Problembär's Classical Vault

New address!

2010-08-19T16:00:00.001-07:00

This is the new address: http://problembearspantheon.blogspot.com/. Expect to see an update tomorrow. See you all there!

Long time!

2010-08-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Hey there! Been awhile, no? Sorry for the lack of postings lately. A most lovely distraction of the feminine kind came into my life this past summer. But, sadly, she has had to return to school for the fall. *Sigh.* But at least I'll have time to post up some more treasures from my collection on this blog. Now--some good news and bad news.

Bad news: this blog is coming to an end. I think it has about run its course. So download from those links while you can, because I'm not going to be reuploading them!

Good news: I'll be opening up a new blog--with lossless and lossy uploads. Yes. Keep an eye out on this page during the next week for the new address. Hope you all join me there. Cheers!

Bruckner: Symphony No.9 (MOGM/Nézet-Séguin)

2010-04-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Bruckner: Symphony No.9
Metropolitan Orchestra of Greater Montréal/Yannick Nézet-Séguin
ATMA Classique 22514| Stereo DDD (SACD)

The moment I heard that Norman Lebrecht hailed Yannick Nézet-Séguin's recording of the Bruckner 7th as the best "since Franz Welser-Möst started shaving," I knew there was trouble. Being compared favorably to a conductor I consider one of the most boring ever to have been awarded a record contract is dubious praise indeed. Lebrecht went on to praise the French Canadian's "austere restraint at the big climaxes" as an indication that "[Nézet-Séguin is] an artist who is not chasing cheap rewards." "Restraint," for those of you who may not be aware, is usually a British musical critic's euphemism for "boring." Still, I hold Norman Lebrecht's opinion in very high regard and trust him head-and-shoulders above your average Gramophone scribbler. So being the inquisitive sort that I am, I decided to give Yannick's Bruckner a listen.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of the rising young podium lions that the classical media is so desperately pushing in an attempt to show that the age of the great conductor, and by extension, classical music itself, is not in a state of decline. Like many of these "stars," he fits the bill as to what a "great musician" should look like these days: youthful, seemingly energetic and virile, and effortlessly photogenic. Too bad that a compelling musical vision doesn't seem to be among the virtues that the press lauds.

There is nothing particularly wrong with this recording. The Montreal Metropolitan Symphony sounds undernourished for Bruckner, but otherwise have a good grip on the composer's music. Nézet-Séguin allows the music to unfurl without any hindrance. But there is a flatness to his direction that is lethal in this work. The build-up and statement of the powerful, unison D minor theme at the start of the symphony may as well have been phoned in. What should definitively set the stamp for the direction of the entire symphony reveals Nézet-Séguin, admirable restraint aside, to be a not quite finished artist. Certainly an artist somewhat out of his element in Bruckner, playing it cool only because he has no idea as to how to subdue this symphonic steed. The ghastly, demonic D minor Scherzo and the eerie F sharp Trio, a jarring contrast in the right hands, blends into each other with toothless equanimity. No eerieness, no sense of the diabolical--just a mildly unpleasant daydream at best. And that grinding, six note dissonance that crowns the Adagio and, possibly, the entirety of Bruckner's late work, rolls by the listener as just another ho-hum moment. Nézet-Séguin seems to have no particular direction to be headed to and sounds like he doesn't really care whether he gets there or not. So much for "restraint."

I'm not against Bruckner played in a leaner, more classical fashion. Eduard van Beinum, Rafael Kubelik, Joseph Keilberth, Bernard Haitink, and Carl Schuricht are among the conductors that have brought us some outstanding, Apollonian Bruckner 9ths. Their refined vision do not preclude excitement, however. Each conductor has a compelling vision as to how this symphony ought to sound and where it ought to go. Incidentally, Karl Böhm, no cheap artist he, gave us some gorgeous "straight" Bruckner with some powerfully moulded climaxes that seem beyond the grasp of the musicians here. Nézet-Séguin and his orchestra just seem to be cranking out another generic recording. The SACD sound is superb, but why bother? Unless your dream is to hear the Bruckner 9th on somnambulistic auto-pilot, look elsewhere. What a bore. I can barely muster the energy... *YAWN!*... to finish... this review... [curls up and falls asleep.]

Chopin: Waltzes (Ott)

2010-04-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

Chopin: Waltzes (complete)
Alice Sara Ott, piano
Deutsche Grammophon 477 8095 | Stereo DDD

So I'm not even going to lie to you about this. Yeah, I was pretty impressed with Alice Sara Ott's Liszt Transcendental Etudes, her debut on disc. She wasn't on the Arrau/Gekic/Cziffra level, but she was good. But the main reason I ended up buying this disc is... because as far as looks go, I find her to be the bee's knees. Yes, dear reader--sheer animal desire drove me to buy the disc at hand. I was sitting on the proverbial fence about buying this disc, but her looks won me over. Thank you DG marketing team! But don't stop and just admire her pretty pic in her waify, hipster Red Riding Hood garb on the cover. Take a look inside the booklet and you'll find plenty more glamour shots of Ms. Ott with a scant, puff "interview" that does insult to the name "liner notes." A rambling, cutesy little thing that tells you nothing about Chopin and makes Ott sound like a clueless ditz. But she is a cutie, no doubt about it. But what of this recital? Well...

I own at least some 20 to 30-odd Chopin waltz recitals. This may be one of the very worst I've ever heard from a major artist and label. Had you never heard what these pieces were called, you'd hardly believe they were waltzes as they barely dance at all. Galumph about is more like it. Ott's perverse rubato and leaden tone must be heard to be believed. I'm not at all against a more romantic approach to these gems. Cortot's recital is numbered among my favorites. But what sounds magical and sparkling in Cortot's hands sounds lumbering and mannered here. The famous opening fanfare of the E-flat waltz sounds sounds as if the waltzers at this particular salon imbibed the champagne and absinthe a bit too generously. Another pirouette and these dancers will spin themselves away into a drunken stupor. Yes, not everything is so bad. She does a fine stab at the A minor waltz. But the highpoints, modest as they are, cannot compensate for this recital's general mediocrity. A portentious ritardando and a sudden accelerando every few bars does not romantic pianism a la grand manière make. After listening to all this herky jerky, stop-and-go routine, I was fumbling around my medicine cabinet for some Alka-Seltzer to stave off the motion sickness.

As I said, Chopin waltz recitals can be found a-plenty. My personal favorites are Anda, Anievas, Lipatti, Cortot, Tharaud, Darré, Brailowsky, and Rubinstein's 1950's era set. You'll have your own favorites, I'm sure. Whatever they are, stick to those ones and don't bother with Ott. Yes, I've uploaded it, but you'd best toss this turkey. Don't tell me I didn't warn you.

Furtwängler: Pre-war Polydor Recordings (DG Japan)

2010-03-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

Wilhelm Furtwängler: Early Polydor Recordings
(Disc 1) Mendelssohn: Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream; J.S. Bach: Air from Suite No.3; Wagner: Prelude to Act I from Lohengrin, Prelude to Act I and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde; Schubert: Overture to Rosamunde; R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks

(Disc 2) Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Overture; Berlioz: Hungarian March from The Damnation of Faust; Schubert: Interlude no.3 from Rosamunde; J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.3; Rossini: Overture to La gazza ladra; Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos.1 and 10; Weber: Invitation to the Dance (arr. Berlioz); Wagner: Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung

(Disc 3) Beethoven: Overture to Egmont; Mozart: Overtures to The Marriage of Figaro and The Abduction from the Seraglio, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; Rossini: Overture to The Barber of Seville; Weber: Overture and Interlude to Act III from Der Freischütz; J. Strauss, Jr.: Overture to Die Fledermaus; rehearsal excerpt from Till Eulenspiegel recording sessions

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Wilhelm Furtwängler
Deutsche Grammophon Japan POCG -234214 | Mono ADD

Sorry for the long delay between postings as of late. I hope you can at least appreciate quality over quantity.

In my post of Furtwängler's second recording of the Beethoven Fifth, I had mentioned how temperamental he could be when in the studio. Like many of his generation (Otto Klemperer was another notable example), he had a profound distrust of recordings. Part of it was based on the relatively primitive recording and playback equipment available back then. He often complained that what he heard on record was not what he had heard on the podium. And he was probably right. Peter Andry had commented on this phenomenon in his recent autobiography, Inside the Recording Studio. While recording Furtwängler and the Vienna Philharmonic in Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Andry was completely bowled over by the luscious and powerful string sound that Furtwängler could inspire from his orchestra. But on the finished record, Andry was dismayed to find that the sound captured on the mikes was only a shadow of what he actually heard. It's a mystery why some conductors are more "phonogenic" than others. Beecham, Karajan, and Stokowski were born recording artists. Furtwängler turned out some excellent studio recordings, but was at home in the concert hall before an audience.

The collection I have here are all studio recordings from the pre-war era. They constitute his complete pre-war Polydor recordings. Most of it is very good, but a great deal was superseded in quality by later HMV recordings and airchecks. Still, this collection is a valuable snapshot of Furtwängler and the superlative level of playing of his Berliners. The collection is programmed in chronological order.

There is so much to talk about here, so let me just touch on the highlights and down points of this set. First the bad news. Or not really bad news. Even the worst recordings here would still be considered very good. Abendroth quality, let's say. But some leave a bit to be desired. The Midsummer Night's Dream Overture that opens this set starts off in fine fashion, but is then hampered by a decidedly un-Mendelssohnian heaviness. Berlioz's Hungarian March sounds curiously prosaic here as do the Freischütz excerpts.

But the best of the best here is absolutely stunning. The Berliners' hearty romp through Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.3 may be too much for those reared on more smaller scaled recordings. But what a heady delight it is! What sheen and body those strings had. The Wagner items are also outstanding. No surprise from the one of history's great Wagnerians. But what is a surprise is how deftly and wittily Furtwängler sashays through the two Rossini overtures. Rossini and Furtwängler seem about as mismatched as Toscanini and Bruckner. Yet it works! These recordings abound with great comic timing and with superlative playing from the BPO. Incidentally, Toscanini and Bruckner make for a surprisingly effective combo too. Remind me to post that CD some time.

Sound quality is fair on this set. Opus Kura is finally getting around to releasing their own set of the complete Furtwängler Polydors. That set should be one to watch out for. Koch released a more comprehensive set in the early 1990's that included some of Furtwängler's pre-war Electrola and HMV recordings. The transfers by Ward Marston and Mark Obert Thorn are very good; slightly more plump than these transfers, but also a little more diffuse. I had a difficult time choosing which one to post, but I think I made the right choice by going with the DG.

To fully understand what made Furtwängler great, you must hear his war-time recordings and his late HMV recordings. As great as these are, he would go on to outdo himself in time. But for a portrait of the "artist as a younger-ish man", this set can't be beat.

The missing tracks: Beethoven, Orff, Schnittke--they're all here!

2010-02-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

So sorry it took this long everyone. But the missing tracks for my first Schnittke film post, the Furtwangler Beethoven, and the Orff are all here. As a show of apology, please enjoy this slightly disturbing video. Thank you all for your patience!

Self serving promo right here!

2010-02-17T16:11:00.000-08:00

Don't get too excited. These are not the long awaited links to the missing tracks I've promised for so long (and will have for you tonight). No. Instead this is just to announce the opening of my new blog, The Aging Gamer.

Gaming? Video games? What does that have to do with the great music I offer here? Plenty, buddy. If it weren't for games, and one in particular, I probably would never have discovered classical music. And if that had never happened, the path to an appreciation of higher culture would never have opened for me.

I won't be posting any late breaking news or "exclusive" coverage or whatever. Just reflections on gaming and the old games that helped make me the lovable chap I am today. I hope some of you will visit. Thanks. And those missing track are coming!

Beethoven: Symphony No.5, etc. (BPO/Furtwängler)

2010-02-05T23:32:00.000-08:00

Beethoven: Overture to Egmont, Overture to Coriolan*, Symphony No.5
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra*/Wilhelm Furtwängler
Opus Kura OPK 2037 | Mono ADD

Wilhelm Furtwängler's skepticism of the virtues of recording is infamous. One thinks of his Decca recording of the Brahms Second Symphony. What should have been a stunning showcase recording (just think of it--Furtwängler in a Full Frequency Range Recording!) turned out to be arguably his worst studio recording. Second guessing his Decca studio engineers, he refused to conduct a single note until the recording team had removed the offending "Decca tree" from his sight and replaced it with a single microphone a la Friedrich Schnapp. The result was a recording that sounded like sonic sludge; an embarrassment to Decca's hi-fi reputation. He was no easier for HMV to handle. His tempestuous relationship with Walter Legge has become the stuff of legend. Unlike Stokowski, Mengelberg, and von Karajan, among others, Furtwängler failed to grasp how recording was usurping the concert experience in importance. Erratic in the studio, he could churn out some surprisingly indifferent recordings. This is not one of them.

If this should be the only recording of the Beethoven Fifth you'll ever hear, you would be set for life. Words can barely describe this recording. Blazing out with primal strength, this is a recording that feels so utterly right. From beginning to end, not a single note feels out of place; not a false step is taken. This isn't Beethoven as a mere sum of notes. This is Beethoven encompassing an entire universe in its staves. Laughter and joy; anger and pain. If you aren't gasping for air when the final chord dies out, you might want to check your pulse.

The two accompanying overtures are nearly as good though better versions exist. The Polydor Egmont is quite fine, but there is an even better one recorded at his first post-war BPO concert that is. Vienna's fabled Philharmonic is the star in this Coriolan. Very good, but his war time BPO broadcast is one of the best ever recordings of this overture.

Opus Kura's sound is magnificent. Honest transfers that retain the fullness and breadth of the original 78's. Best of all is the Electrola recording of the Fifth: dark, rich, and vibrant.

Playing time on this CD is a bit short, but why complain? Here's a chance to listen to one of the 20th century's greatest recordings.

Patience!

2010-02-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hey! So as you may have noticed, it has been awhile since I updated here. A brief explanation. I was able to upload and post voluminously because I had a surplus of free time as I was "between jobs" for nearly a year and a half. Happily this has changed as I have recently ceased being a drag on the American taxpayer. In other words, I'm no longer "unemployed, all non void." Apparently there was this "recession" that the newspapers seemed to make a pretty big deal of as of late. Yeah, I know. Never heard of this either. Long story short, McDonald's made the job of "McNugget fryer" redundant as they outsourced my job to Hyderabad. You would think I would deserve a little more respect being a magna cum laude graduate of Hamburger U and all. So in the meantime I was forced to become a cockney shoe shine boy or some such to earn some quid. Also I had to subsist mainly on ketchup packets and the free samples of fine cheeses courtesy of those good people at Whole Foods. Ah, capitalism! Of course, all those days are over now and I can finally earn enough money to live in a real house with walls and a roof. No more living under the freeway off-ramp for me!

