Monday, 2.1.10, 3:00 am
New Releases: CDs
CD Pick of the Week: Paavo Järvi with Beethoven’s Second and Sixth
"New Releases" posts are regular columns that feature reviews of new CDs that are, for one reason or another, truly outstanding among the many I come across every month.
Paavo Järvi’s Beethoven Second and Sixth on RCA (SACD) is this WETA’s CD Pick of this Week.
Paavo Järvi’s Beethoven continues at just about the level that it began with when the Eroica and Eigth Symphony were released. (WETA CD Pick of the Week in December) In this case it is the Sixth, “Pastorale” and Second Symphony. Comparison between Järvi, Vanska (BIS), and Abbado (Rome 2001, DG) suggests that the Pastorale-interpretations seem to converge on very fast, brisk’n’crisp versions, no matter the orchestra (Bremen Chamber Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, a reduced-size Berlin Philharmonic, respectively) or the style and age of conductor. Not exclusively, of course, because there are still very different approaches available. Daniel Barenboim’s varnished Sixth, my favorite, is at the other end of the interpretative spectrum, for example. But the trend is telling all the same.
Perhaps it surprises that the newer recordings of Speedmaster Järvi and Excitemeister Vänskä are slower than Abbado’s. Vänskä is brisk at 42 minutes (all three conductors take all repeats), but Abbado shaves nearly three minutes even off that time. Vänskä’s Sixth is a solidly-superb part of his cycle, but not the highlight. Abbado’s Sixth is ravishing, but in some ways Järvi manages to one-up him, still—his attacks are so explosive, his dynamic changes so sudden, his orchestra so detailed that he doesn’t need to outrun Abbado to appear quicker. Whether that makes for a better Sixth or not is a matter of preference.
Incidentally Järvi’s firecracker Second Symphony that shares the Sixths disc-space is even more obviously special… an interpretation that jolts me out of my indifference toward that symphony and makes an immediately convincing case about how radical the Second must have looked at the time. Järvi’s Beethoven-cycle has quickly become a favorite of mine; perched at the top together with Vänskä (BIS). (The potential contender, Dausgaard on Simax I have not yet heard.) But more than just being a bracingly excellent complete cycle, Järvi is particularly strong on the front-three, which have are now all my favorite version. You will get the opportunity to listen to complete performances of Järvi’s take on the Second on February 2nd, in the 11am hour, February 4th in the 8pm hour, February 6th in the 5pm hour, and on February 7th in the 7am hour. For exact schedules check the Classical WETA playlist on the day of the broadcast. 
Monday, 1.25.10, 1:00 am
February in Music
Opera Lafayette reliably provides the region with high quality, low budget performances of baroque and classical operas you won’t hear at the WNO any time soon. Gluck’s Armide is one of the great pre-Mozart operas, partly because Gluck was one of the first to decide that the libretto of an opera should probably be more than just an excuse to vary the shape of your mouth while singing. Ryan Brown and the musical forces at his disposal will again collaborate with the New York Baroque Dance Company to spice the concert performance up a little. Kennedy Center, Concert Hall, February 1st, 7PM.
The Candlelight Concert Society may not have an even remotely professional web-presence, but their recitals are everything but amateurish. In fact, for the next few months, trips up to Howard Community College’s Smith Theatre in Columbia might become mandatory for chamber music aficionados. The reason is their 2010 Beethoven string quartet cycle, split over two seasons and among three top notch string quartets. You can’t get much better a spread than the Pacifica Quartet, the Quatuor Èbéne, and the Artemis Quartet as your performers. The Quatuor Èbéne gets to start, on Saturday, February 6th at 8PM.
How about a relaxing Sunday afternoon at the Phillips Collection, capped with the free recital by ArcoVoce with music of Vivaldi, Couperin, and contemporaries? February 7th, 4PM. Or, just a few hours later at 6.30PM, also for free, listen to the continuation of Till Fellner’s Beethoven sonata cycle (part 5) at the National Gallery of Art.
Or sneak out for a (free, again) Gerswhin-quicky for lunch when soprano Karin Paludan-Sorey and pianist and music program specialist at the NGA Danielle DeSwert Hahn perform works to go along with the exhibition “From Impressionism to Modernism”. At the National Gallery of Art on Wednesday, February 10th, 12.30PM.
