mean by any composer – not just Walton. The following Bicycle-chase is as exhilarating as the Scherzo (Gay Berlin) is vivaciously enjoyable. The brief suite from the music for Olivier’s film of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, from much later, brings more than one setting of the Tsar’s Hymn and a charming imitation of Swan Lake. Earliest on the disc is Escape Me Never, the first of Walton’s film scores, written in 1935 in a more popular idiom; but the war-inspired music is what this delightful disc is really about. Marriner and the Academy give richly idiomatic performances, full of panache. Aptly opulent recording.
Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario (arr. Palmer)
Chan. 10437X. Plummer (nar.), Westminster Cathedral Ch., ASMF, Marriner
Few film scores can match Walton’s for the Olivier film of Henry V in its range and imagination. From the opening bars, the drama is vividly evoked, with Walton’s rich musical imagination delivered with maximum impact. The set-piece numbers such as Agincourt are as spectacular as the Interlude: At the French Court is charming. The ‘Scenario’ recorded here, devised by Christopher Palmer, lasts just over an hour and, as a concert performance of a film score, it cannot be faulted. The most controversial change is to ‘borrow’ the first section of the march that Walton wrote much later for a projected television series on Churchill’s History of the English-speaking Peoples; otherwise the Chorus’s call to arms, Now all the youth of England is on fire, would have had no music to introduce it. As an appendix, three short pieces are included which Walton quoted in his score. Sir Neville Marriner caps even his previous recordings in this series, with the Academy and Westminster Choir producing heart-felt playing and singing in sumptuous sound. Christopher Plummer makes an excellent substitute for Olivier, unselfconsciously adopting a comparably grand style.
Macbeth: Fanfare & March; Major Barbara (suite); Richard III (Shakespeare scenario)
Chan. 10435X. Gielgud (nar.), ASMF, Marriner
Walton’s music to Richard III is hardly less impressive than that of his masterpiece, Henry V. From the vibrant fanfares which open the score, via the imposing music for the Coronation scene, to the dramatic Death of Richard, there is much to relish in this colourful and atmospheric score. If Sir John Gielgud tends to underplay his part with his great ‘Now is the winter of our discontent’ speech, working to the underlying music – much of it eliminated in the film – may have cramped his style. But the performance has all the panache one could ask for, leading up to the return of the grand Henry Tudor theme at the end. The six-minute piece based on Walton’s music for Gielgud’s wartime production of Macbeth is much rarer and very valuable too, anticipating in its Elizabethan dance-music the Henry V film score (along with yet another impressive fanfare). Major Barbara also brings vintage Walton material. Marriner and the Academy give performances just as ripely committed as in their other recordings in the series, helped by sonorous Chandos sound.
Troilus and Cressida (complete, CD version)
Chan. 9370/1 (2). A. Davies, Howarth, Howard, Robson, Opie, Bayley, Thornton, Owen-Lewis, Opera N. Ch., E. N. Philh., Hickox
Few operas since Puccini have such a rich store of memorable tunes as Troilus and Cressida. As Chandos’s magnificent recording shows, based on Opera North’s 1995 production – using Walton’s tautened score of 1976 but with the original soprano register restored for Cressida – this red-bloodedly romantic opera on a big classical subject deserves to enter the regular repertoire. Judith Howarth portrays the heroine as girlishly vulnerable, rising superbly in the big challenges of the love duets and final death scene. Arthur Davies is an aptly Italianate Troilus, an ardent lover, and there is not a weak link in the cast, with Nigel Robson a finely pointed Pandarus, comic but not camp, avoiding any echoes of Peter Pears, the originator. As Evande, Cressida’s maid, Yvonne Howard produces firm, rich mezzo tone, and the role of Calkas, Cressida’s father, is magnificently sung by Clive Bayley. The role of Diomede, Cressida’s Greek suitor, can seem one-dimensional, but Alan Opie, in one of his finest performances on record, sharpens the focus, making him a genuine threat, a noble enemy. Richard Hickox draws magnetic performances from chorus and orchestra alike, bringing out many parallels with the early Walton of Belshazzar’s Feast and the First Symphony. As for the recorded sound, the bloom of the Leeds Town Hall acoustics allows the fullest detail from the orchestra, enhancing the Mediterranean warmth of the score, helped by a wide dynamic range. The many atmospheric effects, often off stage, are clearly and precisely focused, and the placing of the voices on the stereo stage is also unusually precise.
Capriol Suite (for strings)
Naxos 8.550823. Bournemouth Sinf., Richard Studt (with Concert: English String Music)
This is just about the finest available performance of Warlock’s masterly Capriol Suite. There is a memorable account conducted by Vernon Handley on Chandos (CHAN 8808), but that uses the full orchestral score, whereas the Naxos version sounds just as the composer conceived it. The rest of the programme is a splendid collection of English string works which includes Britten’s Frank Bridge Variations, Holst’s St Paul’s Suite and Vaughan Williams’s Dives and Lazarus. Demonstration sound.