Now while I may be more occupied with work now, don't you think for a minute that your's truly will close this blog or something. Not at all! I have some choice goodies coming up for later this week. I'll probably be able to post only once or twice a week now. I'm off Fridays and, of course, weekends are free as well. So expect posts on those days. I have some gems coming up, just you wait. Hopefully you can be patient. But if not... well, you're going to have to wait anyway. See you Friday!

Schnittke: Film music (Part 2)

2010-01-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

Schnittke: Music for the films My Past and Thoughts, The End of St. Petersburg, Agony, and Master and Margarita
Berlin Radio Symphony Choir and Orchestra/Frank Strobel
CPO 999796 | Stereo DDD

Back in November I posted what I promised was the first in a series of posts devoted to Alfred Schnittke's film music. It's been awhile, but here today is the sequel to that post and a promise that the forthcoming posts in this series will be on their way before the month is out.

Listening to Schnittke's film music is to be in the presence of a master who works with total security in the medium. His gifts as a composer were well near tailor made for cinema so it's no wonder to read that Schnittke had contemplated becoming a full time film composer altogether during the 1980's. In the realm of film, Schnittke's polystylism was adept at capturing the various inner moods of the on screen actions and sometimes runs as a sort of wordless commentary on it. So much music for film tends to be bland, mundane, and in the case of such "greats" like John Williams, not above the occasional plundering of other composers' works. Along with Herrmann, Steiner, Shostakovich, Prokofieff, Rota, Delerue, Takemitsu, and Korngold does Schnittke's work stand as among the greatest of composers for films and this side of the composer deserves to be heard on the stage as well as on record. Fortunately for us, Frank Strobel and his Berlin Radio Symphony have given us 5 volumes of Schnittke's film music (1 on CPO; 4 on Capriccio) and there seems to be more on the way.

Agony has been reviewed here before and is among the best of Schnittke's film music. The suite compiled here shares the same numbers with Emin Khachaturian's on Olympia, but the music is more elaborate here with passages not heard on Khachaturian's recording. Perhaps this is the work of Strobel who is credited here as the compiler of this suite? Either way, this is excellent with the Berlin orchestra sounding far richer and smoother than Khachaturian's scrappy USSR Cinematography Orchestra. Best of all here is the pithy Master and Margarita written for Soviet television in the late 1980's. A madcap foxtrot, sumptuous tango, and a drunken take on Ravel's Bolero make for quite an entertainment. Ravishingly beautiful too is Margarita's theme.

Audio quality is excellent all around. Very rich and powerful. All I can say to Frank Strobel is--more please!

Robert and Gaby Casadesus

2009-12-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

Debussy: Petite Suite, En blanc et noir; *Faure: Dolly Suite; R. Casadesus: Three Mediterranean Dances; Satie: Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear
Robert and Gaby Casadesus (pianos)
Columbia Masterworks Portrait MPK 52527 | Stereo, *Mono ADD

An outstanding album of some four hand and two piano repertoire played by two of France's greatest pianists. Robert and Gaby Casadesus both knew men like Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and others as friends and colleagues and their playing radiates joy born out of a secure sense of how this music must sound. Robert, in fact, had been Ravel's "ghost pianist" on all the piano rolls attributed to the composer. He also performed in the composer's place at many concerts during Ravel's 1927 American tour.

There is nothing much to add here except that for lovers of French piano music, listening to this recording is a must. Robert Casadesus' own composition wears out its welcome a little bit, but it passes quickly enough. Sonics are clear if a bit dry. Good, focused warm mono sound for the Faure.

Bizet's L'Arlesienne and Symphony in C (CSO/Martinon)

2009-12-29T19:03:00.000-08:00

Bizet: L'Arlesienne Suites Nos.1 and 2, Symphony in C; Ravel: Alborada del gracioso; Massenet: Meditation from Thais
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Jean Martinon
Tower Records RCA Precious Selection 1000, No.8 TWCL 1008 | Stereo ADD

On the eve before his own recording of Bizet's L'Arlesienne suites and Symphony, Daniel Barenboim and Peter Andry, Barenboim's producer, listened to the old RPO/Beecham recording of the same works. After the last chord of the Farandole had died away, Baremboim turned to Andry and only half jokingly told him, "maybe we ought to pack our bags and go home." Beecham's classic account is still after all these years a top recommendation and is still the yardstick by which all subsequent recordings are measured. But there a few other wonderful recordings of Bizet's suites and Symphony that deserve a place next to Beecham. Martinon's recording is one of them and has been hard to find in the CD era having been reissued on a special series only available through Tower Records Japan.

As is well known, Martinon's tenure in Chicago was a stormy one. Nothing new here. After Frederick Stock's death, Chicago chewed through a stellar roster of conductors: Desire Defauw, Artur Rodzinski, and Rafael Kubelik. Wilhelm Furtwängler was to have succeeded Rodzinski, but a nasty campaign organized to keep "Nazi" musicians out of America ended any possibility of pursuing a career in America. Even Fritz Reiner, today synonymous with the CSO, wasn't let off the hook. Though he lasted short of a decade--the longest tenure yet post-Stock and pre-Solti--his Chicago days ended bitterly with much acromoniousness between him, the orchestra, and the orchestra's board of directors. "We ran the son-of-a-bitch outta town without even giving him a good-bye," proudly crowed one director. In the wake of the Reiner debacle, the CSO quickly began the search for a successor. Karl Böhm was Reiner's choice, but Chicago had no interest in Reiner's wishes. Georg Solti was asked, but he was afraid to step into Reiner's shadow. Eventually the choice was an unexpected one--the fifty one year old director of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Jean Martinon. Unusual because the CSO was perhaps the most German of all American orchestras. German was the lingua franca in rehearsals well even into the 1950's. But Martinon seemed like a fine choice. He had mastered a very wide repertoire and, to the pleasure of some Chicago critics who felt that Reiner's programming was too pedestrian, he was an avid champion of modern music. The stage was set for another CSO golden age. Which is exactly what didn't happen.

For a variety of reasons that don't seem to make sense today, Martinon became despised by Chicago critics. The loudest of them was the redoubtable Claudia Cassidy, the acerbic arts critic for the Chicago Tribune, who after torpedoing Kubelik and Reiner was hungry for another target. If you listen to airchecks and recordings from this era, though, you hear something quite different. Some powerful and glorious music was being made in Chicago those days. Whatever these critics hated about Martinon is impossible to hear. Upset and tired with the Chicago grind, Martinon resigned from the orchestra in 1968 and went on to lead the Paris Orchestra where he made some exquisite recordings of Ravel and Debussy. In the mid-1970's he was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer and he died in Paris at the age of 66.

Martinon's Chicago discography includes some of the very best work any American orchestra has ever made including a blazing Nielsen Inextinguishable that still remains the one to beat. The recording I'm posting today, Martinon's last with the orchestra, is an outstanding tribute to a great orchestra and an unjustly maligned conductor. Martinon's L'Arlesienne and Symphony in C are handsomely played with elegant polish and burnished sound. Martinon was able to rein in the Chicago brass, but when he lets them off the leash like in the Pastorale or Farandole their sound can blow your roof off. A lithe Symphony in C follows and makes for a dapper discmate. Ravel's Alborada del gracioso is next and is given a more ornate performance in comparison to Reiner's own recording of the work with the same orchestra. Reiner looks at the big picture so to speak and revels in the sound of the orchestra as a whole; Martinon finds the beauty of the individual instruments and groups. Massenet's deathless Meditation from Thais serves as a touching souvenir of this partnership. The violin solo is finely shaped and played with great warmth.

The sound, while not an audiophile's dream come true a la Living Stereo is pretty good, though keep in mind this was originally made for those horrible Dyna-Groove records. Some print through is audible in the Bizet items, but they're faint enough not to be a distraction. Don't hold your breath for Sony/BMG to make this available stateside (or in Europe, for that matter).

Grieg: Lyric Pieces (selection) played by Hideyo Harada

2009-12-29T17:42:00.000-08:00

Grieg: Lyric Pieces (selections)
Hideyo Harada (piano)
Audite 92.555 | Stereo DDD (SACD)

Not again! Yup, I have here yet another clutch of those evergreen Lyric Pieces played winningly by Hideyo Harada on this superb Audite release. Grieg has long been one of my very favorite composers and his Lyric Pieces were my introduction to his world long ago when as a 14 year old I bought Gilels' recording via the BMG Classical Music service. Some people seem to turn their noses up at Grieg's music though I can't see why. His music is direct, clear, and unabashedly beautiful. "Beethoven and Bach created temples for worship on mountaintops. I only want to build homes for men to live in", said Grieg humbly.

Harada plays a generous sampling of Grieg's Lyric Pieces totalling some 75 minutes in all. If her touch seems a bit hard or stiff after Gilels, Gieseking, and Hansen, she still comes pretty close to equalling this trio. Only Wedding Day at Troldhaugen disappoints a little bit, feeling too heavy and lumpen. Just listen to Gieseking's recordings to hear how this piece ought to be played!

Audite's sound has plenty of depth and warmth. If you have room in your portable music player for another Grieg recital, by all means listen to this.

Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto, Serenata in vano, and the Wind Quintet (premiere recordings)

2009-12-29T17:25:00.000-08:00

Nielsen: (1) Clarinet Concerto, (2) Serenata in vano, (3) Wind Quintet

(1) Louis Cahuzac (clarinet); Royal Danish Orchestra/John Frandsen
(2) Aage Oxenvad (clarinet), Knud Larsson (bassoon), Hans Sorensen (horn), Louis Jensen (violoncello), Ludwig Higner (contra-bass)
(3) Royal Danish Wind Quintet: Aage Oxenvad (clarinet), Holger Gilbert Jesperssen (flute), Svend Christian Felumb (oboe), Knud Larsson (bassoon), Hans Sorensen (horn)
Clarinet Classics CC 0002 | Mono AAD

One of the best recordings to have come out of Berlin in recent years is an album of Nielsen's wind concertos and Quintet, with the Clarinet Concerto given a perky yet elegantly cool performance by Sabine Meyer. What would Aage Oxenvad have said? After all, this was the man who, aside from inspiring Nielsen's valedictory concerto and being the dean of Danish clarinettists, also viewed the clarinet as being a masculine instrument that women had no business playing. Indeed he likened the clarinet to a woman, by turns wild and passionate, gentle and somber, that needed to be dominated by a man. While Oxenvad's remarks would not win any awards today from the NOW, it was this curmudgeonly personality that inspired Nielsen, as much as the man's instrument, to write one of his greatest works and one of the finest for the clarinet. Svend Christian Felumb, Oxenvad's chamber partner, said of the work that " [it] was not only a concerto for clarinet, it was a concerto for Aage Oxenvad. [...] [O]ne may safely say that Carl Nielsen would never have written this work if he had not heard Oxenvad. [...] It tells everything about Aage and his clarinet."

Nielsen and Oxenvad were fast friends that shared much in common. Not the least of these was their shared pride of their humble roots--Nielsen the son of a house painter, Oxenvad from a sharecropper family. Both were proud that they had worked hard to acheive their fame and reknown in Copenhagen, but at the same time disdained the cosmopolitan nature of the big city. To the chagrin of Copenhagen's high society, both men retained their country accents and dialects, from Funen and Jutland respectively. Nielsen and Oxenvad also both shared a deep disdain and suspicion of virtuosity for its own sake and this is important in the concerto as much of the effect of this music is lost when it is made to sound so effortless. When greeting Nielsen after playing the concerto's private premiere, Oxenvad put his arm around his friend and told him "You must be quite a good clarinettist. How else did you find all the hardest notes to play?" Nielsen's music which is often so much about combat and conflict (think of the dueling timpanis in the Inextinguishable or the raucous snare drum in the Fifth Symphony) requires the sound of "dirt under the fingernails"; of being in control yet seemingly near the edge of losing it. If contemporary reports are to be trusted, Oxenvad had these qualities in spades ("He has made a pact with trolls", one reviewer exclaimed) so it is a tragedy that the man died before being able to record this concerto which captured his soul and the soul of his instrument so knowingly.

It was left to Frenchman Louis Cahuzac to play the work's recorded premiere, though thankfully Oxenvad was able to record some of his friend's music. They give us a tantalizing hint as to what an Oxenvad performance of the concerto must have sounded like. This is what we find here on a release from the Clarinet Classics label from earleir this decade, a very welcome album for all Nielsen enthusiasts. Cahuzac's recording has been released again on Dutton coupled with Emil Telmanyi's recording of his father-in-law's Violin Concerto, but the other two pieces are, to the best of my knowledge, unavailable elsewhere.

Oxenvad admired Cahuzac's artistry though he warned his own students against emulating his Gallic peer's style. I can't help but think of that as I listen to this recording because as handsome and sparkling as Cahuzac's playing is, his sound is out of step for what this work requires. Cahuzac is far too well manicured and cool to do justice to the concerto, though it is technically a very fine performance. John Frandsen's orchestral accompaniment with the Royal Danish Orchestra is excellent and further serves to highlight how mismatched Cahuzac is for this work. The orchestra and conductor play up the work's rustic humor while Cahuzac seems to sit in the background, a little confused as to where to go. No doubt Cahuzac should be thanked for recording the work at all and playing it as well as he did. But to hear what Nielsen really was looking for here try hearing the recordings of Ib Ericksson, Hakan Rosengren, and Kjell-Inge Stevensson available on Dutton, Sony, and EMI respectively. For a modern update on the Cahuzac approach, the aforementioned Sabine Meyer is superb and there are also excellent recordings with John Bruce Yeh and Richard Stoltzman. Others have praised Stanley Drucker's recording with Leonard Bernstein conducting, but that recording always leaves me feeling cold sounding like they both just phoned it in.

The Serenata in vano is Nielsen in a more relaxed mood. The work, explained the composer, was meant to depict a group of musicians serenading at the window of a beautiful young woman. The clarinet coos out its melancholy song attempting to woo the girl out. But she refuses to greet them. Still they try once more. Nothing. Finally, as if to say "to hell with this", they trot away from this reluctant lass to the strains of a cheeky march, thumbing their noses all they way. Thus your serenade in vain. Playing here are members of the Royal Danish Orchestra, Denmark's oldest musical ensemble and also one of Europe's oldest. Playing the part of the jilted serenader is none other than Aage Oxenvad himself and what a dark, sensual tone he coaxes from his instrument. A splendid recording of this winsome little work.