The “lil’ BSO” will feature an exciting program under Marin Alsop on Thursday, February 11th through Saturday the 13th: Hindemith’s justly most popular orchestral work, the Mathis, der Maler Symphony, isn’t heard often enough in concert. “Anselm Adams: America” is a new composition by Dave Brubeck and his son Chris and will be given its East-Coast premiere. I have no idea how it will sound like, but I know I loved the only classical compositions I’ve heard of his, so far. (Ionarts: “Brubeck Nocturnes.”) The trusty Musorgsky/Ravel “Pictures at an Exhibition” will be performed, too.
The concert on the 11th will take place at the Music Center at Strathmore (8PM) and WETA’s very own David Ginder will host an introduction there at 7PM, part of “Music Notes LIVE”. The other concerts are held at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore on the 12th (8PM) and 13th (11AM, 7PM). The 11AM performance is one of the “Casual Concerts”. I usually don’t mention these shortened, less formal performances, because they lack the one part of the concert that particularly interests me. This time it might be the performance of choice, because it keeps the more novel pieces and cuts the warhorse “Pictures”.
Apart from the two Quatuor Èbéne performances this month, and given that the Royal Concertgebouw’s Rachmaninov/Sibelius performance is already sold out, my pick of the month is the Post-Classical Ensemble’s “Interpreting Liszt” gigs at Gaston Hall, Georgetown University on Friday, February 12th (7.30PM) and Saturday the 13th (6.30PM). Friday (“Liszt & Italy”) promises to be an ‘illustrated piano recital including poetry by Petrarch and Dante and visual art by Raphael and Michelangeli. Mykola Suk will interpret (I think they mean ‘play’) Liszt’s Dante Sonata and Kumaran Arul’s improvisations on Liszt’s “St.Francis Walking on Water”’. Saturday’s concert (“Angels & Devils”) includes Totentanz, the Pastorale from “Christus”, and the b-minor Piano Sonata. More information at Georgetown’s Department for Performing Arts badly designed website.
If you want to go with Angels straight, and no Devils, or wish to get the balance right, your Friday is best spent in the company of Duruflé’s Requiem Mass. If you don’t know the piece you owe it to yourself to attend the City Choir of Washington’s performance at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More (in Arlington), 8PM. And if you do know the Requiem Mass, you are probably tempted to attend, hoping that the performance will be decent. The concert is touched up with Poulenc’s Litanies de la Vierge Noire.
The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet will be at the Barns at the Wolf Trap the same Friday, if Wind Quintets by Gunther Schuller, Paul Hindemith (hello again!), and György Ligeti attract you there, on a wintry day. Saturday, February 12th, 8PM.
There is lots of Russian ballet to see in Washington in February, but what you should look out for are the Bolshoi Ballet’s performances of Khachaturian’s Spartacus. For one, you’ve got good music to go with the jumping-about, and you have some of the best dancers you can see. Look especially for the performances with Ivan Vasiliev and Svetlana Zakharova, he former who leaps like a meadow jumping mouse, the latter who charmed me to no end in the company’s modern take on Cinderella three years ago. Kennedy Center Opera House, February 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th (two performances), and 21st.
‘Russianness’ continues in DC when Denis Matsuev comes to the Kennedy Center with Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano concerto at the center of an all-Russian program of the NSO. The 36 year old Lera Auerbach’s variously dense and tonal, highly listenable “Requiem for Icarus” and Tchaikovsky’s fustian Fourth Symphony bracket Matsuev’s performance. Take note of the conductor! James Gaffigan isn’t yet a household name, but he will be, soon enough. I’ve heard him in Munich when he substituted for James Conlon on the shortest of notices without changing the program, conducting Berlioz’s “Le Corsaire”, Ravel’s Piano Concerto, and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. Afterwards the audience and especially the musicians applauded Gaffigan enthusiastically (and soloist Hélène Grimaud was already forgotten). Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Thursday (7PM), Friday (8PM), and Saturday (8PM), February 18th through the 20th.
I love Teddy Bear concerts, because the audience is so cute. Well, the inanimate part, at least. If you have a bear in your life who is dear to you, take him! Have a roaring time at the Kennedy Center Family Theater either on Saturday, February 20th, at 11am or 1.30PM or on Sunday, February 21st, 1.30PM or 4PM. Marissa Regni once again guides through the program.
….Sophie & Kurwenal, the bear
I love Zemlinsky (and so should you), which makes the University of Maryland Symphony performance of his Lyric Symphony a very attractive event. Throw in Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante, that slightly odd quasi-cello concerto and The Sound of Light by faculty composer Robert Gibson and you could have a wonderful and bracing Saturday night out at the Clarice Smith Center, that February 20th, at 8PM.