Rebecca (complete film score)
Naxos 8.557549. Slovak RSO, Adriano
Rebecca (1940) is regarded as Waxman’s finest score and it is easy to hear why. Waxman sweeps you immediately into the world of Daphne du Maurier’s bestseller. The score is an integral part of Hitchcock’s film, with the Rebecca theme used to portray the ghostly presence of Max de Winter’s dead first wife. Throughout, the music brilliantly portrays the often haunting and creepy atmosphere of this gothic fantasy. It is not all gloomy though, with numbers such as the Lobby Waltz providing a haunting piece of nostalgia. Adriano (and others) have made a splendid job of assembling this score, some of which had to be reconstructed from the soundtrack, while other music, not used in the final film, is also restored here. Both the performance and recording are very good and, at super-bargain price, this is an obvious acquisition for all film-music aficionados.
Clarinet Concertos 1, Op. 73; 2, Op. 74; Clarinet Quintet, Op. 34 (version for clarinet and strings)
Sony SACD 88697 37632-2. Fabio di Càsola, Russian Chamber Philharmonic, St Petersburg, Juri Gilbo
It was a celebrated contemporary clarinettist, Heinrich Baermann, who attracted Weber to the instrument. He had a special clarinet made with ten keys to extend the instrument’s range, and Weber wrote a total of ten pieces for him to play on it, all of them delightfully tuneful, and with roulades galore to test the virtuosity of the player, who here comes up trumps. Such enticing works, admirable show-pieces too, have received many recordings, notably scintillating accounts of the two Concertos from our own Emma Johnson (on ASV), but Martin Fröst on BIS (SACD) is hardly less seductive, and he, like the light-hearted Sabine Meyer (on HMV), also offers the arrangement of the Quintet. However, Fabio di Càsola’s performances are dazzling and Juri Gilbo’s persuasive partnership in slow movements is romantic in the best Weberian operatic style. The twirly-whirly Menuetto capriccio of the arranged Quintet is deliciously done, and the closing giocoso is also wonderfully infectious. Then the performances are capped by the bravura scales in the final jaunty Allegro polacca of No. 2. The SACD sound is splendidly atmospheric, so this can be strongly recommended.
Symphonies 1 in C; 2 in C. Die drei Pintos: Entr’acte. Silvana: Dance of the Young Nobles; Torch Dance. Turandot: Overture; Act II: March; Act V: Funeral March
Naxos 8.550928. Queensland PO, Georgiadis
Weber wrote his two Symphonies in the same year (1807) and, though both are in C major, each has its own individuality. The witty orchestration and operatic character of the writing are splendidly caught in these sparkling Queensland performances, while in the slow movements the orchestral soloists relish their solos, for all the world like vocal cantilenas. The recording is in the demonstration class, and the disc is made the more attractive for the inclusion of orchestral excerpts from two little-known operas and incidental music from Turandot. The Entr’acte from the incomplete Die drei Pintos was put together by Mahler from Weber’s sketches.
Overtures: Abu Hassan; Der Beherrscher der Geister (Ruler of the Spirits); Euryanthe; Der Freischütz; Jubel; Oberon; Preciosa
EMI Encore (ADD) 5 75644-2. Philh. O, Sawallisch
Weber overtures represent some of the most attractive and memorable overtures in the classical repertoire, yet choosing just one collection is not easy. None is ideal. There is Karajan’s DG collection which includes some of the most beautifully played examples of this repertoire – the masterful Oberon and Der Freischütz are peerless – yet it may be said that Karajan lacks some of the romantic excitement found in these vibrant works. Sawallisch’s 1958 selection has the advantage of the Philharmonia at their peak. The orchestral playing is superb and the excitement of Der Freischütz, the Turkish colourings of Abu Hassan and the contrasts of Euryanthe (the timpanist notably) are presented with a strong sense of the individual character of each piece. There is real orchestral virtuosity in The Ruler of the Spirits and the spectacular appearance of God Save the Queen as the apotheosis of Jubel will cheer anyone up. The snag is the over-bright, sharply focused recording, with a very light bass. Another collection worth considering is Ansermet’s, on a newly released Australian Decca Eloquence CD (480 0123). What the performances lack in polish they more than make up for in lusty spirit and are presented in vintage Decca sound. The CD also includes the delightful Weber Bassoon Concerto in F.
Clarinet Quintet (Grand Quintetto) in B flat, Op. 34
Australian Decca Eloquence (ADD) 476 2447. De Peyer, Melos Ens. – HUMMEL: Piano Quintet; Piano Septet
Weber’s Clarinet Quintet was written at a time when the clarinet was still fighting for acceptance as a solo instrument; even though Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert had used its novel colours with the utmost felicity, there remained plenty of scope for more virtuosic treatment. This Weber undertook in his concertos and in the Quintet, which is delightful music as well as being a willing vehicle for the soloist’s display of pyrotechnics. Gervase de Peyer is in his element, immaculate and brilliant, and given superb support from the Melos Ensemble. The 1959 recording is unbelievably warm and vivid.