Nielsen's Wind Quintet has long been lauded as one of the 20th century's greatest works for winds. He was inspired to compose the work when speaking with Oxenvad over the phone one day and hearing the Royal Danish Wind Quintet rehearsing Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds in the background. Right there and then he began composing the work. Despite being a violinist, Nielsen had a great love for the sound of wind instruments as is evinced not only by his attempt to write a concerto for each of the Royal Danish Quintet members, but also by the prominent use of the winds and brass in his symphonies, very often favoring them over the strings. He once said in respect to the gestation and composition of the Quintet that he had attempted to "climb inside the instruments" and bare the unique souls of each one of them to the listener. He also enjoyed what he felt were the more "human" sound of the winds. As is to be expected, this is a near definitive recording of this glorious music, played with great love and knowledge by an ensemble that not only knew the man's music well, but counted the composer among their closest friends. There are other recordings of this great music to be heard, but this one is very special and still ranks as one of the best.

Nielsen wasn't as lucky as Sibelius in the 78 RPM era--no Beechams or Koussevitzkys championed his music. But his countrymen did their best to carry the name of their nation's greatest composer across the world. These recordings, especially the pre-war Serenata and Quintet are like peering through a window into another, forgotten world.

Nordic piano music played by Nanna Hansen

2009-12-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

Grieg: Lyric Pieces (selections); Sibelius: Piano pieces (selections); Nielsen: Humoresque-Bagatelles, Five Piano Pieces
Nanna Hansen, piano
EMI Classics CDC 74 9033 2 | Stereo DDD

Has this CD been reissued at all? Probably not. What a shame then. This is a very attractive program played with great warmth and charm by a pianist that had an all too brief recording career for EMI's Scandinavian branch. Early digital recordings tended to sound too bright, but the engineering on this disc has none of that. Very warm digital sound.

I couldn't find much on Nanna Hansen online. She seems to be a professor of piano at some university in Europe, but this information came from a link that, oddly enough, turned out to be a porn site. No kidding--try typing "Nanna Hansen" into Google and click on the first link. She also was awarded a scholarship from the Leonie Sonning Institute and went on to study with Monique Haas. Why she didn't become better known is hard to say when listening to this recital. She has a soft, supple touch and great legato when needed. Her runs sound lovely; very pearly toned.

Her recording of a handful of Grieg's Lyric Pieces is simply lovely. One of the best I have ever heard and it makes a wonderful companion to Gilels' and Gieseking's more complete traversals. Tempi are slower than either pianist's. Not a bad thing--this is music that is meant to be savored and enjoyed. No need to rush here.

Sibelius' piano music isn't often heard and with good cause. It simply isn't very good. Compared to Grieg's or Nielsen's works for the instrument, Sibelius' sound curiously amateurish and lacking a distinctive voice. Even compared to the salon music of the time it sounds inferior. Fortunately, Ms. Hansen only plays seven of these pieces. They're all very short and, save for the closing Arabesque, all forgettable.

Unidiomatic is the complaint you usually hear against Carl Nielsen's piano music. True, Nielsen was a brass player and violinist whose piano technique was modest at best. He approached the piano with a degree of freedom unfettered by what was considered "pianistic" and wrote some very original and powerful works for the instrument. What we have here, however, are some delightful chips from the master's work bench. Nielsen's Humoresque-Bagatelles were premiered by the composer and were written as pieces for young pianists to play. Don't let this fool you--no dry pedantry here. These works are a delight for the ear. They're also teeming with Nielsen's personality and some like Jumping Jack look forward to the world of the Sinfonia semplice. The third piece, a gently beguiling waltz (A Little Slow Waltz), is a gem that ought to make for a splendid encore for pianists on the hunt for novel repertoire. The spirit of Grieg hovers over the recital closer, the Five Piano Pieces. J.P.E. Hartmann, Gade, and Svendsen also rub shoulders here--this is a more conservative work than the Humoresque-Bagatelles but no less enjoyable. A sly wink and raising of the eybrows can be heard in the Humoreske and Arabeske, pointing the way to the more familar Nielsen we know. The haunting and evocative Mignon is followed by the gruff high spirits of the Elves' Dance, a troll-like piece that was later used again by the composer in his incidental music for the play Sir Olaf, He Rides.

Admirers of Scandinavian music and late romantic piano should look no further. Nanna Hansen was a formidable pianist with a sense of poetry that is a rare find these days. Our loss that she has been forgotten. If I ever see another Hansen disc, you can bet I'll snap it up in a heartbeat.

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos.1 and 15 (Gergiev)

2009-12-18T20:50:00.001-08:00

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos.1 and 15
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra/Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky MAR0502 | Stereo DDD (SACD)

They used to say that James Brown was “the hardest working man in show business”, but I think that title can now easily be awarded to conductor Valery Gergiev. Hopping from New York, to St. Petersburg, to London, to Berlin, and beyond--the man is everywhere nowadays! And unlike most of today’s jet-set conductors, Gergiev shows no evidence of jet lag on the podium. A Gergiev concert is no ordinary pedestrian run-through. I can personally attest to the thrill he can inspire in the concert listener. His concerts in Los Angeles a few years ago, where he conducted Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony and excerpts from Wagner’s Ring, are some of my most cherished memories. But Gergiev on record has been somewhat erratic. His Prokofieff cycle would have been one of the best had it not been scuttled by the poor acoustics of London’s Barbican Center. His LSO Mahler cycle has also blown hot and cold and is similarly marred by those atrocious acoustics. His Philips’ set of Shostakovich’s “war symphonies” is emblematic of his success on records. What should have been a home run was anything but. A knock-out recording of the Sixth Symphony, a decent Ninth, somewhat muddy Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth, and a positively bland Fourth Symphony. So I wasn’t expecting too much from this CD when I bought it. Indeed, I braced myself for another “close, but no cigar” moment. Not this time!

It makes sense to pair these works, the alpha and omega of Shostakovich’s symphonic oeuvre, and I can only wonder why it hasn’t been done more often. I can only think of three other albums that pair these symphonies: Charles Dutoit on Decca, Vladimir Fedoseyev on Pony Canyon, and Oleg Caetani on Arts. It may seem strange to pair these works--one a masterly work of a precocious youth; the other a work of a composer embittered and jaded, fretting over the future of Russian music and, possibly, western music in general.

This Shostakovich First is easily one of the best I’ve ever heard. True, Gergiev’s interpretation is refracted through the lens of the later Shostakovich, so the symphony seems more serious and even brooding than it normally does. Some people may prefer a more youthful and chipper approach such as the recordings by Bernstein, Ancerl, Ashkenazy, Ormandy, and Rodzinski, among others, offer. Both approaches work fine by me. I’ll be coming back often to this recording.

Even better than the First is Gergiev’s recording of the Fifteenth. This strange work has eluded the grasp of many a conductor and though one can find enough recordings of it available, finding a good recording is not so easy. Best of the lot are Maxim Shostakovich’s recordings (his Melodiya recording can be found here at Maready’s The High Pony Tail Blog), Ormandy’s, Kitaenko’s, Lopez Cobos’, and Sanderling’s. This new Gergiev easily ranks alongside with them and can even safely be recommended as a benchmark. Gergiev is able to find just the right tone of voice for this symphony; by turns jaunty, mournful, eerie, and hauntingly beautiful. His recording is similar in conception to Kurt Sanderling’s recordings, but with more snap in the rhythms of the first and third movements. The brass are a joy to hear and sound warm and full in the second movement’s funeral chorale. The Fifteenth Symphony (and the Fourth) are particular favorites of mine and I have the dubious distinction of having heard every recording ever made (as well as owning nearly all of them). This is truly a great recording of Shostakovich’s symphonic farewell. It was so good I had to play it three more times all the way through.

Sonics are excellent throughout. Very wide spectrum of sound with plenty of depth. None of Philips’ muddiness is to be found here.

From what I’ve been hearing, Gergiev and his Mariinsky Orchestra will be recording all of the Shostakovich symphonies starting with the ones omitted from the Philips cycle. If this recording is anything to go by, this new cycle promises to be one of the very best. I can’t wait to hear more from this team.

Update

2009-12-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

Just as a reminder, I have reuploaded the first track of the Ormandy recording of the Symphonie Fantastique. You will find the link here. You will also find the link in the comment box for that particular post. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich

2009-12-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

Galina Vishnevskaya and Mstislav Rostropovich: Russian Live Recordings from the Sixties
Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich); *Shostakovich: Seven Romances to Poems by Alexander Blok; ^Satires (Pictures of the Past); ^Prokofieff: Five Poems by Anna Akhmatova
Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano; Gorki State Philharmonic Orchestra/Mstislav Rostropovich; *David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, Moisei Vainberg; ^Mstislav Rostropovich, piano
BMG Melodiya 74321 53247 2 | Stereo ADD

I wasn’t able to find this recording in time to post along with my previous post of recordings of Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death. Believe me, I tore up my house looking for them. But just when I wasn’t looking for it, there it was in front of my nose. Oh, well!

The 1990’s were a good time to be a Shostakovich fan. Le Chant du Monde, Russian Revelation, Russian Disc, and Melodiya (under the auspices of BMG) were showering us with all sorts of gems. I still remember with teary-eyed nostalgia the aisles at the Tower Classical store in Hollywood swelling with these discs. Sadly this surfeit of Russian treasures proved to be short lived and by 2000 had all become hard to find collector’s items. Some of these recordings have been reissued by other labels since, but never again have we had labels devoted entirely to mining the Soviet radio archives. Our loss.

In my earlier post, I had lamented that EMI’s recording of the Songs and Dances of Death found the great Russian diva, Galina Vishnevskaya, a bit past her prime. No such problem here. This recording from 1962 contains a broadcast of the world premiere of Shostakovich’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s song cycle. Vishnevskaya’s voice gleams in top form here. It is supple and rich; her Slavic vibrato under better control. She also conveys even more dramatic fire and nuance here than on her EMI studio effort. Her ability to switch back and forth on a turn of the dime from the mother’s terrified query to death’s icy, calm response in the Lullaby is breathtaking. How she manages to swing from one emotional extreme to another and sound totally convincing is beyond me. She sounds ardent as the seducer in the Serenade and her cry of triumph at the end is truly chilling. What a fearsome specter she is in the Trepak. Vishnevskaya finds just the right tone of cloying sweetness to the siren song that Death sings to the drunken peasant. Her most fearsome singing comes in The Field Marshal. Vishnevskaya’s Death crows with delight as she surveys the mounds of corpses left on the battlefield. I’m pinned to my seat when she launches into the closing roll call of death with the line Konchana bitva! Ya vsekh pomirila! (Cease your fighting! Victory is mine!). One would think this work to be the sole domain of men like Chaliapin or Christoff, but Vishnevskaya’s singing is here is every bit the equal in terms of vocal quality, and may even surpass them in dramatic insight. Rostropovich’s Gorki Philharmonic play with more fire than with accuracy. Numerous gaffes and lapses are enough to show that this orchestra was hardly even a second or third tier ensemble. But the sense of occasion and Vishnevskaya’s powerful interpretation makes this a recording to cherish. It is interesting to note that this concert also included Shostakovich’s debut and farewell in the role of conductor. The opening part of the program on this concert included the Festival Overture and the Cello Concerto No.1 with Rostropovich. Shostakovich had received some instruction in the art from Fritz Stiedry and Vaclav Talich in his youth, but was never able to overcome his stage fright. For this concert he was coached by Rostropovich and Kondrashin and, judging from the reviews, he did OK. It would be fascinating to hear if that portion of the broadcast had been preserved.

The remainder of this disc comes from a recital in 1967 that included the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Seven Romances to Poems by Alexander Blok. Her all-star backing trio is David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the composer Moisei Vainberg filling in for an indisposed Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich had written the piano part with his own abilities in mind, but had fallen ill before the concert. Simply put, you will not find a better recording of these elusive, haunting songs. Vishnevskaya sings with great poise and delicateness and her trio is, needless to say, outstanding. Incidentally, during Oistrakh’s duet with Vishnevskaya in We Were Together, he was playing through very violent chest pains that seized him shortly before the song had begun. Not wanting to cause a scene and distress the composer, Oistrakh played through his part without anyone else realizing what was going on. The pain had abated by the end of the song cycle, but he quickly checked himself into a hospital as soon as the concert ended.

Shostakovich’s playful song cycle Satires has been earning some more attention these past few years. Several good recordings have been made; one in an orchestral realization by Shostakovich student Boris Tishchenko. This breezy work seems to recall the playful, carefree Shostakovich of the early 1930’s. Only the central song, Descendants, sounds more in tune with the mournful tone of his works from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Vishnevskaya sings with sparkling wit and charm and Rostropovich’s accompaniment is equally fine. These miniatures pop and fizzle like a freshly uncorked bottle of champagne.

Prokofieff brings us to a close here in the rarefied sound world of his Five Poems of Anna Akhmatova. Their hot house lyricism and harmonies, redolent of Scriabin and Debussy, makes for a nice tonic to the Shostakovich works. Why haven’t more singers recorded Prokofieff's wonderful songs?

Sound is decent in the Mussorgsky and very good in the remainder. Vishnevskaya in her prime was, as they say, something else. Listen to this CD and hear why Shostakovich was so inspired by this voice.

Harty conducts Berlioz

2009-12-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

Sir Hamilton Harty conducts Berlioz
*Overture to Beatrice and Benedict; Romeo et Juiliette (excerpts): *Romeo seul - Tristesse - Concert et bal - Grand fete chez Capulet, Queen Mab Scherzo; Roman Carnival Overture; Les Troyens (excerpts): Royal Hunt and Storm, *March; ^Overture to Le Corsaire; Funeral March from Hamlet; Damnation of Faust (excerpts): Dance of the Sylphys, Rackoczy March
Halle Orchestra; *London Philharmonic Orchestra; ^London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Hamilton Harty
Pearl GEMM CD 9485 | Mono AAD

(IMPORTANT! Some of my Pearl CD's are beginning to succumb to CD rot and other afflictions that unfortunately demonstrate how "permanent" CD's really are. This is one such CD. This CD plays fine until the closing Hungarian March which is plagued with the "skips" and "bumps" of CD rot. The performance is still listenable, but just has more background noise, though it may not be immediately noticeable to most listeners. So important is this CD, however, that I have decided to post it warts and all. I hope you enjoy it and I apologize for any sonic inconveniences.)

Some people may recognize the name of Sir Hamilton Harty as the composer of the very wonderful Irish Symphony. A beautiful work; Harty was a very talented composer. Even more may recognize him as the arranger for modern symphony orchestra of Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. These were once popular concert and recording staples, but it seems the "Authentick" performance police have banned these from the concert hall. But many forget now that he was also a very well regarded conductor in his day. The recordings that have been reissued resound with the musicality of a man who knew how to get warm, full playing from his orchestra, with a superb sense of pacing, and great flair. He was also a formidable Berliozian and did much to popularize the composer's works in Britain. Here on this Pearl CD we have ample proof of his credentials as one of the last century's great conductors.

As I said in an earlier post, Berlioz offers so many opportunities for the conductor and orchestra to let it rip, but few take him up on them. Harty is one of the few that does. He knows how to thrill the listener, but he doesn't sacrifice tonal beauty to do this. The old Halle, LSO, and LPO play with great beauty, warmth, and fire. The Halle especially sounds very fine. Not one whit inferior to the London orchestras.