Easter is still some way off, but perhaps check in with the Cathedral Choral Society and J. Reilly Lewis and see what they are doing with the St. Matthew Passion at the Washington National Cathedral on Sunday, February 21st at 4PM.
By now, the Quatuor Ébène doesn’t need an introduction anymore, I should think… their performance at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater is mandatory for anyone who likes chamber music, regardless of the program they play. Which, by the way, consists of Beethoven’s op.18/1, Fauré’s op.121, and Mendelsohn’s op.80. Be there, on Tuesday, February 23rd, 7.30PM.
Robert Levin and Nicolas McGegan are period performance specialists; their approach to Mozart and Beethoven with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra might just be intriguing. You need not fear a fortepiano, or might lament its absence—Ludwig’s First Piano Concerto and Wolferl’s “Jupiter” Symphony are worth an outing in either case. Thursday and Friday, February 25th and 26th, at Meyerhoff Hall at 8PM, Saturday, the 27th, at Strathmore at 8PM.
The last three days of February are packed with good music… and even with a list already considerably whittled down there are still eight performances to consider.
Friday, February 26th: Either the Christian Tetzlaff Trio (incl. Lars Vogt) at the Barns of Wolf Trap in Shostakovich and Schubert. (8PM) or, at the same time at the Library of Congress, the splendid Altenberg Trio with Rachmaninoff, Dvořák, Frank Martin, and Schumann.
Saturday, February 27th: Chopin Prize winner Rafał Blechacz, courtesy WPAS will give his first Washington Recital at the Terrace Theater (2PM). If you don’t already have a ticket, you might have trouble getting one. No worries: Consider the concert performance of the crown jewel among Tchaikovsky’s compositions, Eugene Onegin, at the Kennedy Center Opera House. With Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Opera—at least in this repertoire—you know you’ll get something good. (7.30PM) Or, better yet, continue the Beethoven Cycle of the Candlelight Concert Society with the Artemis Quartet at the Smith Theater, Howard Community College (8PM).
The triple-header on Friday, Februrary 28th, consists of a concert performance of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov with Gergiev/Kirov at the Opera House. (1.30PM) Rather less glamorous, but offering a very neat program, is the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society’s program of Bruckner’s String Quintet (!) and the Schubert String Quintet. At the National Museum of American History at 7.30PM. Same time as the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio begins its all-Schubert program at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.
Monday, 1.18.10, 6:00 pm
Riccardo Chailly Tours & Talks
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (LGO) is about to have its dress rehearsal of Bach’s Christmas Oratotorio, but Riccardo Chailly finds time to give a phone interview to promote the upcoming U.S. tour all the same. On its nine-concert tour of seven U.S. cities (starting in Los Angeles on February 17th, ending in New York on the 28th), the program features four romantic warhorses—two concertos and two symphonies by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Predictable stuff—especially for a conductor like Chailly, who is known for an element of surprise in his programming.
I asked Chailly why, for the third time in a row after 2004 (all Brahms) and 2007 (Strauss & Liszt), the LGO toured with a comparatively tame program. Chailly suavely deflects the implicit criticism, but I can’t help interpret a tinge of regret into his answer. “It’s a good point… I’m thinking the same way as you, in terms of conventional programs. They don’t exactly identify my character as a conductor and what our achievements this winter season in Leipzig are. But we gave a variety of possibilities [to Columbia Artists Management], including a program with adventurous stuff, but Beethoven-Brahms-Mendelssohn is what they wanted.
“But you can understand, too”, he continues, “that the LGO, which is in a way the mother of all German orchestras, the very founder of the concert- and repertoire tradition, is demanded to be heard in its ‘Fach repertoire’… [which is to say] the music it is most famous for and has shaped over the last 230-some years. Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms are unescapable with this orchestra. This is the orchestra and place where Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto was premiered. Where the Mendelssohn-, and the Brahms Violin Concertos were premiered, where three Schumann symphonies and Schubert’s Ninth were premiered.”
Together with pianist Nelson Freire and violinist Nikolaj Znaider, connoisseur’s choice soloists, both, the LGO will try to live up to it by playing Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, his Emperor Piano Concerto, Brahms’ Second Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto on tour. “And if we don’t surprise with the works we play,” Chailly continues, “at least I hope we will surprise with the interpretations. We’ve just finished three seasons with complete Beethoven cycles—symphonies and concertos—and our Beethoven has come a long way and has shook up things a little, here in Leizpig. After the initial surprise, the players saw the musical reasons behind it and followed with great believe and courage.”