Der Freischütz (complete, DVD version)
Arthaus mono DVD 01 271. Kozub, Frick, Saunders, Mathis, Grundheber, Blankenheim, Minetti, Sotin, Krause, Hamburg State Op. Ch. & PO, Ludwig (Director: Rolf Liebermann; V/D: Joachim Hess)
A fascinating early example of filmed opera in remarkably vivid colour, dating from 1968. The cast pre-recorded the music in mono within an attractive acoustic, then acted and sang the opera on stage, miming very successfully to the pre-recording. The production and sets are traditional, very much so. But the principals are excellent singers every one, with Gottlob Frick’s melodramatic portrayal of Kaspar almost stealing the show. If, as Kilian, Franz Grundheber’s Act I aria is a bit too self-satisfied, the main problem is that Max, the hero (Ernst Kozub), although he sings ardently, looks so morose throughout the opera that one wonders what Agathe can see in him. However, both she (the sweet-voiced Arlene Saunders) and the delightful Ännchen (a young Edith Mathis), are charmers in their central scenes, which contain the heroine’s two most famous arias, very well sung. The Wolf’s Glen scene, dominated by a sinister Samiel (Bernhard Minetti), is staged quite spectacularly, with an impressive storm, even if it is not as rivetingly scary as the famous Keilberth audio recording. However, the opera’s closing scene, with Hans Sotin magnificently commanding as the Hermit who intervenes to provide the happy ending, is very successful. In all – allowances being made for the dated production – this is most enjoyable and a considerable achievement when one realizes it is over 40 years old! There is, for once, a good accompanying booklet, with synopsis and full documentation.
Der Freischütz (complete, CD version)
Teldec 4509 97758-2 (2). Orgonasova, Schäfer, Wottrich, Salminen, Berlin R. Ch., BPO, Harnoncourt
Harnoncourt’s electrifying and refreshing version of this operatic warhorse was recorded live at concert performances in the Philharmonie in Berlin in 1995, and the engineers have worked wonders in conveying the atmosphere of a stage performance rather than a concert one, not least in the Wolf’s Glen scene, helped by recording of a very wide dynamic range. Harnoncourt clarifies textures and paces the drama well, making it sound fresh and new. The cast is first rate, with Orgonasova singing radiantly as Agathe, not just pure but sensuous of tone, floating high pianissimos ravishingly. Christine Schäfer, sweet and expressive, makes Ännchen into far more than just a soubrette character, and Erich Wottrich as Max is aptly heroic and unstrained, if hardly beautiful. The line-up of baritones and basses is impressive too, all firm and clear, contrasting sharply with one another, a team unlikely to be bettered today. A clear first choice among modern, digital recordings.
Collected works: Disc 1: (i) Im Sommerwind; 5 Movements for String Quartet (orchestral version), Op. 5; Passacaglia, Op. 1; 6 Pieces for Large Orchestra, Op. 6. Arrangements of: Bach: Musical Offering: Fugue; Schubert: 6 German Dances, D.820
Disc 2: (i) 5 Pieces for Orchestra (1913); Symphony, Op. 21; Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30; (i; v) Das Augenlicht, Op. 26; Cantatas (i; iii; v) 1, Op. 29; (i; iii–v) 2, Op. 31; (i; iii) 3 Orchesterlieder (1913–24)
Disc 3: (ii; vi) Concerto for 9 Instruments, Op. 24; (ii) 5 Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10; (ii; vi) Piano Quintet; Op. posth. Quartet, Op. 22 (for piano, violin, clarinet & saxophone); (ii–iii; v; vii) 5 Canons on Latin Texts, Op. 15; (ii; v) Entflieht auf leichten Kähnen, Op. 2; (ii; vii) 2 Lieder, Op. 8; 4 Lieder, Op. 13; 6 Lieder, Op. 14; (ii–iii) 5 Geistliche Lieder, Op. 15; 5 Canons, Op. 16; 3 Lieder, Op. 18; (ii; v) 2 Lieder, Op. 19; (ii–iii) 3 Volkstexte, Op. 17
Disc 4: (iii; viii) 3 Gedichte (1899–1903); 8 frühe Lieder (1901–4); 3 Avenarius Lieder (1903–4); 5 Dehmel Lieder (1906–8); 5 George Lieder, Op. 3; 5 George Lieder, Op. 4; 4 George Lieder (1908–9); 4 Lieder, Op. 12; 3 Jone Gesänge, Op. 23; 3 Jone Lieder, Op. 25
Disc 5: (ix) 6 Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9; (Langsamer) Slow Movement for String Quartet (1905); 5 Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5; (ix–x) 3 Pieces for String Quartet (1913); (ix) Rondo for String Quartet (1906); String Quartet (1905); String Quartet, Op. 28; String Trio, Op. 20; Movement for String Trio, Op. posth. (1925)