Musical history has an odd way of forgetting the accomplishments of the great. Pearl's CD proves that Harty deserves to be more than a mere footnote in this history.

Mussorgsky and Shostakovich: Songs and Dances of Death, etc.

2009-11-30T20:30:00.000-08:00

Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death, The Nursery, and other selected songs

Sergei Leiferkus, baritone/Sergei Skigin, piano
Conifer Classics 75605 51229 2 | Stereo DDD

Mussorgsky: Prelude to Khovanschina (orch. Rimsky-Korsakoff), *Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich); Shostakovich: Symphony No.15
*Sergei Aleksashkin, bass-baritone; Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Sir Georg Solti
Decca 289 458 919-2 | Stereo DDD

Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich), and *other selected songs; Rimsky-Korsakoff, Tchaikovsky: selected arias and *songs
Galina Vishnevskaya; London Philharmonic Orchestra/Mstislav Rostropovich; *Mstislav Rostropovich, piano
EMI Great Recordings of the Century 5 62654 2 | Stereo ADD

It can be argued that even more than love--whether carnal or spiritual--death has been the number one source of inspiration for many of the works of the great composers. Happily, much of the music it has inspired is far from dour. However grim and dark it gets, it often is thrilling and, in the greatest works, can even impart in the listener a glimpse of understanding of the greater meaning of life. Just think of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, Beethoven’s late quartets, Schumann’s spectral late works, Mahler’s symphonies, Saint-Saens Danse macabre, the phantasmagorical Symphonie Fantastique of Berlioz, just to name a handful of the great death haunted works in the musical literature. In the hands of some composers, death is portrayed with all the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood blockbuster; a spellbinding performance of a death scene for an appreciative audience. Others view death in very idealized terms. A final release and that sort of thing. Of the many composers that have dealt with this morbid subject, only a very few have dealt with it in an honest, matter-of-fact way. Death as neither cruel nor blissful. To us it is strange and terrible, but it is not any of those things in itself. It simply is. Mussorgsky, in his quest to bring realism to music, took such a look at death. Eerie and seductive; violent and horrifying. But however it comes, it simply comes, whether we want to or not.

The lyrics by Mussorgsky’s friend and one-time roommate, Arseni Golenishchev-Kutuzov inspired what may very well be Mussorgsky’s masterpiece in the genre of the song cycle, the Songs and Dances of Death. Here death comes to a sickly infant, a suicidal young girl, a drunk on his way home from carousing, and soldiers on the battlefield. The four songs make a perfect cycle, though Mussorgsky had wanted to add a few more songs to the set. He had also wanted to orchestrate the cycle, but never got around to it. Soon after Mussorgsky’s death, Rimsky-Korsakoff and Glazunov orchestrated the cycle, but also ironed out what they considered rough hewn imperfections in their colleague’s work. If recordings are any judge, it would seem that this orchestration never quite caught on as much as the piano original. It wasn’t until Shostakovich’s 1962 orchestration for Galina Vishnevskaya that a an orchestral realization of this work won wide favor. Shostakovich's orchestration of Mussorgsky's work served to inspire him to write his Fourteenth Symphony a few years later. There has also been a recent orchestration by Kalevi Aho, but I have yet to hear that.

The music on the three discs being offered share in common, aside from an affinity for death, the inclusion of Mussorgsky’s song cycle. Sergei Leiferkus’ disc, his first volume in a four disc set of Mussorgsky’s songs, is a splendid album. His Songs and Dances of Death is sung superbly. His smooth baritone captures the mood of each song. His death as seducer in the Serenade is particularly good. In the rest of the recital, I sometimes wish for just a little more grit. His interpretation of the He-Goat, for example, is a bit flat and misses the pointed humor of this song. Darling Savishna is also much too smooth. This is, after all, the desperate plea from the town idiot. But it really is hard to resist Leiferkus’ smooth as silk voice. Semyon Skigin’s accompaniment is excellent and fits Leiferkus snugly.

Next is a Decca album where Mussorgsky is paired with Shostakovich. This album is death haunted not only by the shared mood and inspiration of the music on it, but also by the fact that the conductor of this recording, Sir Georg Solti, would die himself soon after this concert was taped. This was his last Chicago concert. I remember tuning into what was then KKGO back when I was a kid to hear this concert on a Chicago Symphony broadcast. It was a fine concert and I was very happy to see it released on CD two years later. Sergei Aleksashkin’s voice is more stentorian than Leiferkus. Not a bad thing at all, especially in The Field Marshal, where death’s roll call marches on with grim power. Solti’s recording of Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony is one of the best. The CSO play mightily here as is expected. This is a lean, no-nonsense affair. You won’t find the depth and spirituality of Sanderling or the manic energy of Jarvi, to name but two other great conductors of this symphony. But this is a very fine recording of this very creepy work. Perhaps Shostakovich’s darkest, even more so than the Fourteenth Symphony.

Finally we have a recording with the woman who inspired Shostakovich’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s song cycle, Galina Vishnevskaya. This is a good recording, but it really does capture the great Russian diva just a little bit past her prime. There is a hootiness and scratchiness in her top notes at times and some wild vibrato. Nonetheless she sings with great conviction and fervor. No wonder they called her the “female Chaliapin”. The disc is rounded out with her interpretations of various songs and arias by Rimsky-Korsakoff and Tchaikovsky. She sounds in better form there. Rostropovich and his London Philharmonic play wonderfully, though I wish they weren’t so reticent. This music needs an extra passion and vigor that eludes the gentlemanly LPO. Rostropovich also does an outstanding turn as his wife’s piano accompanist. Surprised? Aside from being the last century’s greatest cellist, he also was a formidable pianist. In fact, he had originally wanted to pursue that vocation, but he ended going the way of the cello. How lucky we are that he did.

There you have it then. Death haunted works in deathless recordings. Enjoy.

(You can find the texts and transliterations for Mussorgsky's song cycle here.)

Gerald Moore: The Unashamed Accompanist

2009-11-30T13:55:00.000-08:00

Gerald Moore: The Unashamed Accompanist

Gerald Moore, piano and narrator; (track 22) Gerald Moore, voice/Victoria de los Angeles, piano
Testament SBT 1176 | Mono ADD

I’m fulfilling a request for Peter here. Hope you enjoy this!

For those of you who imagine the role of the accompanist to be essentially one of subservience and reticence in favor of the soloist, this recording makes for an entertaining reeducation. Gerald Moore, the doyen of modern accompanists, explains the role of the accompanist, debunking many myths and untruths along the way. His wit and erudition make this a very enjoyable listen. No dry pedantries here. Particularly funny is his retelling of an anecdote involving Sir Thomas Beecham and his “public spirited” approach to his role in the opera house.

Appended at the end of this disc is an outtake with Gerald Moore and Victoria de los Angeles engaged in a little bit of role reversal. Here Moore for once takes the spotlight as singer, with de los Angeles as his accompanist and the two pound out a, shall we say, unforgettable rendition of Schumann’s Ich grolle nicht from Dichterliebe.

This is a delightful and edifying recording and Testament deserves our thanks for making it available. What a treat!

Ormandy conducts Berlioz, Dukas, and Mussorgsky

2009-11-30T13:25:00.000-08:00

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique; Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain (arr. Rimsky-Korsakoff)
Philadelphia Orchestra/Eugene Ormandy
Sony Essential Classics SBK 89833 | Stereo ADD

What a surprise! I’ve long been a fan of Eugene Ormandy’s work, but even I wasn’t expecting this recording to be so good. Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is one of those great masterworks that only a few conductors are able to convincingly pull off. Strange this because the score gives ample opportunity for the conductor to strut his stuff and pull out all the stops. But few ever take up Berlioz’s challenge. I really wasn’t expecting Ormandy to bowl me over with dramatic strength--but that’s exactly what you hear in this recording.

To be sure, Ormandy is no arch romantic. He’s no Mengelberg or Golovanov. But excitement and ardor abound here from beginning to end. In the first movement, Ormandy and his orchestra shape the initial appearance of the idee fixe beautifully, shot through with youthful anxiety and longing. The second movement’s waltz is not the nightmarish vision of Klemperer or Szenkar--a vision of the outsider looking in. Rather, here the hero is himself dancing along, twirling away, hoping to lose himself from the memory of his beloved through the intoxicating rhythms of the dance. Lovely English horn and oboe set the stage for a luminous Scene in the Country that for once seems all too brief. But the biggest surprises of all are the last two movements. A crackling, goosestep of a March to the Scaffold played to the very hilt. The Philadelphia brass play gloriously here. This really must have been one of the all time greatest brass sections ever. They sound powerful and majestic here, but they’ll never assault your ears like the Chicago brass could. Was this orchestra ever capable of making an ugly sound? The Dream of a Sabbath Night brings everything to a stunning close. Not only thrilling is Ormandy’s vision of this music. Equally thrilling is the chance to hear this orchestra--one of the very greatest--tearing into this music with heady abandon.

The rest of this disc is very fine too. Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the perfect showpiece for Ormandy’s Philadelphians. Ormandy, quite a sorcerer himself, conjures up magical playing from his orchestra. Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain is very good, but here I would prefer Abbado or the spooky orchestral pyrotechnics of Stokowski.

In this recording Columbia afforded Ormandy some of the best sonics it ever produced. Beautiful and lush sound complement the orchestra perfectly. Only the Mussorgsky sounds a little distant and diffuse.

If you haven’t gotten the hint yet, run, don’t walk to get this recording. Here is a recording of the Fantastique that deserves space next to Szenkar, Klemperer, Walter, Meyrowitz, and Mitropoulos.

Beecham conducts romantic overtures (RPO)

2009-11-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

Beecham conducts Overtures
Berlioz: Le Corsaire; Mendelssohn: Midsummer Night's Dream, The Fair Melusina; Rossini: La gazza ladra, La scala di seta, Semiramide; Suppe: Poet and Peasant; *Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Thomas Beecham
EMI Classics 7 63407 2 | Stereo, *Mono ADD

Here is another CD that for some reason or other EMI has failed to reissue. The Rossini overtures appeared in the early 2000's on a short lived fundraiser CD for UNESCO where it was paired with recordings by Sargent and Serafin. The Wagner was reissued on BBC Classics some years back. But the remainder rests comfortably in the EMI vaults gathering dust.

If you love Beecham's way with music and haven't heard this yet, you must hear this CD. If you're unfamiliar with Beecham's art, this and my earlier post of his "Lollipops" make for a great introduction to the man and his work. For me, this disc is worth hearing just for the pert, beautiful winds in Mendelssohn's The Fair Melusina alone. The lovely opening is as magical and lyrical as one could ever hope to hear. The gentle breeze of a clear spring day.

The sound is good and airy early stereo, except for the Wagner which was recorded for a BBC broadcast from Maida Vale. That work is recorded in mono.

This is one of the discs I reach for to listen when my life is feeling out of sorts.

Dimitri Mitropoulos: A selection of some of his best recordings (Part 1)

2009-11-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

Great Conductors of the 20th Century: Dimitri Mitropoulos
Mahler: Symphony No.6 "Tragic"; *Berlioz: Romeo et Juiliette (excerpts); *Debussy: La mer; *R. Strauss: Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome
Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra; *New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Dimitri Mitropoulos
EMI Classics 5 75471 2 | Mono ADD

Berg: Wozzeck; *Schoenberg: Erwartung; Krenek: Symphonic Elegy for String Orchestra (In Memoriam Anton Webern)
Mack Harrell - Wozzeck
Eilleen Farrell - Marie
Frederick Jagel - Drum Major
Joseph Mordino - Captain; Soldier; Fool
David Lloyd - Andres
Ralph Herbert - Doctor
Edwina Eustis - Margret
*Dorothy Dow, soprano
New York High School of Music and Art Chorus, Chorus of the Schola Cantorum; New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Dimitri Mitropoulos
Sony Masterworks Heritage MH2K 62759 | Mono ADD

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 10 and *9
New York Philharmonic Orchestra/Dimitri Mitropoulos; *Efrem Kurtz
Columbia Masterworks Portrait MPK 45698 | Mono ADD

"Nice guys always finish last." That depressing aphorism was probably never truer than with the life of Dimitri Mitropoulos. A tall, craggy man with a gleaming domed top, and a robustly athletic physique, he had a gentleness of character that belied his tough exterior. Mitropoulos' Franciscan munificence was notorious. He spared no expense with the financially needy and drained himself completely in performances that pinned the listener to the wall with a white hot intensity that left one worrying for his health. Adored by his Minneapolis Symphony, he left for New York where he believed he would reach the pinnacle of his career. Instead, the underhanded machinations of the orchestra's musicians and board, not to mention a series of betrayals by his one time protege Leonard Bernstein, broke Mitropoulos' spirit and health. He returned to a Europe, where he had long been ranked as a great, that received him with open arms. What should have been a new beginning ended all too soon. During a rehearsal of the Mahler Third with the Milan Radio Symphony, he suffered a massive heart attack that blew out one of the chambers of his heart. He died penniless. Mitropoulos has indirectly been one of the most influential conductors that America has ever had. Even more so than Bernstein, Mitropoulos was a Mahler conductor par excellence who's tireless championship of this then unpopular composer set the foundations for the Mahler revival of the 1960's. His recordings and airchecks survive as a reminder of his genius and an eternal rebuke to the mediocrities that succeeded him.

This past month (November 2nd) marked the 49th anniversary of this great musician's death and as a tribute to this giant, I'll be posting a selection of some of his best recordings from Minneapolis, New York, and Europe. It is very unfortunate that Mitropoulos was a Columbia artist as that label's sound was inferior to what labels like Decca, RCA Victor, HMV, English Columbia, DG, and even Vox and Westminster were capable of at the time. This together with the fact that the bulk of his studio recordings were in mono and that much of the repertoire foisted upon Mitropoulos by Columbia was uncongenial to his style helped his legacy fade away. Sony/BMG has also been pretty hit-and-miss with the Mitropoulos reissues, sometimes releasing great recordings in poor remasterings or great recordings that are available for only a short while or hard to find outside of Europe. Fortunately, some of his greatest work can be heard in live recordings on labels like Orfeo, Medici, and Music & Arts.