New as the LGO’s Beethoven interpretation might be, it will still be the “sound that stems from the tradition of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, going all the way back to Beethoven’s time and the first complete Beethoven-symphony cycle Mendelssohn performed in 1825/26”, promises Chailly. “Testimony to that will be a box of the symphonies on Decca that will come out next year. Now to do the great and difficult Seventh Symphony in L.A. and San Francisco is a wonderful challenge; we’ll try to show what a virtuoso orchestra—and a very confident orchestra—can realize. Beyond that, I’m just happy to be in California again. I have great memories of California from when I was young, including a pretty unforgettable 1977 Turandot at the San Francisco Opera with Montserrat Caballé, Luciano Pavarotti, and Leona Mitchell in a Pierre Ponnelle production. Very emotional.”
Riccardo Chailly’s rise as a conductor was, for pre-Dudamel times, meteoric and abrupt. At twenty he was Claudio Abbado’s assistant at La Scala, at 29 he headed the Berlin RSO, and in 1988, at 35, he became the chief conductor of one of the three most reputable orchestras in the world, the magnificent Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. Since 2005 he has been the music director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, where he followed in the footsteps of predecessors like Mendelssohn, of course, as well as Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Václav Neumann, and Kurt Masur.
Having spent his last 22 years not only leading two of the best European orchestra, but also two particularly distinctive sounding ones, I asked him if he felt spoiled at all. “Yes”, he laughs, “spoiled is the right word for it. Yes, deeply spoiled. When you think of the implications of the two orchestras history… the Concertgebouw with its 120 years and especially its links to composers like Mahler… and now the Gewandhaus, which has more than twice that history… When you think of early German romantic music, you think of Leipzig. From Nils Gade to Robert Schumann to Brahms, who never could get his b-minor Piano Concerto appreciated until Clara Schumann lifted it to triumph… there are endless anecdotes in music related to the LGO. You are spoiled—and there is a sense of obligation. But I like that… I really do.
“Taking to stages in the U.S. means that we have a reason to do so—and that reason lies in the personality of the orchestra’s sound. The skin by which to identify an orchestra is its sound. It’s really what justifies why you are touring; to bring to the world your own identity. If you know what to listen for, especially live, it’s an immediately identifiably sound. The LGO, like the Concertgebouw, has incredible transparency, which helps you read through symphonic texture in concert. And what we aim for is the ‘emergence of sound’. That’s one of the great experiences with both orchestras. To balance everything so that you don’t know when a phrase begins and when it ends, and still be precise. It’s not that easy, with orchestras this size.”
What, apart from its history and uniquely dark sound makes the Leipzig Orchestra so special? “The sense of civic involvement with the orchestra, because it always has been a burgher’s orchestra, a community, not a court institution, is tremendous, to this day. It’s almost become a habit… people expect there will be a performance in the Gewandhaus. And in the Thomaskirche. And at the opera house, where the LGO plays, too. And they attend. Sometimes they respond with enthusiasm, sometimes they don’t. Bu they are always committed. They’re really a wonderful, a fabulously disciplined audience. Bruno Walter once said that he will never forget the intense silence of the Leipzig audience as the conductor gives the upbeat. It’s part of their system of living. The whole city promotes itself through music and the politicians are very sensitive to our activities… and the ticket prices reflect that.”
Recent and future recording projects for Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzigers include Mendelssohn, naturally… but unknown versions of the famous works or of lesser known repertoire. “There have been so many discoveries in my research since I’ve been here, either unpublished works or different version of published works”, Chailly exclaims with notable enthusiasm. I have done all the symphonies…and all in completely unknown versions. We just did the world premiere performance of the original version of the Reformation [5th] Symphony with a newly discovered fourth movement. And there is the London version of the Hebrides overture everyone knows… but there is also a Rome version that is substantially different. And when I played the Italian Symphony last season, it was amazing… such an interesting opportunity for confrontation.” But are these versions, often early drafts that had been discarded by Mendelssohn, necessarily an improvement over the original? Chailly might be enthusiastic about the discoveries and possibilities they represent, but he’s refreshingly realistic about the findings: “Well, it is wonderful to have them so you can compare, so you can discuss. These are alternative versions; I am not saying they are necessarily better. Of course I can look back and say: Mendelssohn revised this for a reason. But at least we have the opportunity to compare and decide.” The results, in the case of the Third Symphony at least, mute the question: The performances, easily the most spirited and gutsy Mendelssohn since Karajan and Dohnanyi, assure that the different text—the differences being minimal to the casual ear—becomes secondary at best.