Disc 6: (xi–xii) Cello Sonata (1914); 2 Pieces for Cello & Piano (1899); 3 Small Pieces for Cello & Piano, Op. 11; (xiii–xii) 4 Pieces for Violin & Piano, Op. 7; Piano: (xiv) Kinderstück (1924 & 1925); (xv) Movement (1906); (xiv) Piece (1925); (xv) Sonata Movement (Rondo) (1906); (xiv) Variations, Op. 27
DG 457 637-2 (6). (i) BPO; (ii) Ens. Intercontemporain; (i-ii) cond. Boulez; (iii) Oelze; (iv) Finley; (v) BBC Singers; (vi) Aimard; (vii) Pollet; (viii) Schneider; (ix) Emerson Qt; (x) McCormick; (xi) Hagen; (xii) Maisenberg; (xiii) Kremer; (xiv) Zimerman; (xv) Cascioli
This monumental DG set goes far further than the earlier Sony collection in its illumination of Webern as one of the great musical pioneers of the twentieth century. The first point is that where the earlier set limited itself to the numbered works, this one covers so much more (on six discs instead of three) with a far fuller portrait presented in the early works. Both sets include such offerings as the arrangements of Bach (the Ricercar from the Musical Offering) and Schubert (a collection of waltzes). Boulez’s interpretations of the numbered works have developed too, with the Berlin Philharmonic exceptionally responsive, bringing out often unsuspected warmth and beauty. The point and purposefulness of these performances is particularly helpful in making such thorny late inspirations as the two Cantatas so much more readily approachable. The vocal soloists have been chosen ideally, with the fresh-toned Christiane Oelze taking on the majority of songs, but with Françoise Pollet and Gerald Finley equally assured. Nor could the starry list of instrumental contributors be bettered, including as it does such luminaries as the Emerson Quartet and Krystian Zimerman; and the recordings, made over a period of years, are uniformly excellent.
Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) (complete)
Decca 430 075-2. Kollo, Lemper, Milva, Adorf, Dernesch, Berlin RIAS Chamber Ch. & Sinf., Mauceri
On Decca there are obvious discrepancies between the opera-singers, René Kollo and Helga Dernesch, and those in the cabaret tradition, notably the vibrant and provocative Ute Lemper (Polly Peachum) and the gloriously dark-voiced and characterful Milva ( Jenny). That entails downward modulation in various numbers, as it did with Lotte Lenya, but the changes from the original are far less extreme. Kollo is good, but Dernesch is even more compelling. The co-ordination of music and presentation makes for a vividly enjoyable experience, even if committed Weill enthusiasts will inevitably disagree with some of the controversial textual and interpretative decisions.
Organ Symphonies: 1 in C min.: Méditation (only); 2 in D; 3 in E min.: Prélude, Adagio & Finale; 4 in F min., Op. 13/1–4; 5 in F min.; 6 in G min., Op. 42/1–2; 9 in C min. (Gothique), Op. 70
Warner Apex 2564 62297-2 (2). Marie-Claire Alain (Cavaillé-Coll organs, Saint-Étienne de Caen & Église de Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
For this Apex reissue Warner have combined two sets of recordings, from 1970 and 1977, which jointly offer an impressive overall coverage of this repertoire. Marie-Claire Alain contents herself with playing just the Méditation from the uneven First Symphony, and only three movements from the Third. Here the Saint-Germain organ sounds very orchestral and the colouring of the gentle Adagio (a perpetual canon) is very effective. The later Symphonies are more impressive works than the earlier group of Op. 13. The Fifth is justly the most famous. These are classic, authoritative performances, given spacious analogue sound with just a touch of harshness to add a little edge in fortissimos.
(i) Violin Concertos 1–2; (ii) Caprice in A min. (arr. Kreisler); Obertass-Mazurka, Op. 19/1; Polonaise de concert 1 in D, Op. 4; Polonaise brillante 2, Op. 21; Scherzo-tarantelle, Op. 16
EMI (ADD) 5 66059-2. Perlman, with (i) LPO, Ozawa; (ii) Sanders
Perlman gives scintillating performances, full of flair, and is excellently accompanied. The recording, from 1973, is warm, vivid and well balanced. It is preferable to Perlman’s digital remake of the Second Concerto. The mid-priced reissue includes a mini-recital of shorter pieces, often dazzling, but losing some of their appeal from Perlman’s insistence on a microphone spotlight. Samuel Sanders comes more into the picture in the introductions for the two Polonaises, although the violin still remains far too near the microphone. Even so, brilliant all the same.