His volume in the Great Conductors series was a very fine one; one of the best in that short lived series. The first disc is a blistering performance of Mahler's Sixth Symphony with the Cologne Radio Symphony. No one except Kyril Kondrashin comes close to matching Mitropoulos. There is none of the taffy pulling and portentiousness of Bernstein, the edgeless smoothness of Thomas, or the bland anonimity of Jansons, Haitink, Gergiev, etc. It is a performance where you feel the conductor and the orchestra just get straight to the soul of the music--no bullshit. There is not a single drop in tension and focus. The first movement treads forth inexorably, crushing everything before it like a tank. The major/minor seal is played with searing power and the orchestra has a dense, dark sound that works well in this symphony. The scherzo pounds out with steely vigor and the "old fashioned" trio sounds more macabre than usual. The Andante moderato is played with great lyric strength, though one feels Mitropoulos is less concerned with the romance of this music and more with the bracing alpine air; the Olympian heights. The finale is the most bleak and powerful on records. It surges with great muscularity. The hammer blow climaxes will knock you out of your chair, but the hammer blows themselves (as they often are) are not very audible. The final fff climax is truly shattering; all life and energy utterly spent. Mitropoulos was one of the very greatest Mahler conductors and he plays this symphony here with a messiaenic zeal. It should be noted that he gave the American premiere of this work in 1948 and that there is a New York Philharmonic broadcast of this work available. As good as that recording is, this one outclasses it. The sound quality here is very good mono; powerful and well focused. These Cologne broadcasts had some very good sound. The Cologne orchestra plays better than the NYPO and it must be said that the CRSO, on the whole, was a better orchestra than the NYPO. New York may have had better individual musicians, but it hardly mattered as they played quite raggedly as an ensemble. No such problems can be heard here.

Disc two of this set has a selection of very fine NYPO recordings. An athletic Berlioz Romeo et Juiliette, one of the very best ever recorded. A shame that Mitropoulos didn't record the whole thing. Also included is a very different take on Debussy's La mer. No atmospheric haze here. I've never imagined that Debussy could sound so muscular and granitic, so sinewy. But Mitropoulos makes it work! He had a way of grabbing the listener by the scruff of the neck and taking him on a musical journey, whether they wanted to or not. I won't be giving up my recordings with Desormiere, Coppola, Koussevitzky, Munch, and Inghelbrecht, but Mitropoulos deserves shelf space right alongside them. The disc ends with a thrilling and hot Dance of the Seven Veils, played with seductive rhythmic verve and very tight ensemble.

Now the next set is very special indeed. Mitropoulos was Erich Kleiber's assistant at the Berlin State Opera during the 1920's where he saw first hand some of the great man's productions, including the famous premiere of Wozzeck. The work immediately won him over and was among the many works that would occupy his study time during the next few decades. He finally had his chance to perform it in concert during his tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic and Columbia fortunately captured the occasion for posterity. The cast is one of the very best assembled with Eileen Farrell pouring out roulades of golden tone with no effort whatsoever. Her Marie is very warm and human; not as schizoid sounding as others make her seem. Mack Harrell's Wozzeck is powerful and wrenching. The cast it must be noted, save for Harrell, take a rather cavalier approach to pitch, especially Eileen Farrell. No matter as the fervor that Mitropoulos inspires from them makes up for it amply. Mitropoulos gets very full hearted playing from the NYPO despite a few mistakes here and there. Under his baton the opera's final pages have never sounded so heartbreaking.

The last disc is devoted completely to Shostakovich: the Tenth and Ninth symphonies. The Tenth leads out the disc in a searing performance under Mitropoulos; the symphony's first recording in the west. It's hard to believe that this symphony was greeted with derision by the New York press and it says a lot about the deep seated provincialism of this supposedly most cosmopolitan of cities. A "turkey"; music "without culture". Fortunately, posterity and Mitropoulos has proven these people wrong. This is really one of the very great recordings of the symphony. The climaxes in the first movement are almost unbearable. The second movement, at about 3'45", is the fastest on records. Faster even than Mravinsky or the composer himself with Moishei Vainberg playing a two piano arrangement of the symphony. No lapses in playing can be found here, the NYPO plays with total commitment. The Allegretto is dark and plenty mysterious while the finale bursts forth, guns blazing at the coda. The disc mate is a surprisingly powerful Ninth Symphony conducted by the nearly forgotten Efrem Kurtz. Kurtz was American Columbia's (and later English Columbia's) go-to man for recording Russian repertoire. The majority of his recorded output has failed to make it to CD, but what there is very fine. This Ninth is no different. It is interesteing to note that Bernstein opts for nearly the same speeds in his own recording with the NYPO. Unfortunately, the remastering of this CD leaves much to be desired. All you have is mid range sound, with the highs and lows zapped away. These recordings deserve better and one can only hope that they'll be given adequate remasterings some day (not likely).

If you need proof that Mitropoulos was a giant worthy to be ranked alongside Klemperer, Furtwangler, Mengelberg, and the rest, give these discs a try. There is more on they way!

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos.9 and 14 conducted by Oistrakh and Barshai (Russian Disc)

2009-11-16T18:54:00.000-08:00

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos.9 and 14*
USSR Symphony Orchestra/David Oistrakh
*Galina Vishnevskaya, Mark Reshitin; Moscow Chamber Orchestra/Rudolf Barshai
Russian Disc RDCD 11192| Stereo ADD

(If you haven't done so yet, please visit Maready's The High Pony Tail blog where you will find his transfers of some Melodiya releases of Shostakovich's music including Maxim's first recordings of the Fifteenth Symphony and Barshai's studio recording of the Fourteenth Symphony. I'll be posting up some Shostakovich goodies over the next few weeks in tribute to Maready and his fine work.)

The mid and late 1990's were a great time to be a classical CD collector. Everything that could possibly be in print was and what wasn't was well on its way. The Polygram, EMI, and Warner boys were flooding the market with mounds of releases. For those with more peculiar tastes, niche labels like Archiphon, Dante/Lys, Rockport, Pearl, Biddulph, and Romophone served the community admirably. For Russophiles, however, two labels were among the most cherished in those days. The first was the Russian Revelation label which in its all too brief lifespan issued some amazing recordings incuding a priceless 7 CD set of the complete Russian recordings of Shostakovich playing his own work. The other was a label that lasted a little longer, but was shut down around the same time thanks to the mindless chumps at Sony/BMG's legal department. That label was Russian Disc which put out many Soviet era airchecks including this performance: the Moscow premiere of Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony. Coupled with it is a good hearted romp through the Ninth Symphony courtesy of David Oistrakh.

Oistrakh was a pretty decent conductor and made a few very estimable recordings, quite a few of which were issued on Russian Revelation including a very rich, Slavic Mahler Fourth Symphony with Vishnevskaya. This Ninth Symphony, while not earth shattering in any way, shows Oistrakh's genial conducting at its best. There are patches of messy ensemble here, but nothing that seriously prevents the enjoyment of this recording. The trombone soloist is particularly good here, playing the tonic/dominant interruptions in the first movement with the appropriate boorish humor.

The real reason to get this disc is to hear this aircheck of the Moscow premiere of the Fourteenth Symphony. The Fourteenth is one of Shostakovich's greatest works, but has faired rather poorly on records. Not that it has lacked good performances. But too often the performances are very well mannered and much too smooth. Only the pre-defection Barshai, Kondrashin, and Rostropovich have truly brought this work to life. Even Barshai's remake with the Cologne Radio fails to come to life the way his studio recording or this aircheck do.

According to the correspondence between Issak Glikman and Shostakovich, the composer was not quite happy with this performance or the singers. He cited ensemble lapses and missed or late entries by the singers. There are a few very minor lapses in ensemble, but really nothing to complain about. No recording matches the frantic intensity of this aircheck. It can almost be too much. Not a work or recording one can listen to very often.

The quality of this recording is good, but tends to suffer from distortion at climaxes, especially if percussion is involved. Speaking of percussion, this recording emends the score slightly with the tom-toms playing in unison with the string at the symphony's coda. This change, according to Barshai, was sanctioned by the composer.

Shostakovich fans must have this CD. Don't miss it.

Alfred Schnittke's Film Music (Part 1 - Olympia)

2009-11-16T10:55:00.000-08:00

(This will be the first in a five part set of posts devoted to Alfred Schnittke's film music. These posts will be spread across the next month or so)

Music for the films 'The Story of an Unknown Actor', 'Sport, Sport, Sport', 'Agony', and 'Music for an Imaginary Play'
USSR Cinematography Symphony Orchestra/Emin Khachaturian
Olympia OCD 606 | Stereo AAD

We all go through that phase as teenagers, don't we? That sort of emo phase where we equate life with pain and indulge ourselves in proclaiming all sorts of embarrassing pseudo-profundities; in constant mourning for... something. Some of us, God help us, go a little further than that and immortalize this mawkish period in torrents of poetic inspiration etched into reams of college ruled, spiral bound notebook paper. I never went that far myself having discovered even then that I lack the talent for lyric expression, but I did take to listening to appropriately "dark" music. Alfred Schnittke's music was a constant companion of mine in those days. His very bleak, joyless sound world offered this young listener the perfect vehicle which to exorcise some of his angst. After I turned 20 or so, Schnittke and I began drifting apart. Life, while sometimes not the "best of all possible worlds", is still something of great beauty and a privilege to be able to have at all. Schnittke's world view is rather foreign to my own these days. But some of Schnittke's work still speaks to me. His First Symphony and Faust Cantata, among other works, are undeniably great and thrilling music. His film music is also very attractive and far better than a lot of people, including perhaps the composer himself, would give them credit for. This Olympia album showcases Schnittke at his lyrical and sometimes goofiest best, but there's plenty of strength and craft here. We're light years away from the nauseously saccharine world of your typical "Hollywood" soundtrack.

Like Shostakovich before him, Schnittke wrote a very sizeable quantity of film music--over 60 scores in all--and like his predecessor, film work was one of his few sources of income during times when the man and his concert work had ran afoul of the Soviet appratchiks. Schnittke's film music sometimes suffered as well. In the case of his music for Elem Klimov's Agony, the Soviet authorities went so far as to order the destruction of the soundtrack and score. But on the whole, his film music is very approachable and witty and would be very welcome even in a 'pops' concert.

Schnittke could at times display a disarmingly fetching sense of lyricism as in these excerpts from Alexander Zarkhy's film The Story of an Unknown Actor. The score has the feel of "updated" Rachmaninoff, with plenty of friendly melodiousness that only a grump could hate. Hints of the more familiar Schnittke creep over like in the seventh cue with its menacing harpsichord ostinato and tense string tremolos. Admirers of the Russian romantics may want to give this score a try if they're thinking of dipping their toes into Schnittke's music.

Sport, Sport, Sport is a documentary film by the great Elem Klimov about the mob mentality and illusion of competitiveness in the field of sports. If Schnittke's music is anything to go by, it must be some documentary. The score begins with an energetic, Olympian fanfare that immediately segues into an ugly swamp of tone clusters from which fragments of the film's themes emerge like monsters trapped in tar. The next cue, Fans, is a mock baroque fugue arranged in cocktail lounge style complete with sizzling cymbals and sleazy saxophone. The work's finale is a grandly tragic musical panorama that has some melodic kinship with the next work on this album, the score to Klimov's Agony.

Agony is about Rasputin, especially his hold over the Tsar's policies and his subsequent murder. The work begins with murmurings from the synthesizer and electronically processed wailing. Very eerie. The next track which accompanies a flashback to the January 9th uprising, scampers along with another harpsichord ostinato reminiscent of Danny Elfman's work. The Waltz which follows is a truly frightening danse macabre with very wide interval leaps and punctured by sforzandi trumpet tone clusters. It dances along beginning with quiet menace until it reaches a whirling climax only to recede back into the shadows from which it came. The closing two numbers may be recognizable to those who are familiar with Schnittke's work. A mournful chorale theme that is later used in the Second Cello Concerto makes it appearance here and closes off these excerpts in with appropriate grimness.

The creation of the pithy Music for an Imaginary Play came about through the work of Schnittke's friend, the theater director Yuri Lyubimov. Lyubimov had planned a theatrical adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Demons and had asked Schnittke to write the incidental music. Schnittke had begun writing the music when Lyubimov defected to the west in 1985. Schnittke (with help from Gennady Rozhdestvensky) decided to salvage some of the music he had written and cobbled together this suite. The instrumentation is very unusual: 3 flutes, trumpet, harmonica, guitar, piano, drum kit, and a choir of three producing a wordless vocalise of great "pathos" through combs and tissue. Schnittke devised an orchestration where he used what he called the "leftovers" from a theater orchestra. The opening Winter Road--seemingly equal parts Weill, Shostakovich, and Mr. Bungle, but pure Schnittke--is an off kilter polka trapped into repeating its manic little theme over and over again with increasing vehemence until a violent thud on the piano calls the dance to a close. A Wending Melody offers a brief interlude of respite with a haunting folk-like melody played in canon on the flutes and the creepy tolling of bells in the background. A brazen March concludes the suite and album with the kind of noise making a group of rowdy drunks would make as they wound their way through the streets after the bar closed.

Schnittke had quite a melodic gift and his biting sense of humor rivalled Shostakovich's. For those of you who imagine Schnittke to be only doom and gloom, give this album a try.

The Beethoven symphonies conducted by Osmo Vänskä... with special guest star Klaus Tennstedt!

2009-11-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

*Helena Juntunen, Katarina Karneus, Daniel Norman, Neal Davies; *Minnesota Chorale; Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä
BIS SACD 1716, 1817, 1516, 1416, *1616 | Stereo DDD (SACD)

Esther Hinds, Janis Hardy, Dennis Bailey, Samuel Ramey; University of Minnesota Symphonic Chorus; Minnesota Orchestra/Klaus Tennstedt
Memories Excellence ME1045 | Stereo ADD

Beethoven is back? I didn't realize he had ever been away. If he did leave us, the classical record industry certainly never got the message. Some things, like classical labels churning out Beethoven symphony cycles without regard to need or quality, will never change. Do we really need yet another Beethoven symphony cycle? Wouldn't it be a greater service to record music by little known, but great composers like Gavriil Popov, Silvestre Revueltas, Hans Rott, Nikolai Karetnikov, Saburo Moroi, etc.? But the publication of the Bärenreiter edition of these works earlier this decade, which corrects the old "corrupt" Breitkopf und Härtel editions, have given labels and conductors yet another excuse to record these far too oft performed works. Unlike the editions of Bruckner's works by Robert Haas and Leopold Nowak, for example, which revealed to the world that the Bruckner we had known until then had been grossly distorted, these Bärenreiter editions are notable only in a few minor textual emendations. This isn't to put down the hard work of Johnathan Del Mar, the editor of the Bärenreiter Beethoven. But most listeners will not notice these changes unless they have their Breitkopf and Bärenreiter scores handy for some comparative listening.

Contrary to the wild acclaim this cycle has garnered, Vänskä's approach, while solid, won't be making Karajan, Furtwängler, Klemperer, Monteux, the Kleibers and so on shake in their boots. Some people will claim to hear the "real" Beethoven here; a fresh approach they'll claim. At best, there is a punchiness that can work in some these symphonies' favor. However, one also hears a willful fussiness and choppiness; a neglect of legato and of the singing line. There is much in here that sounds episodic. But there are some good things to be found here too. I've rated Vänskä's approach to each symphony below.