We talk about his orchestra, its unique, ingrained Bach-tradition, and the Bach recordings he makes with the orchestra which, on the face of it, fly in the face of the strict Historical Performance Practice of baroque music having become the near exclusive domain of small groups playing period instruments. “They play Bach every Sunday for the last 200 years. My players have an unparalleled ease and artlessness of playing baroque music with modern instruments. A local critic as termed as a ‘Third Way’ Bach performance style… I hope you can hear those recordings when they come out.” When we hang up, he is late for his rehearsal.
Monday, 1.11.10, 3:00 am
Haydn – The String Quartets (Part 4)
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op.20
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Joseph Haydn’s six String Quartets op.20 are the last in his second ‘bloc’ of string quartets. The first bloc consists of the early ‘quartet-divertimenti’ opp.‘0’, 1, and 2 from the late 1750s. The second bloc begins with op.9 (1768-70) and continues with op.17 (1771). The six quartets of opus 20 were written in 1772. Although Haydn does not turn a new page as notably as he will have, writing his next set, op.33 (1781), it is considered a major step from his previous work. His publisher advertised op.20 as the works ‘with which Haydn made his name’ and in his Composer Lexicon from 1812, E.L.Gerber claims that ‘starting with op.20, Haydn appears in his full greatness as a composer of quartets’. That is more or less what Donald Tovey writes, too: from op.20 on, “further progress is not progress in any historical sense, but simply the difference between one masterpiece and the next.”
Their order of the quartets (the last to still be called “Divertimenti a quattro” in the autograph) in accordance with Haydn’s own catalogue is: Nos. 5, 6, 2, 3, 4, 1 – the sequence of their today’s numbering goes back to the edition published by the publisher Johann Julius Hummel (1728–1798, not to be mistaken for Johann Nepumuk Hummel, 1778–1837, the composer). The nickname “Sun Quartets” also goes back to J.J.Hummel’s edition, which featured a sun on the title page. There are no indications that Haydn actually cared about the sequence of the quartets, otherwise he would have numbered them, or asked for a particular sequence in those editions that he was consulted about. If he cared at all, then perhaps only to the extent that switching the order made it easier to sell the same quartets to different publishers? H.C.Robbins Landon, who wrote the liner notes for the Quatuor Mosaïques, suggests that the order of the quartets as published by Altria, in 1800, makes the most sense, ending each sub-set of three on the strongest possible note with the quartets in f-minor and g-minor, respectively.
The six quartets in this collection are quantitatively more substantial than their predecessors and three feature fugues as final movements. The latter was Haydn’s way of answering previous criticism against trios and quartets of several composers—Haydn lumped in among them—as being lightweight and ignorant of counterpoint. So Haydn makes sure that his movements are explicitly titled “Fugue on Two Subjects”, “Fugue on Three Subjects”, “Fugue on Four Subjects”. Haydn’s counterpoint skill surely impressed some critics; what impresses us today is the lightness and joy of these fugues. They are not at all the ‘German’, heavy, terribly rigorous, intellectually impressive fugues that we might more immediately think of, courtesy Bach & Beethoven. And Haydn achieves that (relative) gaiety, even though he uses the grave “And with His stripes we are healed” from Handel’s Messiah as his Fuge-theme in Quartet no.5.
What makes so many musicologists—Donald Tovey (“the world of opera + the eccentricities of C.P.E.Bach”), Philip G. Downs, et al.—see op.20 as particularly important in Haydn’s and the string quartet’s development is in part the level of voice-independence reached here. So much is obvious where fugues are concerned, but throughout the viola and cello get an unprecedented amount of time in the sun.
By now, the catalog is reasonably rich with recordings of complete opus 20 sets; in various states of availability and unavailability (reissue, ArkivCD issue, used, box-sets, imports), there are at least eleven—of which I’ve compared seven. Missing here are the Aeolian Quartet, Angeles Quartet, Dekany String Quartet, Lindsays, and Tátraï. I have included the out-of-print Hagen Quartett because I can’t imagine their wonderful set won’t be re-issued in 2011, when the quartet will celebrate its 30th anniversary. (By the way, the Hagen Quartet will open their 2010 US tour in Baltimore on April 25th!)