(i) Carillons for Oboe & Orchestra; (ii) Trumpet Concerto. Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes; (iii) Penillion; (iv) Sea Sketches (for string orchestra)
Lyrita (ADD) SRCD 323. (i) Camden; (ii) Snell; both with LSO; (iii) RPO; all cond. Groves; (iv) ECO, Atherton
It is good to have this attractive programme of works restored to the catalogue, all by a woman composer who (rarely among twentieth-century female musicians) glowingly shows that she believes in pleasing the listener’s ear. No barbed wire here, and no lack of imaginative resource either, particularly in the memorably individual Sea Sketches, a masterly suite of five contrasted movements which catch the sea’s unpredictability as well as its formidable energy. Grace Williams focuses her scene-painting more acutely than is common, while the two slow sections, the seductive Channel sirens and the Calm sea in summer, are balmily, sensuously impressionistic, the former taking a somewhat unpromising idea and turning it into true poetry. The other works here range attractively from the simple – and at one time quite well-known – Welsh Tunes Fantasia (which is a good deal more than a colourfully orchestrated potpourri) through two crisply conceived concertante pieces, to Penillion, written for the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. ‘Penillion’ is the Welsh word for stanza, and this is a set of four colourful, resourceful pieces, easy on the ear but full of individual touches; although Williams does not use any folk material, she retains the idea of a central melodic line (on the trumpet in the first two pieces) in stanza form. The trumpet and oboe concertante pieces – superbly played by soloists from the LSO of the early 1970s – both show the affection and understanding of individual instrumental timbre which mark the composer’s work. Excellent performances throughout (especially the vivid sea music) and very good analogue sound. This CD is surely an ideal representation of the composer at her most appealing.
Concerto grosso; Our Man in Havana: Suite. Santiago de Espada Overture; Sinfonietta
Chan. 10359. Iceland SO, Gamba
Our Man in Havana, based on Graham Greene’s novel, is among the most colourful of post-war British operas, with its catchy Cuban rhythms and its tunes first cousin to those in Broadway musicals. Until this excellent disc, the first of a projected Williamson series, not a note of it had been recorded, and this suite of four substantial movements makes one long for a full-scale stage revival. The Concerto grosso and Sinfonietta are both exercises in Williamson’s attractive brand of neoclassicism, and the Overture, Santiago de Espada, written in 1956, well before the rest, is even more approachable, one of Williamson’s first essays in tonality after his early experiments with serialism. Rumon Gamba conducts fresh, crisp performances with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, very well recorded.
(i) Organ Concerto; (ii) Piano Concerto 3; (iii) Sonata for 2 Pianos
Lyrita (ADD) SRCD 280. Composer (piano or organ), with (i–ii) LPO; (i) Boult; (ii) Dommett; (iii) Richard Rodney Bennett
There are few more immediately rewarding couplings of post-war keyboard concertos than this (and one could wish the Piano Concerto was better accompanied). Williamson composed them both in the early 1960s, and they represent two clearly contrasted sides of his creative character. The Organ Concerto, written in tribute to Sir Adrian Boult, uses the conductor’s initials, ACB, as a dominating motive, and though some of the writing – for the orchestra as well as the organ – is spectacular, it is essentially a tough and ambitious piece, with the two powerful outer movements framing a beautiful and lyrical Largo for strings and organ alone. Piano Concerto No. 3 in four movements has immediate attractions in the catchy melodies and snappy rhythms, which ought to make it a popular success in the line of the Rachmaninov Concertos. Unfortunately, the performance has an accompaniment that is less than punchy, and the red-bloodedness of the writing is not fully realized. The performance of the Organ Concerto is quite different in every way. Excellent recording. The remarkable Sonata for Two Pianos, inspired by the composer’s stay in Sweden, encapsulates in six continuous sections (and just seven and a half minutes of music) a Swedish winter and the arrival of spring ‘with the serenity of a great release into a world of warmth and light’. The performance is definitive.
(i–ii) Miniature Suite (for cello & piano), Op. 8b; (ii) (Piano) Improvisations; Little Suite; Sonatina, Op. 25; Theme & Variations, Op. 5; (iii) 3 Sea Poems; (iv; ii) 2 Songs from Hösthorn, Op. 13
BIS CD 797. (i) Thedéen; (ii) Bojsten; (iii) Jubilate Ch., Riska; (iv) Högman
Dag Wirén was a miniaturist par excellence and few of the individual movements recorded here detain the listener for more than two or three minutes. The early (and inventive) Theme and Variations, Op. 5, is the longest work. Although it is slight, the Sonatina for Piano often touches a deeper vein of feeling than one might expect to encounter. Good performances from all concerned, and the usual truthful BIS recording.
Italian Serenade; Penthesilea (symphonic poem); Scherzo and Finale; Der Corregidor (opera): Prelude and Intermezzo
Warner Apex 0927 49582-2. O de Paris, Barenboim
For those who know only Wolf’s Italian Serenade and enjoy the subtle word-painting of the Lieder, this orchestral collection will come as something of a shock. The early three-part symphonic poem, Penthesilea (1883–5), is turbulently and voluptuously romantic in a style of post-Lisztian hyperbole, while the Prelude to Der Corregidor is Wagnerian in its expansive opulence. Barenboim plays both with uninhibited exuberance and almost convinces the listener that Penthesilea is worthy of standing alongside the music of Strauss. The Intermezzo, however, is almost in the style of French ballet music, and the well-known Serenade, of course, is similarly lightweight and sunny. The Scherzo and Finale of 1876–7 shows the precocious skill of an 18-year-old: it is music of more than a little substance and is felicitously scored, although Wagner briefly raises his head again in the Finale. Barenboim makes the very most of all these pieces, and they are played with much conviction. The recording is rather resonant but otherwise acceptable.