Good. Vänskä's punchy approach works well here. The slow movement is a little too cold for me; the minuet too buttoned down. The finale is let down by surprisingly soggy sounding timpani.
Another good performance, slightly marred by a rather chaste Larghetto.
Stiff and inflexible first movement. Good Marcia funebre although the climax goes for little here. Nice scherzo. Very balletic swing to the finale. Impressive dynamic extremes.
OK, though I wish there was a stronger feel for the lyricism in this music.
Wooden and bloodless. Carlos Kleiber has nothing to fear.
Excellent; a high point of this cycle. Superbly paced first movement. Serene Scene by the brook. Beautiful bird calls. Very raucous peasants in the country dance. You can almost see the dust being kicked in the air by their hearty dance. The storm is very impressive and the finale is songful and warm, but strong. One of the best recordings I've heard in awhile.
Another excellent recording. Powerful horns at the first movement's coda. Well paced Allegretto. The Scherzo and Finale are very thrilling.
Boring. Beethoven's wild modulations pass by with no notice or care. The sense of danger in this music is missing. Vänskä can take cold comfort in knowing that this music eluded even many of the very great conductors.
Tempi are similar to the live 1957 Klemperer, but without Klemperer's sense of architectural unity and control. Phrasing is too choppy; lines seem like they are being spat out or sniped at. The third movement drags--and it's actually taken at a fairly fast clip. Finale is good; excellent choir and soloists.

I should note that the orchestra sounds too thin for my tastes here, especially in the later symphonies, but play very well. On the whole, I find this set to be serviceable, but bland at times. If you like the modern instruments with a period sensibility approach, the LSO Haitink and Vienna Rattle are very satisfying. I'm happy to hear American orchestras cranking out new records, but I wish they would apply their efforts to music that hasn't been played to death.

Now let's stay in Minneapolis, but go back in time to 1982 when this live recording of Klaus Tennstedt at the helm of the Minnesota Orchestra conducting a blazing Ninth Symphony was captured.

Tennstedt's is a hearty, muscular performance that infuses the music with a direction and purpose sometimes missing from the Vänskä set. On the whole, Tennstedt's tempi are slower than Vänskä's in the Ninth, but everything surges ahead smartly. The first movement and scherzo pulse forth with vigor. The Adagio cantabile has all the singing warmth that was missing in the BIS, and the trumpets peal out grandly at the climax. The last movement begins attaca with a terrifying din. Samuel Ramey's elegant bass-baritone is marvelous. The other soloists are good, though not on Ramey's level, with the tenor sounding as if he's singing with a wad of tube socks stuffed in his mouth. The choir is excellent, but their German diction leaves something to be desired.

In a Minnesota Orchestra boxed set, one can find a performance of the 'Pastoral' with Tennstedt included there. I would love to hear that. This Ninth is one of the very best I've heard and deserves your attention.

Mozart's Lieder: Leblanc and Seefried

2009-11-12T16:46:00.001-08:00

Mozart: Lieder; Assorted lieder by Flies, Brahms, Schubert, and Wolf
Irmgard Seefried with Gerald Moore; Hermann von Nordberg; Wilhelm Schmidt; London Mozart Players/Harry Blech
Testament SBT 1026 | Mono ADD

Mozart: Lieder
Suzie Leblanc/Yannick Nezet-Seguin
ATMA Classique 22327 | Stereo DDD (SACD)

Mozart's lieder after all these years still remains somewhat underrated. While never reaching the heights of inspiration and depth of expression that Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler, et al were able to bring to the genre, they still are exquisite, charming gems that bring much pleasure to the listener. Here are two recitals, one better than the other, that show what a fine lieder composer Mozart was.

Suzie Leblanc starts us off with her ATMA Mozart disc, accompanied by up and coming conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, moonlighting here on the fortepiano. Leblanc sings with warmth and grace, albeit with a somewhat hooty sound that afflicts most period performance singers. There's also a tendency to unduly press the tempi as is the wont of period performance types. Nezet-Seguin plays very well, though the fortepiano sounds unintentionally comical, like a honky-tonk piano. The ATMA sonics have plenty of bloom and as far as modern Mozart lieder recordings go, this is excellent.

For those who can bear monaural sound, we have the incomparable Irmgard Seefried backed by "the unashamed accompanist" himself, Gerald Moore. As fine as Leblanc/Nezet-Seguin are, Seefried/Moore inhabit a completely different world of expression and color. The songs blossom and burst to life with charm. Has there ever been a more lovely rendition of Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling? A more witty and flirtatious An Chloë? Seefried paints a wide spectrum of colors with such natural ease. Moore, as ever, is superb here. This recital was released piecemeal on 78's, but quickly deleted when EMI converted to LP where it was quickly replaced by a recital of Mozart songs sung by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. As much as I love Schwarzkopf, she is no match for Seefried here, sounding too calculating where Seefried sounds utterly spontaneous and fresh. Included here also are recordings of Seefried singing lieder by other composers. A trio of charming Wolf songs closes out the disc with Seefried sounding just adorably girly.

You really can't go wrong with either disc, though the Seefried recital really is something special; a real treasure.

Eighth Blackbird plays Rzewski

2009-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

Rzewski's music has been something that I have made a point to avoid ever since I first heard about it. I was a teenager when browsing through a library I came across the score to his monumental set of variations on the Unidad Popular song, ¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido! I was immediately repulsed by it. Not the music so much, though I didn't care for its baroque excesses back then, but it was his ideological stance that disgusted me. Being the son of Chilean immigrants, I long had heard all the stories of the Allende era. The food and basic supply shortages, the violence, the groaning of a nation teetering on the brink of civil war. Today the knee-jerk answer is that the US was singularly responsible for this and many other things and that they, together with Pinochet's junta, had framed Allende, as it were, for these disasters. Much is made of the fact that Allende was popularly elected. Little is ever heard that Allende's win was not the popular mandate it has retrospectively been made out to be; a razor thin margin of dubious circumstance comparable to that of George W. Bush's in 2000. Pinochet was a crook, no question about that, but Allende was just as criminal and violent in repressing his detractors, something that's easily forgotten these days. The fact that in death he has been made a saint is disgusting. All this and more swirled through my head as I sight read that Rzewski score. I closed it and dismissed Rzewski's music and his ideology outright. Thanks, but no thanks.

Years later I came across this CD in a cut out bin. I was doubly curious because I had yet to hear a recording by Eighth Blackbird (they spell their name in all lowercase letters--how cute). At a bargain price, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try it out. I have to say--it's pretty good. Well, some of it.

Pocket Symphony leads things off. Initially I thought this was going to be some take off of Brian Wilson's Good Vibrations, famously referred to by Derek Taylor as a "pocket symphony". Well, Rzewski is no Brian Wilson, but this is still pretty good. The first movement has a "pop" sensibility makes it approachable although the piece becomes darker as it progresses. But make no mistake, this is serious music and very well crafted-- a major work. The orchestration in this chamber symphony is very effective. I haven't heard this much jew's harp in awhile (maybe this is a tip of the hat to Brian Wilson after all?).

The rest of this album is less enjoyable. Les Moutons de Panurge, inspired by Rabelais, is a musical game where a group of musicians play a 65 note melody. To quote the liner notes: "Players start with the first note and keep adding notes until the melody is complete. At that point, they begin to get rid of the notes, one at a time, until all that remains is the last note." If a player happens to make a mistake along the way, they are to continue along their own way conituning to the 65th note and back, rather than try to "catch up" with the "herd". It must be a fun piece to play, but it just sounds like bland noodling to this listener.

The soap box climbing, politicking Rzewski comes to the fore in Coming Together. Setting to music a letter by Attica inmate Sam Melville, I found this work's pseudo profundities and passe theatrics to be excruciating and embarrassing. As bad as the music is, Eighth Blackbird's performance is worse. Don't misunderstand me. Musically they play wonderfully and are in total command of Rzewski's language. The problem is that Coming Together requires the musicians to declaim Melville's text over and over again. The delivery of the text by the members of Eighth Blackbird is grating in the extreme and I had to shut this off mid way through my second listen lest I toss my stereo out into the street. It may be harsh or "judgmental" of me to say this, but this last work is junk. Someday perhaps I shall, Hanslick-like, be proven wrong by posterity. But I'm betting the Vegas odds that this work will find a comfortable spot on the dung heap of musical history.

I usually don't include scans of liner notes in my posts and while you may regret this most of the time, you'll thank me now. The liner notes are pure--and there is no better word for this--crap. I've read some crapulent liner and program notes in my time, but these are among the worst. They consist of three fey interviews with Rzewski conducted by the Eighth Blackbirds. Good musicians the lot of them, but they just sound so annoying. Better to have condensed the interviews into a single essay. Irritating too are some of the "fun facts" that you can find in bullet point inside the booklet. Did you know that Eighth Blackbird "likes wine and cheese" and "looks good for their age" or that Rzewski "makes excellent oatmeal" or that Cedille Records "kick ass"? Well, goooooolly!

This is worth listening to for the Pocket Symphony. I look forward to hearing more of Rzewski's music.

Stokowski conducts Debussy

2009-11-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

A few posts back I mentioned how I had wished that Yoel Levi played Stokowski's arrangement of Debussy's Claire de lune with the same hedonistic abandon that the Maestro himself brought to it. No need to suffer any longer. Here's Leopold himself with Claire de lune and more in an all Debussy program that is played with such youthful ardor that you'll find it hard to believe it's the work of a man that was approaching his 80th year. Much is made of the "youthfulness" and "passion" of conductors like Dudamel, Nezet-Seguin, Harding, Jurowski, et al, but Stokie leaves them all sounding positively flaccid. I don't know what Stokie was taking to keep so vigorous, but whatever it was I'll take two please. And send some to the aforementioned gents while you're at it!

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun begins this album in fine fashion. What a performance! Stokowski made about 7 recordings of this work, but this one can arguably be said to be his finest. While his earlier Philadelphia and NBC recordings and the later LSO recording all have their charms, this one is simply perfect. Gorgeous wind playing (the great Julius Baker is the lead flutist), burnished brass, and glorious rich strings married with Capitol's atmospheric stereo sonics and you have yourself a recording for the ages. Even though the ensemble is really just a pick-up orchestra cobbled together for this occasion (they're credited as the "Leopold Stokowski Symphony Orchestra"), don't you believe for a second that this is just a group of rejects from established symphony orchestras. Sitting in were some of the cream of the crop of New York and Philadelphia. The sound they produce for Stokowski is simply heavenly. It's worth the price of admission just to hear their lush, shimmering playing at the work's coda.

Next up are the Nocturnes with the London Symphony Orchestra and the women of the BBC Symphony Chorus in Sirenes. Nuages has all the requisite haziness and mystery needed and then some. There is no fear or sense of danger here. Just an appreciation of the beauty of the fog that rolls in from the sea and blankets the city. The revellers in Fetes are a particularly fun loving bunch, with snazzy brass fanfares that suggest this party will last all through the night. Capping off the Nocturnes is a creamy Sirenes with the choir sounding in thrall to the seductive spell the grand old man was weaving from the rostrum.

The French National Radio Orchestra does it's turn next with Stokowski conjuring up a technicolor feast for the ear in Iberia. Achingly lovely is the beguiling interpretation of Parfums de la nuit. The tangy French winds sound wonderful throughout and the whooping, lascivious horns in the closing measures make one think that they strayed off from a performance of Der Rosenkavalier.

Bringing us back to close is Stokie's arrangement of Claire de lune played sumptuously by his pick-up orchestra. If only every date ended with the lusty passion that closes this program.

Listening to this record, you'll wonder why the FCC didn't slap a parental advisory sticker on the cover. The sensuous delights contained here are almost obscene. Turn off the lights, unplug that phone, and spend an evening... with Stokowski.

Itzhak Perlman plays and conducts Mozart

2009-11-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

Itzhak Perlman! Where have you been all my life?! Seriously though, Perlman is a violinist whose work I've largely avoided. I have his Tchaikovsky concerto with Ormandy (very good) and his recording of the Korngold with Previn (shot down by muddy sonics). That's it. I just couldn't trust Perlman. All that treacly, crossover garbage he's recorded a la Yo-Yo Ma, James Galway, and the Three Tenors made me very suspicious. This can't be a serious musician, I thought. Merely a triumph of good marketing. How wrong I was.

I found this CD for cheap at Amoeba for about $3 some months ago. No need to keep that money burning in my pocket. I took a chance and decided to give this CD a good home. I'm glad I did.

Perlman, as expected, is marvelous in the Violin Concerto No.3 that opens up this album. His rich, buttery tone glazes this music with all the warmth and flavor it needs. Where a lot of contemporary violinists play this music as if they're ashamed that their instrument can produce beautifully modulated tones, Perlman just revels in it. Honestly, has any violinist played this work as luciously, as lovingly in the past 30 years? What a relief from all the squawking and scraping one has to suffer today in the name of "authenticity"! This may not be authentic Mozart, but it sure is authentic Mozart.

As good as the Violin Concerto is, the rest of the album is even better. Perlman lets the strings of the Berlin Philharmonic sing their hearts out in the Adagio and Fugue in C minor. From the moment you hear the throb of the basses at the start, Perlman and his Berliners grab you by the throat and seize you by the throat, gripping you all the way until the fugue wends its way to its severe closing cadence.

Finally we have a glowing rendition of the "Jupiter" Symphony to end the program. This has to be one of the finest recordings I've heard of this miraculous work in a long time. Has EMI pulled the ol' switch-a-roo on your's truly? Can this really be the same orchestra in all those anaemic Rattle recordings? Whether it's by virtue of Perlman's podium presence, a superior miking job by EMI, or just sheer good fortune, this recording has to be one of the greatest that the Berlin Philharmonic have made in at least the past decade. The Berliners launch into the work with uncharacterisically lusty and brawny vigor and infuse the work with plenty of blood. Perlman picks just the right tempi for the first movement and it swings along merrily. The second movement is just as lovingly shaped as you could ever hope for. The Menuetto is a just a smidge too fast for my tastes, but still very good. The finale is played with great bravado and ends with a very unauthentic rallentado worthy of Beecham--a great shout for joy. This is a Jupiter that would have made "Uncle" Bruno Walter proud.

I only wish that Perlman weren't so repeat happy. He sounds like he's never come across a repeat he didn't like. Some of them, like the first movement's exposition repeat are welcome. But I wish he had omitted the repeats in the finale. Impeding the flow of the music right when the music seems to say "let's get on with it!" But I have to admit that, while I usually don't care for the repeats, I certainly didn't mind them much while listening.

If Perlman and the Berliners ever record a set of the late Mozart symphonies--or any more Mozart or Haydn--I would snap it up in an instant. This album really changed the way I think about Perlman. If Rattle isn't jealous, he should be.