One notable aspect among these recordings is that the differences between period performance groups (Buchberger Quartet, Quatuor Mosaïques, Quatuor Festetics) and modern performance practice groups (the Hagen, Pellegrini, Kocian, and Kodály quartets) are far smaller than the individual differences. The Hagen Quartet is matched in precision, beauty, and detail only by the Quatuor Mosaïques. The Buchberger’s and the Hagen’s extraordinarily fast tempi match well. And when the Kocian Quartet grinds down to a halt (especially in Minuets), the Quatuor Festetics is right there with them.
My ears disqualify two sets: The Kocian Quartet (Orfeo), despite a few truly gorgeous movements (like the Adagio from 20/2, the Finale from 20/3), are too often to featureless, unexciting, pallid, and offensively inoffensive. And the Quatuor Festetics (Arcana) sound so awful, they’re torture to listen to. Intonation, tuning, and phrasing are all frightfully unlovely, sour, and nasal. It’s just the thing to turn someone off “historically informed performances”, if they thought the Festetics were somehow an exemplar thereof. The Menuets in 20/2 and 20/6 are particularly unfortunate examples. If they offered any sense of rough excitement at all, to make up for what are decidedly not stylistic choices but shortcomings, then that might redeem their attempts. But they don’t. For that, go to the Buchberger Quartet (Brilliant). The more I hear them and the Festetics in near proximity, the more I respect the Buchberger’s sense of excitement, their light and fast touch. There really is something to this dash of irreverent carelessness, even if their tone and intonation are not always the last word, either. Going through the quartets with them is a case of teetering near damnation of their efforts, only to be pulled back with an agreeing smile about something audacious or droll they did. I can see how that’s approximating the spirit of Haydn quartets.
With the Kodály Quartet (Naxos), it’s almost the opposite. I often, guiltily, love their indulgent individual instances. If you listen to their slow movement (“Poco adagio”) from 20/3, how could you not be seduced by their quasi-orchestral, lavish interpretation (much helped by the resonant acoustic). It sounds endearingly old fashioned. But as a whole, they could use a bit more kick and spice. In terms of languor—which isn’t necessarily the same as slow tempi in either, the Kodály or the Pellegrini (cpo, SACD) Quartet’s case—the latter group just about matches their Hungarian colleagues. The quartet from Freiburg, particularly active in the interpretation of contemporary music, has many qualities, but most of them on the side of gentility. Their beauty is awfully well behaved. There are points where the Buchberger’s gruff veneer and bite seems preferable, even if the swifter moments of the Pellegrini Quartet make the HIP Austrian ensemble sound like they are dragging their feet (Menuet 20/5). A very abbreviated generalization about these groups might read like this: Buchberger—sloppy excitement. Hagen—fast & sublime sonority. Kocian—bland. Kodály—unashamedly indulgent. Pellegrini—diverse beauty. Festetics—grisly ‘authenticity’. Mosaiques—detailed magnificence.
But all these points made about the groups can’t hold for each quartet, much less each movement. If we take the opening Allegro con spirito from the g-minor quartet op.20/3, we have the Quatuor Festetics sound sour if not perpetually out of tune, the Pellegrini singing it with gentle elasticity that is very different from the varying degrees of energy that all the other groups (the Buchberger’s most pointedly, the Hagen quartet most sonorously) feature. We have a lachrymose Menuet with the Kocian Quartet, dragging it out just like the short-breathed Quatuor Festetics does. With the Pellegrinis it purls at an astonishing clip; the Hagens again impress with homogenous beauty and fine flow. The Buchberger and Kodály Quartets remain on either side of moderation; the latter a bit quicker than the former… and less often in legato-mode.
The slow movement, Poco adagio—perhaps the finest in this set, is managed by the Kocian with symphonic grandeur. The Kodály’s take is of a similar conception, but still slower and slightly brighter, and yet even grander. For sheer beauty the solemn (repeat-free) Hagen Quartet is hard to beat. The Pellegrini Quartet, ever punctilious about dynamics, sounds thin in comparison to the latter three, while intonation isn’t the Buchberger’s strength here. The Festetics—whatever one may think about their tone and occasional shortcomings—fascinate with lots of color. The short “alla Zingarese” Menuet gets three zesty performances from the Buchbergers, the Hagen Quartet, and the Mosaiques. The Buchberger’s long phrases and resonant recording undermines the effect that the shorter, dryer, and more precise phrases of the other two achieve. The detail and light attack of the Mosaique is unbeatable here; a relief from the muddle the slow Pellegrini Quartet delivers.