Spanisches Liederbuch (complete)
DG (ADD) 457 726-2 (2). Schwarzkopf, Fischer-Dieskau, Moore
In this superb DG reissue, the sacred songs provide a dark, intense prelude, with Fischer-Dieskau at his very finest, sustaining slow tempi impeccably. Schwarzkopf’s dedication comes out in the three songs suitable for a woman’s voice; but it is in the secular songs, particularly those which contain laughter in the music, where she is at her most memorable. Gerald Moore is balanced rather too backwardly – something the transfer cannot correct – but gives superb support.
Overtures: SAINT-SAËNS: La Princesse Jaune. BERLIOZ: Benvenuto Cellini; Le Carnaval romain; Le Corsaire; Les Francsjuges; Le Roi Lear. ADAM: Si j’étais roi. HÉROLD: Zampa. REZNICEK: Donna Diana. SUPPÉ: Pique Dame. NICOLAI: The Merry Wives of Windsor
Australian Decca Eloquence (ADD) 480 2385 (2) – AUBER: Overtures
These recordings from the 1950s readily demonstrate a Gallic style of orchestral playing which now has all but disappeared, with performances of much character and personality. Five of the overtures, those by Adam, Hérold, Reznicek, Suppé and Nicolai, were originally released in 1958 under the title ‘Overtures in Hi-Fi’, and they have never sounded better, with only a certain tubbiness betraying their age. Just listen to the way Wolff points the strings in Si j’étais roi, and the genial vitality which pervades the music-making throughout. Even the obvious fluff in the brass in Zampa (at 3 minutes 25 seconds) seems acceptable under the circumstances. The rest of the items are in (good) mono sound. Both Le Roi Lear and Les Francs-juges Overtures were (and remain) comparative rarities, yet both are excellent works, while the latter contains one of the best tunes Berlioz ever wrote. Even more rare is the delightful La Princesse Jaune Overture of Saint-Saëns, which certainly tickles the ear. They are coupled with Wolff’s classic recordings of Auber overtures, making this collection very valuable.
La dama boba: Overture. I gioielli della Madonna: Suite. Overtures & Intermezzi from: L’amore medico; Il campiello; I quattro rusteghi; Il segreto di Susanna. (i) Suite-Concertino in F, for Bassoon and Orchestra, Op. 16
Chan. 10511. BBC PO, Noseda, (i) with Geoghegan
A warm welcome to a superb collection of Wolf-Ferrari’s sparkling orchestral music. Beginning with the dramatic Festa popolare from The Jewels of the Madonna, Wolf-Ferrari provides an endless succession of sweetly tuneful music with ear-tickling orchestrations, lively dances contrasting with beautiful intermezzi, such as the delicately delicious one from I quattro rusteghi. The Suite-Concertino in F is a great rarity – and what a charmer it is, with Chandos’s recent find, the superb bassoonist Karen Geoghegan, bringing out all the colour of this score. The second movement, Strimpellata, is especially catchy, but this CD abounds with catchy melodies. The overture to Il segreto di Susanna sparkles brightly, and the scurrying string-writing in the overture to the opera, L’amore medico, is exhilarating. The Chandos recording is first class, with the deep, resonant bass-drum in L’amore medico marvellously captured.
Apollo Overture; A Brown Bird Singing (paraphrase for orchestra); London Cameos (suite): Miniature Overture: The City; St James’s Park in the Spring; A State Ball at Buckingham Palace. Mannin Veen (Manx tone-poem); Moods (suite): Joyousness (concert waltz). Mylecharane (rhapsody); The Seafarer (A Nautical Rhapsody); Serenade to Youth; Sketch of a Dandy
Marco Polo 8.223402. Czech-Slovak RSO (Bratislava), Leaper
Haydn Wood, an almost exact contemporary of Eric Coates and nearly as talented, spent his childhood on the Isle of Man, and much of his best music is permeated with Manx folk-themes (original or simulated). Mannin Veen (‘Dear Isle of Man’) is a splendid piece, based on four such folksongs. The companion rhapsody, Mylecharane, also uses folk material, if less memorably, and The Seafarer is a wittily scored selection of famous shanties, neatly stitched together. The only failure here is Apollo, which uses less interesting material and is over-ambitious and inflated. But the English waltzes are enchanting confections and Sketch of a Dandy is frothy and elegant. Adrian Leaper is clearly much in sympathy with this repertoire and knows just how to pace it; his Czech players obviously relish the easy tunefulness and the sheer craft of the writing. With excellent recording in what is surely an ideal acoustic, this is very highly recommendable.