REQUEST - Orff: Carmina Burana

2009-11-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

I'm fulfilling another /mu/ request here. I hope you enjoy this. If anybody ever is looking for a particular recording don't be shy. Ask me anytime!

Now I have to admit that I don't care much for Orff's music. Honestly, the only reason I bought this CD was because I was curious to hear the recording of Stravinsky's Circus Polka, one of my favorite Stravinsky works, included as a filler. You might think it to be a bit wasteful to buy a CD just to hear a piece that is barely under 3 1/2 minutes. But it was a budget EMI CD that was in a cut out bin for $2. Musical satisfaction for less than a combo at McDonald's--can't beat that.

Orff's Carmina Burana is exceptionally well recorded here. This really is one of EMI's very best studio jobs. Gorgeous, spacious sound with real depth and presence. The performance too is outstanding. Burgos whips the New Philharmonia into a drunken, raucous din. The choir, especially the children's choir, is excellent and may be the very best on records for this work. The soloists are also superb, especially the opulently toned Lucia Popp.

The only recording that comes close to matching this one is Ozawa's first RCA recording. That record is marred by a sub-par children's choir. If you only get one recording of the work, you can't lose with Burgos. Oh, yeah. He does a nifty Circus Polka here too.

Eugen Szenkar: A Portrait

2009-10-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

If you've become tired of listening to bloodless and effete performances of the Symphonie Fantastique that are lamentably rife in the catalog and on the concert stage, you owe it to yourself to hear this recording. I won't beat around the bush--this is the greatest recording ever of Berlioz's gothic masterpiece. I've heard masterly recordings from Monteux, Munch, Martinon, Paray, Cluytens, Fried, Rozhdestvensky, Beecham, Gaubert, Klemperer, and Walter. Needless to say, I've also had to swallow more than my fair share of Berlioz as milquetoast including a wretchedly emasculated concert performance under Salonen a few years ago. Eugen Szenkar leaves them all in the dust. But who was Eugen Szenkar?

Eugen Szenkar (1891-1977) was a Hungarian conductor who made his career largely in Germany during the mid 20th century. He began his musical studies under his father who was a well regarded organist, choral director, and composer in Budapest. At age 16, the young Eugen met Gustav Mahler--a formative experience that not only inspired him to take up the baton, but also fomented a life long love of Mahler's music. Like most German conductors of the era, he began his career as an opera house repetiteur--the Budapest Volksoper in Szenkar's case.

In 1918, Szenkar met Artur Nikisch in Dresden when the latter was engaged to conduct a series of concerts for the city's Staatskapelle Orchestra. Nikisch took the young man under his wing and recommended him for the position of music director of the Frankfurt Opera. After winning this important position, Szenkar began receiving national attention and was even mooted as an outside possibility to follow Nikisch at the Berlin Philharmonic when the great conductor had died. In 1927, he assumed the leadership of the Cologne Opera where he won wide acclaim as a champion of contemporary music. In Cologne Szenkar would conduct the German premieres of Bartok's Wooden Prince and Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Kodaly's Hary Janos and Prokofieff's Love for Three Oranges. A devout Mahlerian, he performed a cycle of the symphonies in Cologne and programmed them often ever after, winning the International Gustav Mahler Society's medal in 1957 for all his work.

After the Nazis were swept into rule in 1933, Szenkar fled to the USSR where he continued to promote modern music. While in the Soviet Union, he premiered Khachaturian's Symphony No.1, Miaskovsky's Symphony No.16, and Prokofieff's Peter and the Wolf. Unfortunately he arrived in the Soviet Union in the wake of the Lady Macbeth debacle, so he prudently decided to leave for calmer shores.

The late 1930's and early 1940's saw Szenkar eking out an itinerant existence guest conducting far and wide including the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, but finally found a permanent position with the Rio de Janeiro Symphony Orchestra. It was while in Rio that Szenkar befriended Toscanini while the latter was touring South America with his NBC Symphony Orchestra. Toscanini thought highly enough of Szenkar to invite him to guest conduct the NBC for some of that orchestra's concerts during their tour. In 1947, Toscanini again invited Szenkar to conduct the NBC Symphony Orchestra, this time in New York. Szenkar conducted a pair of programs that included works by Schumann, Berlioz, and Wagner. Recordings were made of these broadcass and have fortunately been preserved. In 1950, Szenkar returned to Germany where he became the music director of the Dusseldorf Opera. He remained there until his retirement in 1961 and would die in Dusseldorf in 1977.

This Tahra CD alone stands as hard evidence that Szenkar was one of the very greatest conductors of the 20th century. The program begins with a weighty rendition of one of Handel's Concerto Grossos from the opus 6 set. This is rich, big boned Handel that will be sure to send the period performance people shivering into convulsions. Szenkar sits in on the continuo part. But the real revelation is the Berlioz--a white hot reading of the Fantastique. Hamburg's Orchestra play as if they're lives were depending on it. The idee fixe is played with great tenderness and ardor, but always remains taut. In fact, Szenkar keeps the arc of the first movement, and indeed of the whole symphony, in very firm grasp. Berlioz can sometimes sound episodic and meandering under less skilled hands, but Szenkar is able to brilliantly marry passion and logic. The ball glimmers but swirls with an undercurrent of the sinister. The Scene in the Country can often seem interminable, but it sounds spellbinding here. The March to the Scaffold is positively brutal and the Dream of a Sabbath Night cackles with Mahlerian grotesquerie. The Hamburg brass and winds are outstanding; the timpanist (a former Berlin Philharmonic principal during the war years) covers himself in glory. The closing pages wail and blaze away unlike anything I've ever heard. The sound, though in mono, is very clean and well focused.

Szenkar's style can be described as having the denseness and weight of early to mid 1950's Klemperer, the virility of Fricsay, and the frenetic intensity of de Sabata and Mitropoulos. But these comparisons aren't quite precise; he has a very personal sense of style. Szenkar was a giant and it is to our detriment that he apparently had a disdain for recordings. He cut a few records in Germany before the war and there are some air checks available from after the war. And somewhere out there those NBC broadcasts are floating around. I hope some enterprising label drops the non-stop onslaught of Toscanini and Furtwangler reissues (are you listening Music & Arts?) and takes up the cause of this unjustly neglected musician. A man of Szenkar's genius definitely deserves better than what he has received so far. I hope those Hamburgers sitting in the audience for this concert realized just how lucky they were.

Debussy Orchestrations

2009-10-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

Albums of Debussy's orchestral works are a dime-a-dozen these days, but ATMA has presented a refreshingly different program here. The program on this CD consists entirely of Debussy's music as orchestrated by other musicians. And a fine roster of arrangers they are: Ravel, Ansermet, Caplet, Büsser, and Stokowski. These arrangements have been recorded often before, but it's good to have them together on one disc.

The Quebec Symphony Orchestra under Yoav Talmi's baton play with great polish and elegance and ATMA's engineering captures all of this perfectly. Here and there I have quibbles. The Petite Suite drags a bit; the Stokowski arrangement of Claire de lune is played without the hedonistic abandon the Maestro himself brought to it. But really these are minor complaints and this album is pure delight. Paray and Cluytens have also recorded some of this material and are worth seeking out. But for one stop shopping, you can't beat this album.

Bartok's String Quartets: The Juilliard's first recording

2009-10-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

Last week I posted a CD of premiere recordings of Bartok's orchestral works as an example of the "nostalgia trap" that the historical record collector is prone to falling into. Good performances, no doubt, but ones that have since given way to better ones. So here is yet another historical recording of Bartok's work. No worries though. This one is actually worth your time and still stands eye-to-eye with the best today.

The Juilliard Quartet was, for the latter half of the 20th century, arguably the United States' most famous string quartet. They were especially well known for espousing the cause of living composers not merely by commissioning their work, but playing it to polished Atomic age perfection. On one hand able to make lucid and vibrant Elliot Carter's knotty polyrhythms, they could also play a Ravel of quiet sleekness, Brahms that was gruff yet never austere. They were especially famous for their interpretations of Bartok's quartets, being the first quartet to record the integral set. The Juilliard still performs today, though the founding members have long since retired.

The Juilliard made three recordings altogether of the Bartok quartets, but this one here with the original incarnation of the group from 1950, is probably their very best. Whereas their later recordings finds them sounding more mellow, here Bartok is presented as a wide eyed modernist; his music still startlingly new and even disturbing. Some may prefer a more lyrical, relaxed Bartok, but the Juilliard's playing here is undeniably thrilling. Their playing has a chrome sheen and lustre that becomes this music very well. It's hard to single out particularly memorable moments in this set as there are so many. But if I can point out just one, it would have to be their recording of the Sixth Quartet. Poised delicately between anger, mockery, and sorrow, the Sixth can be a difficult nut to crack, but the Juilliard sail straight to the core of the music. The Marcia and Burletta are as acidulously biting as needed but they're able to hone into the hopeless grief of the Mesto sections. The closing movement is as bleak as any I've ever heard. Bartok mourning the loss of his mother and of the country he loved so dearly and would transform irrevocably after his emigration.

There are other great recordings of these works. The Vegh, Takacs, Emerson, and others have made superb sets. But this one is still one of the best. The sound of Bartok not as a 20th century institution, but as the flesh and blood man whose vitality still remained within living memory.

The "hot, young composer" of yesteryear... where are they now? (Part I)

2009-10-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Every few years the classical music press will make a make a big hoopla over some new composer they perceive as the "great white hope" of the genre. At the turn of this century, the British press was all agog over Thomas Ades. Described as a sort of second Benjamin Britten, he and his music was exulted in such luxuriously overripe prose that they really should have been upfront with their readers and hailed him as the second coming. Of course, his music was anything but. It was decently crafted music in a sort of sub-Ligeti/Berkeley/Knussen-esque mode, but nothing that really is going to set the world afire. I own all his CDs and have listened to them over and over again as well as listening to him in concert when he was here in Los Angeles. But no dice.

In the 1990's there was another composer that was being touted as a phenomenon. The first time I ever heard of Michael Torke was in an interview on KUSC or KKGO (I forget which one). All I remember is that he was introduced as "hot, young composer Michael Torke". Young he may have been (he was in his early 30's then), but his music was hardly hot. His music wasn't bad and truth be told, I would prefer it over Ades. It was a genial melding of Copland and minimalism with a whiff of Bernstein and easy listening pop thrown in for good measure. Not quite for me, but it was OK. If the music of the Austro-Germans and Russians are "red meat", Torke's music would be a sort of "tofu". And I have the carnivorous appetite of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

He was enjoying something of a hey-day in the early to mid 1990's. Torke was widely performed and his work was being eagerly recorded by Argo. So what happened to all this promise? When the classical music recording industry began its inexorable downturn in the mid to late 1990's, boutique labels like Argo (owned by PolyGram) and Catalyst (owned by BMG) went bust and along with it, the hopes of a wider dissemination of Torke's and many other composers' music. It would be a very long time until I heard the name Torke again, this time via a Naxos release. The man himself seems to be doing OK if his website is any indication and is keeping busy. There's even a joint commission from the English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in the works.

In any event, I'm mentioning all this because--surprise, surprise!--I'm posting this Torke album I had found in a closet in my mother's house some weeks back. I thought I had lost it. But, no, there it was hidden away under some old textbooks and ancient issues of Nintendo Power. So what about the music? The music, like I said, is OK. Nothing great, but it won't irritate or offend you either. It's firmly diatonic if you like that sort of thing. It's bouncy, happy, and joyful, but you probably won't be contemplating it once it's done. Javelin is probably the best work here on this album. It was commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony for the 1996 Summer Olympics and it makes a fine curtain raiser; a charming orchestral showpiece that deserves to be performed more often. The second movement for Music on the Floor I find less impressive. This is Torke in a more melancholic mood, but the music sounds to me like something that should accompany a NyQuil ad or maybe a Lifetime TV movie of the week. Adjustable Wrench, if the liner notes and that old radio interview are correct, was something of a hit for this composer. Why that was I can't possibly phathom. I guess a lot of people thought it was "cool" that he incorporated a few klutzy electric guitar riffs in this chamber work. It just sounds like yet another lame attempt to reconcile the worlds of rock and pop with classical music. But I'm sure it would be welcome in a "pops" program so as to demonstrate to the audience that the orchestra isn't so out of touch; that they can be "hep" too. The album closes with two movements from his Color Music--Green and Bright Blue. I'm sure these would make an excellent soundtrack to some as of yet unfilmed Spielberg movie.

The performances are excellent all around. The Atlanta Symphony and Baltimore Symphony play very well as does the London Sinfonietta. Argo's sonics are sumptuous. If you're looking for an hour's worth of safe musical thrills, here you go.

Beecham's Lollipops

2009-10-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

In an era where great conductors strode about the concert platforms of the world like colossi, Beecham stood out. To be sure he was, along with Leopold Stokowski and Willem Mengelberg, one of the most consistently phonogenic of conductors. Furtwangler, Klemperer, Walter, and others were certainly great, but often were not able to capture in the studio the fire they could summon in concert before an audience. But Beecham seemed to come to life the moment the microphones went on. Beecham, like Stokowski and Karajan, recognized the importance of recordings and understood that if he wished to communicate to the widest audience possible it would be through records. Nearly 50 years have passed since Sir Thomas' death and his recordings are still competitive today. Some, like his recordings of Bizet's music for L'Arlesienne or Sibelius' Pelleas and Melisande, arguably remain unsurpassed.

This CD, compiled from 2 posthumous LP's, is a treasure. He was outstanding in Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, and the like--his recording of the Eroica is one of the very great ones--but if you want to hear what made the man so loved, you must listen to this CD. Many great conductors can breathe fire and life into a Beethoven symphony; it takes a very special musician to lavish the same amount of love and care on music that requires subtlety and a light touch as opposed to the grand gesture (though some of the music here, like Berlioz's march from Les Troyans roars out with great aplomb). Chabrier's March Joyeux trots by at a raucous, suspender flashing clip that is tres joyeux indeed. The flute solo in the Valse Triste has never sounded more dapper and wistful and the string tremolo coda is perfect. Just the right shading; not too dark or heavy. This is a waltz with death, yes, but that doesn't mean that death can't cut an elegant trail on the dance floor. And speaking of waltzes, his infectiously toe tapping take on the waltz from Eugene Onegin will have even the most crusty old frump twirling away in 3/4 time. I could spend days going on about this beautiful playing on this album. The silken strings, the characterful winds, and noble brass--what an orchestra the old RPO was! A half century has intervened since these recordings were made, but that sly Beecham charm still sounds verdant and fresh.

For whatever reason, EMI has kept this album out-of-print, though some of this material has reappeared on a pair of Great Recordings of the Century CD's. Well, it's here now so you know what to do. ;)

Grieg... on the accordion?!?