In the Finale of op.20/3, the Buchberger’s are going to be hard to beat for excitement, even as the Hagen Quartet, sewing machine-style, out-speeds them. The Kocian quartet remains pale—not unlike the Kodály, but less voluminous. The Pellegrini players operate with their trademark gentility again; with velvet gloves and a discreet, never abrasive first violin. Theirs is certainly the preferred version for anyone who finds that listening to string quartets means an awful lot of ‘strings-only’ sound to endure. The Quatuor Festetics is at the very other end of that spectrum: New ears will find it cringe-worthily out of tune and ‘wrong’, while some hardened veteran ears might find much of their tang enriching. Glenlivet 12 for some, Ardbeg 10 for others.
Taken on their own, each of these interpretations, even the Festetics, would manage to get the sublimity of Haydn across to experienced listeners. Direct comparison, however, can be cruel. And to the latter especially so when the Mosaiques show how one can play on original instruments with original bows and at the lower pitch of A=421 Herz and still be impeccable and appeasing every expectation of beauty that our spoiled modern ears have acquired. Since there is more life in the Quatuor Mosaiques’ performance, too (in fact, more than in all others but perhaps the Buchberger’s and Hagen’s), the Austrian-French quartet is the obvious, mandatory first choice for any listener, HIP-inclined or not. If and when the Hagen is re-issued, it, too, will make a great introduction to these works; the absence of repeats shouldn’t (and won’t) bother all but the most repeat-determined few. The Buchberger Quartet, with its less-than-refined sound isn’t for everyone, but their rough and ready enthusiasm is infectious and especially at Brilliant’s bargain price-tag makes a vital complementary reading. The Kodály Quartet, too, ekes out something of a recommendation for their warm-hearted, generous readings that swim in a sea of glorious, if not particularly defined, sound: A caveat for every enticement, except the Mosaiques, which is pure enticement. 
This continues “The String Quartets (Part 1)”, “The String Quartets (Part 2 – op.9)”, and “The String Quartets (Part 3 – op.17)”.
See also:
Haydn 2009 – The Seven Last Words
Haydn 2009 – Fricsay’s Symphonies
Haydn 2009 – Minetti Quartet(t)
Haydn 2009 – Harmoniemesse
Friday, 1.1.10, 6:00 am
New Releases: CDs
Chamber Music You Didn’t Know You Love (6)
"New Releases" posts are regular columns that feature reviews of new CDs that are, for one reason or another, truly outstanding among the many I come across every month.
Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882) and Hermann Goetz (1840-1876) are both composers that have occupied the nether regions of public neglect for some time but are helped to their share of well deserved attention (if not outright popularity) by this golden age of classical music recordings we live in.
I say the latter without a hint of irony. Despite the clamoring of those commentators who make their money by predicting the imminent death of the classical music recording industry every year, for the last ten years, there has never been such a wealth of good recordings of standard, but especially newly discovered and uncommon repertoire.
How many times have you heard Raff’s music—apart from the transcription of Bach’s Chaconne perhaps—in concert? Unless you live in or near Bamberg, probably not very often. But the music is out there on CD and we have several choices for his symphonies, especially now that the Tudor label is distributed by Naxos and the (generally preferable) Hans Stadlmair conducted performances will be more easily available.
Divox is making a valuable addition to the Raff discography with the the Piano Quintet in A minor (the only other recording I know of is on MDG by the fine Villa Musica Ensemble) and adds, uniquely, I believe, the Raff Phantasie, a slightly smaller scale piano quintet in G Minor over one movement and 18 minutes. (It had begun its life as a work for two pianos.) After these works, the C minor Piano Quintet (in the “Trout” scoring with double bass) by Hermann Goetz is a much welcome 25 minute addition, amounting to a splendid encore rather than shifting the center of gravity away from Raff.
If you are not familiar with Raff’s chamber music, you could do worse than imagine his quintets roughly (the puns just keep coming) an extension of Brahms. In the Andante of the “Grand Quatuor” you will hear the harmonic language pushed further, though, with surprisingly obvious parallels to the Richard Strauss of Capriccio. The music is full of recognizable themes and melodies that will stick in your head after just a few listens. I must have listened to the disc over four dozen times before even sitting down to write these lines and I’m ever getting more, rather than less, enchanted with the works.
The overly excited liner notes by Dr. Avrohom Leichtling (bristling with indignation at the neglect of Raff) are clumsily written and uncritical, but then again it is pretty difficult to say anything bad about these works, the early of which Hans von Bülow proclaimed “the most important piece of chamber music since Beethoven”.