‘The Magic of Wunderlich’, arias from: HANDEL: Serse (with Bav. RSO, Kubelik). MOZART: Don Giovanni (with Munich PO, Rieger); Die Entfürung aus dem Serail (with Bav. State Op. O, Jochum); Die Zauberflöte (with BPO, Boehm). LORTZING: Zar und Zimmermann (with Bamberg SO, Gierster). BIZET: Les Pêcheurs de perles (Munich RSO, Stein). TCHAIKOVSKY: Eugene Onegin (with Bav. State Op. O, Gerdes). VERDI: Rigoletto. BELLINI: La sonnambula (with Munich RSO, Eichhorn); La traviata (with Bav. RSO, Bartoletti). PUCCINI: Tosca (with Baden-Baden SW R.O, Smola). KÁLMÁN: Gräfin Mariza. STOLZ: Frühjahrsparade (with V. Volksoper, Stolz). HAYDN: The Creation (with BPO, Karajan). GLUCK: Iphigénie en Tauride (with Bav. RSO, Kubelik). MAILLART: Les Dragons de Villars (with Munich RSO, Moltkau). R. STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier (with Bav. State Op. O, Kempe). Songs: SPOLIANSKY: Heute nacht oder nie. MAY: Ein Lied geht um die Welt. BRODSZKY: Be my love. LARA: Granada (with Graunke SO, Carste). KREUTZER: Das Nachtlager von Granada (Munich RSO, Eichhorn). R. STRAUSS: Heimliche Aufforderung; Ich trage meine Minne; Morgen; Ständchen; Zueignung (with Bav. RSO, Koetsier). Bonus DVD: Arias from: ROSSINI: Il barbiere di Siviglia. TCHAIKOVSKY: Eugene Onegin (with Bav. State Op. O, Keilberth)
DG mono/stereo 477 5575 (2) with bonus DVD
For those not wishing to buy the seven-CD set of Wunderlich in DG’s Originals series, this carefully compiled two-CD set is the answer. Many of his most famous recordings are here, with stylish examples of his Tchaikovsky and Verdi, and very lively excerpts from Serse and, of course, some delicious Mozart. He is no less sophisticated in the lighter numbers, of which a good selection have been included (the Kálmán number is most winning) and the popular numbers like Lara’s Granada sound fresh and un-hackneyed. There’s the odd rarity too, such as the little-known aria from Maillart’s Les Dragons de Villars which makes one long to hear the whole work. It is Wunderlich’s consistent artistry and golden voice which permeate this set and he never lets you down in either beauty or style. The bonus DVD gives us a chance to see him working in the opera house, and again one laments his death at the incredibly early age of 36. There are no texts included, but the booklet notes are very good and there is a fair sprinkling of photographs. Excellent transfers.
Antikhthon; Aroura; (i) Synaphaï (Connexities for Piano & Orchestra)
Explore (ADD) EXP 0047. New Philh. O, Howarth; (i) with Madge
Using higher mathematics as well as a computer (slide-rule and graph paper to hand), Xenakis managed to produce works which to some ears actually sound like music, but to others are incomprehensible. The composer’s imagination, which defies any kind of technique, is in no doubt; however, for many the results are barren. The most ambitious of these three works, Antikhthon, is hypnotic in its range of colour, even if it fails to get you thinking of the infinite, as the composer intends. Excellent performances (so far as one can tell) and brilliant recording (from Decca, dating from 1975).
Clarinet Concertos 7 in B flat; 8 in E flat; 9 in B flat; 11 in B flat
MDG 301 0718-2. Klöcker, Prague CO
Not many collectors will have heard of Yost before discovering this CD. But here are four delightfully bubbly Concertos, brimming with excellent tunes and plenty of wit, with any moments of drama soon pushed away with sunny abandon. This is a delightful CD and it is hard to imagine better performances or recordings.
6 Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27
Naxos 8.555996. Kaler
As is well known, the six Sonatas Ysaÿe published in 1924 were written for the six greatest virtuosi of the day: Szigeti, Kreisler, Enescu, Jacques Thibaud and (less well remembered nowadays) Manuel Quiroga and Mathieu Crickboom. They are held in special regard by violinists who enjoy overcoming the technical challenges they pose. Ilya Kaler was a gold medallist in the Sibelius, Paganini and Tchaikovsky competitions and is a virtuoso of the first order. These are commanding accounts, which characterize the particular qualities of each Sonata to impressive effect.
Francesca da Rimini
Arthaus DVD 101 363. Dessi, Armiliato, Marchigiana Ch. & PO, Barbacini (Director: Massimo Gasparon; V/D: Rossi)
Dubbed ‘the Italian Tristan’, Riccardo Zandonai’s telling of the legendary love story of Paolo and Francesca is drawn from a play by Gabriele d’Annunzio to a libretto by Tito Ricordi. It is a thoroughly workmanlike piece, attractive in its idiom but with melodies that only rarely stick in the memory. Before the first performance in 1914, Ricordi was much more concerned over the success of this piece than for the latest opera of Puccini, the composer who brought profits to his publishing firm.