2009-10-26T14:42:00.001-07:00

When I first heard about this album I immediately remembered Arthur Honegger's crack about "vile belchings from lunatic accordions" in his book I am a Composer. The concept sounded so odd--the Lyric Pieces played on the accordion sound as appealing as hearing Bruckner's 8th arranged for hurdy-gurdy. But that's what I love about independent labels like BIS, Hyperion, Channel Classics et al. That willingness to take a risk be it through recording unusual repertoire or recording unusual interpretations of well known music. BIS certainly doesn't disappoint here and, mirabile dictu, the arrangement and playing are a triumph. This album would have been an interesting curiosity at best, but the musicianship of Mie Miki, as arranger and accordionist, make this album a must listen for fans of Grieg's music and for the musically open minded.

Mie Miki was born in Tokyo in 1956 and begun to study the accordion at the age of 4. In 1973 and 1974 she won the first prize in the junior division of the International Accordion Competition Klingenthal. Today she is a professor of accordion at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. She has recorded several albums for BIS, including works from the Baroque era, Japanese music, and works by Sofia Gubaidulina.

Miki's arrangement of these works is no mere exercise in willful sonic revisionism. The sound of the accordion helps bring to life the deep bond and love that Grieg felt for the folk music of his native Norway. Throughout this recital one hears the echoes of the Hardanger fiddles, the peasant dances, the scent of the Norwegian soil. Butterfly glides by caressingly and played with a light, almost silken sound. The Waltz from the first book of Lyric Pieces dances along with great charm. But it's in the more introspective pieces that this recital really makes an impact. The Watchman's Song is almost like a glimpse into a long forgotten world. One can almost feel the cool breeze wafting through a quiet Scandinavian village; the cobblestones beneath one's feet. The album closes with a beautifully poignant and effective arrangement of Ase's Death from Peer Gynt. The best thing that I can say about this album is that one never misses the sound of the piano and that the music sounds expressly as if it were written for the accordion.

I'm really looking forward to hearing more of Mie Miki and hope that BIS will record her arrangements of piano and even orchestral repertoire in the future. Below is a couple of videos of her from YouTube. Oh--you may be wondering about the pic with the cat I posted above. I found that on Mie Miki's blog (Japanese only) which you can find here. A masterly musician and she loves cats? What more could you want?

Mie Miki in recital at Dusseldorf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX8JeqnYqOM&feature=related

Mie Miki plays Piazzolla: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLwyCFYufQ8&feature=related

Leopold Ludwig conducts Strauss' Ein Heldenleben

2009-10-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

Leopold Ludwig is one of those conductors who was well regarded in his day, but for some reason or another, have fallen into undeserved obscurity after death. His musical development was like many of his generation. Born in Witkowitz in Moravia, he attended the Vienna Conservatory studying piano under Emil Pauer. Upon graduation he worked in various opera houses in Bavaria and Czechoslovakia as a repetiteur. In 1936 he was appointed the musical director for the Oldenburg State Opera. Guest performances in Berlin and elsewhere gained him a solid reputation that led to his being named principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera in 1939 and the Berlin Municipal Opera in 1943. After the war, he continued in his post and later as a frequent guest in East Berlin's State Opera. At this point he came to the attention of EMI's Walter Legge who had visited Berlin on talent scouting trips in 1946 and 1947. Ludwig made a few records for EMI, mostly accompanying singers in opera excerpts, his best known being a recording of Act III from Wagner's Die Walküre with Birgit Nilsson that has recently been reissued in EMI's Great Recordings of the Century series. He later went on to make a series of recordings for Everest, among which this Ein Heldenleben is taken, and later still for Deutsche Grammophon where he recorded Hindemith's opera Mathis der Maler. He assumed the directorship of the Hamburg State Opera in 1950 where he would remain until his retirement in 1971. In later years he guest conducted at various orchestras. He died in Lüneburg, West Germany in 1978.

Ludwig was the sort of dependable solid kapellmeister that was taken for granted in his day one rarely finds now. Not seeking to be ostentatious, he was content with simply letting the music pur out from his orchestra. In style, he was similar to Carl Schuricht, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, and Karl Böhm.

This recording of Ein Heldenleben is truly a forgotten gem. Out-of-print for years now, it not only is a grand and rich realization of this score, but also enjoys some stunning sonics courtesy of Everest. The London Symphony Orchestra is in fine form, especially its woodwinds. The clarity of the instrumental timbres pays dividends especially in the dense Hero's Battlefield section, where the clarity makes the music all the more thrilling. The violin solos by concertmaster Hugh Maguire are lovely.

This is a record that can safely sit side-by-side with the Heldenlebens of Mengelberg, Karajan (EMI), Beecham, Haitink, and Carlos Kleiber. A must listen.

Bartok Premieres: Looking at the past through rose colored glasses

2009-10-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

One of the traps that the historical record collector can be prone to falling into is romanticizing the accomplishments of the past. That is to say, to find a particular recording superior to its modern equivalent merely because it is an old recording or the performer is deceased. I could never understand, to cite just one example, the need to reissue the recordings of Felix Weingartner. Yes, his Beethoven recordings were pioneering and very highly regarded in his day. But listening to them now I can't find anything special; anything worth putting up with the crackle of spinning shellac for. He was a fine musician, no doubt. His recordings glow with his sensible direction and moderate temperament. The problem is that I can find that today in any number of recordings in far superior sound and execution. Why listen to Weingartner's Beethoven or Brahms with their poor sound when Karl Böhm's very similar interpretations are available in excellent modern stereo with an even better disciplined Vienna Philharmonic? These thoughts were in my mind as I first listened to this disc which I had purchased a few years ago.

This album from Pearl contains the premiere recordings of three of Bela Bartok's works: the 3rd Piano Concerto, the 1st Portrait for Violin and Orchestra, and the Concerto for Orchestra. Let me be absolutely clear--there is nothing wrong with these recordings. Ouite the contrary. It's only that these recordings, as fine as they are, have been equaled or superceded in musical and sonic quality since. In the brief note that is on the back of the disc case it states, "[...] Each of these performances and recordings, apart from their interest as premieres, is quite outstanding and deserves a permanent place in the canon of his recorded oeuvre." If they ever acheive a permanent place in the pantheon of Bartok recordings, I imagine it will only be because of their curiosity as premiere recordings.

Most interesting and satisfying on this set is the recording of the 3rd Piano Concerto with Gyorgy Sandor and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. Sandor went on to re-record this work later for Vox and much later still for Sony, but this is his best recording. Certainly it has the best orchestra. The Philadelphians are at their smooth and glossy best, with beautifully diaphonous strings in the Adagio religioso. Sandor too plays wonderfully with a songful touch. Ormandy, as always, is a superb accompanist.

The next work is Joseph Szigeti's recording of the 1st Portrait for Violin and Orchestra with the Philharmonia conducted by Constant Lambert. It's good and it always is interesting to hear Lambert as a performer of others' music. But it's a recording I can easily live without.

Finally we have Reiner's first recording of the Concerto for Orchestra with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. I've heard many people tell me that that they prefer this recording over the famous remake with the Chicago Symphony. I can't hear why. The Pittsburgh Symphony was (and still is) an excellent orchestra, but the Chicago was even better and aided superbly by RCA's stereo sound. Reiner's interpretation is generally the same here as it was in Chicago--clear and direct. It really isn't bad at all; very fine. But why listen to this when we have a superior remake in stereo?

The recording of the 3rd Piano Concerto is definitely worth coming back to. The others are of interest only as historical curiosities. Like I said, they're good recordings. But the best is always the enemy of the merely good.

Martha Argerich plays Chopin: The Legendary 1965 EMI Recording

2009-10-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

Last week somebody on /mu/ was looking for a good Chopin recital. This album immediately came to mind. Yes, I'm a bit late in posting this. But better late than never.

This has to be one of the greatest Chopin recitals ever recorded. And I'm no fan of Argerich, believe me. Recorded soon after her victory at the 1965 Chopin Competition, this CD displays her in all her youthful prime. Where her playing today seems to me mannered and portentious, here it's athletic and lean. She sails straight to the core of the music tossing off the Third Piano Sonata and Scherzo with all the ease of a Kabalevsky prelude.

The highlight in this album is easily its closer--the "Heroic" Polonaise. The notorious left hand octaves in the Polonaise's trio have never been equalled for clarity and strength. Throughout the trio there is no loss of tension and stamina. Stunning too is the Third Piano Sonata--its finale recorded in a single take.

Unfortunately, due to Argerich's exclusivity clause with Deutsche Grammophon, this recording languished in EMI's vaults until 1999. But it's here now and that's what is important. Better late than never.

Emil Gilels plays Grieg's Lyric Pieces

2009-10-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

I think everybody has them in their collection. Those few choice recordings that have brought you boundless joy over the years. A recording so good, you would sooner part with [insert family member or loved one here] than part with that beloved disc. For me, this recording is one of those. If my house were to catch on fire, I would gladly run back in and suffer first degree burns in order to save this CD. Of course, this CD is still generally available so I could just buy another one. But what can I say? I have a penchant for the dramatic gesture.

I don't think I need to remind everybody here of the greatness of Gilels. His reputation is secure. Suffice to say that this recording occupies a very special place in his superlative discography. His noble golden tone is captured wonderfully here thanks to DG's warm engineering. Every piece here stands up in relief as a miniature masterpiece. From the opening bars of the Arietta to the closing cadence of the gently wistful Reminscence, this album is a quiet triumph. Indeed, you're hardly made aware of Gilels' work here--only the genius of Grieg. If there is one thing wrong with this recording, it's that he never recorded all of the Lyric Pieces.

Petrushka's Ghost Thumbs His Nose: Otto Klemperer's Dark Interpretation of Stravinsky's Ballet

2009-10-22T11:37:00.001-07:00

When you think of Stravinsky's Petrushka what comes to your mind? For most of the listening audience, an aural image of a glittering orchestral showpiece is sure to come into focus. Charming folk melodies and music-hall themes, dazzling orchestral solos, and its stretches of mordant bitonality have long won the score a much deserved respect and enjoyment among concert audiences. So effective has this score been as a concert work that it is easy to forget that it began its life as a ballet.

A world that seems to be reflected from a corridor of cracked fun house mirrors, the work's libretto conjures up a world disturbing and disorienting. Life as puppet show; mechanized and soulless. At the center you have Petrushka, a brilliant and sensitive outcast. Alternately provoking his envy and affection are the Moor--your archetypal boorish, stupid, yet somehow successful "alpha male"--and the ditzy Ballerina with her bad taste in men. Most interpretations of this work gloss over its expressionism, ultimately reflected in the treatment of this work's coda. Nearly every conductor plays this as a charming non sequitur and not as the chilling question mark it ought to be. Nearly every one except for Otto Klemperer.

At first glance, the idea of Klemperer conducting Stravinsky might seem odd. Best remembered for his monumental readings of the Austro-German classics, Klemperer in the 1920's was an ardent advocate of modern music. One of the highlights of his tenure as director of Berlin's Kroll Opera was his Stravinsky triple bill evening consisiting of Mavra, Oedipus Rex, and Petrushka. Stravinsky, who attended the performance, was deeply impressed. Petrushka remained a favorite in Klemperer's repertoire long after he fled Germany. He would perform the work often taking it along with him to, among other places, Los Angeles, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Budapest, and Sydney. By the 1950's, however, his enthusiasm for performing 20th century music cooled, telling a reporter in Amsterdam his season as a partisan for the avant garde had passed. He did remain a very enthusiastic listener of the moderns well into his late years, praising Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles and attending a rehearsal for Stockhausen's Gruppen, not to mention being an admirer of Pierre Boulez's work as both composer and conductor.

The circustances for the recording at hand are interesting and happened purely by chance. EMI had long been wanting to record a stereo Petrushka but was foiled again and again. The project was suggested to Beecham, Karajan, Giulini, and Markevitch, but was either rejected by those conductors or circumstances prevented them from recording it. In 1967, Paul Kletzki was to conduct a Philharmonia program that consisted of selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Brahms' First Symphony, among other solidly Austro-German works. Kletzki became ill shortly before the concert and Klemperer filled in for him. Unusually, he replaced the Brahms work with Stravinsky's Petrushka. Getting the hint, EMI quickly mobilized their team and initiated recording sessions. The results, according to EMI, did not find Klemperer in top form, plagued by a tired sounding orchestra and many instrumental gaffes. The master tape was withheld and remained in the EMI vaults.

Not until the mid 2000's were these tapes given another listen. The remastering engineers at Testament were surprised with the results. While the original master tape was a dull sounding recording, that was because the bulk of it was made on the third day of the scheduled sessions. They found that the tapes from the first day's session were far more impressive and have made a new master tape from those sessions. That is what you will find on this disc.

It may take a moment for the ear to adjust as this is a rather slower, more blunt Petrushka than one is normally used to hearing. But once you adjust, it overwhelms you with its sheer force. No sparkling orchestral finesse here. The New Philharmonia does suffer a few minor lapses here and there, but Klemperer's conception is so persuasive that you forget these mistakes quickly. The flute solo in the Charlatan's booth (played by Gareth Morris) is not the usual Disney-esque magic, but rather something more sinister and insinuating. The bitonal fanfares in Petrushka's cell are very heavy, almost Mahlerian. Indeed Klemperer's Petrushka seems to be one refracted through the prism of Berg's Wozzeck and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. It's worth it just to hear his handling of the coda. Just utter darkness. If there is one flaw here, it's that Klemperer makes a brief cut towards the end of the Dance of the Coachmen section, omitting one of the repitions of the theme.

The Pulcinella Suite included in this album is very fine too. Full blooded and muscular. But it's the Petrushka that is the star of the show here.

While I still love the recordings of Petrushka conducted by Monteux, Boulez, Ozawa, and Muti, Klemperer's is a very special reading that merits being heard. A very dark take on a beloved favorite then. It may alter profoundly how you hear this music.

Hi everybody!

2009-10-17T00:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my vault. For the most part I'll be posting up recordings from my collection here, though I may be given to ranting about other things as suits my fancy. Many of the recordings I'll be posting here are historical (i.e. from the 78 RPM era) so keep that in mind. The sound quality may leave something to be desired, but it's worth putting up with to be able to listen to sterling musicianship that is sadly lacking these days.

Aside from the historical recordings, I'll also be posting up just any music that I enjoy, classical or not. But it'll be mostly classical.

I love music. It's something that brings me continuous joy and I hope that I can share some of that joy with you.

I'll be posting in lossy format. The reason for this is simple. Ripping and uploading in lossless takes a lot of time. Chalk it down to the impatient, immediate satisfaction demanding nature of my generation, but doing the whole lossless thing is a bit too much for me. So lossy uploads it will be.

If there's anything you're looking for in particular, don't be shy--let me know. Also, if you enjoy any of the recordings here, don't be afraid to send me a thanks. Thank you all and take care.