The performance on this DVD under Barbacini is a warm and purposeful one, recorded live in 2004 at the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata. Singing is good if not outstanding, led by the Francesca of Daniela Dessi and the Paolo of Fabio Armiliato. Paolo is one of the three Malatesta brothers, but Francesca is betrothed to Giovanni the Lame, though she thinks she is going to marry the brother she loves, Paolo, dubbed ‘the handsome’. The story echoes that of Tristan and Isolde, and in the opening scene a jester refers to that legend as well as to the legend of King Arthur and Guinevere. The climax comes when Paolo and Francesca are caught in flagrante and both are killed, a sequence that Zandonai passes over with surprising speed before the final curtain. A flawed work, but one well worth hearing in a warm and sympathetic performance like this, with traditional costumes and a stylized, single set.
Complete Orchestral Works: Capriccios 1–5; Concerto à 8 concertanti; Hipocondrie à 7 concertanti; Melodrama de St Wenceslao: Symphonia; Ouverture à 7 concertanti; Simphonie à 8 concertanti
CPO 999 897-2 (3). Neu-Eröffnete O, Sonnentheil
A contemporary of Bach and Handel, Jan Dismas Zelenka was among the most original composers of the period but is still something of a mystery figure when no portrait survives. Unlike his great contemporaries, he remained an underling in the world of his time. Happily, his music has survived, and this fine collection of his complete orchestral works is compiled from three separate discs issued earlier. All the works, including the five multi-movement Capriccios and the oddly named Hipocondrie, involve elaborate concertante writing and, although the soloists here are not as starry as those on the earlier set (which involved Heinz Holliger and Barry Tuckwell), the use of period instruments instead of modern adds to the freshness and bite, with the natural horns, above all, breathtakingly brilliant in music that ranges wide in its emotions.
(i) Cymbeline (incidental music); (ii) Lyrische Symphonie, Op. 18
Chan. 10069. Czech PO, Beaumont, with (i) Brezina, Bremen Shakespeare Company (members); (ii) Karlsen, Grundheber
Along with Die Seejungfrau, the Lyric Symphony is the most performed and recorded of Zemlinsky’s works, but this Czech recording has a special claim to attention in that it is based on a new critical edition of the score by Antony Beaumont himself. This clears up the odd engravers’ and copyists’ errors and expunges a few cymbal crashes which Zemlinsky himself removed during rehearsals. Textual matters aside, this performance is very fine indeed and, in the Norwegian soprano Turid Karlsen and Franz Grundheber, it has dedicated soloists. The incidental music to Cymbeline makes an attractive coupling, also edited by the conductor. Scored for full-scale orchestra, including triple wind, harp, harmonium, celesta and a substantial array of off-stage instruments, it is full of resonance and inventive sonorities. It makes a good introduction to the composer and, like the Symphonie, is very well recorded.
Choral Music: (i) Aurikelchen; (ii–iii) Frühlingsbegräbnis; (i) Frühlingsglaube; Geheimnis; Minnelied; (i; iv) Hochzeitgesang; (ii) Psalms 13, 23 & 83. Orchestral Lieder: (v) 2 Gesänge (for baritone & orchestra); (vi) 6 Maeterlinck Gesänge, Op. 13; (vii) Maiblumen blühten überall; (viii) Symphonische Gesänge, Op. 20; (vii) Waldgespräch.
EMI Gemini 5 86079-2 (2). (i) Mülheimer Kantorei; (ii) Düsseldorf State Musikvereins Ch.; (iii) with Voigt, Albert; (iv) Blum; (v) Schmidt; (vi) Urmana; (vii) Isokoski; (viii) Volle; Gürzenich O & Cologne PO, Conlon
The major choral works here are Zemlinsky’s passionate and intense settings of the three Psalms. In a manner recognizable from his operas, the first two bring sensuous writing more apt for the Song of Solomon than the Psalms; the third (LXXXIII) brings dramatic martial music. Those three items as well as the cantata, The Burial of Spring, in seven compact movments, were recorded live in Cologne and bring warm, committed performances under Conlon as a dedicated Zemlinsky interpreter. The other, lighter items were recorded later in the studio.
The two major solo works are both for soprano: Waldgespräch an Eichendorff/Loreley ballad, accompanied by a pair of horns, harp and strings, and Maiblumen blühten überall, inspired by Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht and supported no less alluringly by a string sextet. Soile Isokoski responds with passion to both works, and Andreas Schmidt is no less responsive in the Zwei Gesänge, orchestrated by Antony Beaumont, both very Wagnerian in feeling. Michael Volle proves boldly dramatic in the Symphonische Gesänge, and if Violeta Urmana is less than ideally seductive in the Maeterlinck cycle, as always with Zemlinsky the orchestral sounds are as luscious as ever, with Conlon a splendidly supportive accompanist; and translations are included.