If your interests are quintets in general or particular, the Divox disc is the obvious choice. But the String Sextet that the MDG couples with the Grand Quintuor is enough reason for Raff fans to have both. The sampler of Goetz will likely make you seek out his complete chamber music collections available on cpo or Genisis.
Previously and since in Chamber Music You Didn’t Know You Love:
( 1 ) – Ludwig Thuille, Piano Quintets
( 2 ) – Joseph Marx, String Quartets
( 3 ) – Franz Mittler, String Quartets
( 4 ) – Felix Weingartner, String Quartets
( 5 ) – Wilhelm Bernhard Molique, String Quartets
( 6 ) – J.J. Raff & H.Goetz, Piano Quintets
Previously and since in Orchestral Music You Didn’t Know You Love:
( 1 ) – Friedrich Ernst Fesca, Symphonies
( 2 ) – Max Bruch, Swedish & Russian Dances
( 3 ) – Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, Orchestral Songs, Symphony
Thursday, 12.31.09, 6:00 pm
Jenny Lin Hits Washington + Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues
On January 10th, Jenny Lin will appear at the Corcoran Gallery with the VerveVerge Ensemble. The ensemble is central to the vitality of Washington’s contemporary classical music scene, and to have their program of Jeffrey Mumford (“in the community of encompassing hours”, 2005), Timothy Beyer (“Amputation II”, 2007), Sylvia Pengilly / Michael Rhoades (“Outer Edge of Possibility”, 2005), Lou Harrison (Prelude & Polka from Grand Duo), Luigi Nono (“… sofferte onde serene…”, 1976), and Wayne Peterson (“Scherzo”, 2008) supported by an artist like Jenny Lin is heartening news. Lin has the ability to entice those listeners with her ‘into’ thorny repertoire, who might otherwise not endure or enjoy these more recent outposts of classical music.
Since the hard core of contemporary music aficionados will flock to these concerts anyway, the importance of Lin’s appeal to reach a slightly wider swath of the potential listeners can’t be overestimated. Jenny Lin is as compelling live as she is on disc, and her recordings (review of the Bloch Piano Concertos on WETA) consistently fascinate their listeners. I still keenly remember Preludes to a Revolution and the effect it had on the, albeit few, Tower Records customers who bought it. Over at ionarts, her Strathmore recital in May made was included among the best performances of the year, which does not surprise me one bit. In anticipation of her recital (she’ll perform the Nono—for piano & tape, the King—for piano and dice, and in Mumford’s piano trio) here is a review of new CDs of Shostakovich’s Preludes & Fugues op.87 which includes her most recent recording:
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Shostakovich’s “conversation with Bach, over two hundred years” (Robert R. Reilly) is a marvelous work that I’ve cherished ever since I discovered it for myself some years ago. No one (apart from Max Reger, perhaps) has so ably paid tribute to Master Bach as the troubled Russian does in this 20th-century pendant to the German master’s Well-Tempered Clavier. It was my entryway to Shostakovich’s more acerbic works and I could—and still can—listen to it over and over again.
Back then there really wasn’t much choice when it came to recordings. Dedicatée Tatyana Nikolayeva—whose (prize winning) performances at the 1950 Leipzig Bach Competition inspired Shostakvich to write them in the first place—was the only game in town (on whichever one of her, now four!, recordings was available at any given point) until Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca) and, in 2000, Keith Jarrett (ECM) entered the fray. Since then, though, Preludes and Fugues have been dropping like apples from a tree. Konstantin Scherbakov (Naxos), Caroline Weichert (Accord), Boris Petrushansky (Stradivarius), Mûza Rubackyté (Brilliant Classics), and Kori Bond (Centaur) have pushed the count to a respectable 11 sets. David Jalbert’s on Atma Classique adds a 12th, Jenny Lin on Hänssler a 13th, Colin Stone on Big ears a 14th.
I’ve lived with Jalbert’s Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues for quite a long time now, trying to figure out just how I like it. No matter how many times I listen to it—intently, with the score in hand, or casually, Shostakovich weaving in and out of the background—I can’t find anything that’s wrong with it. Nor anything that makes it particularly noteworthy. This is unfortunate, because I’d like to take more enjoyment from these works when listening. But competence alone simply does not suffice to lift the conversational spirit from the notes… which is the same that could be said for Colin Stone who aims straight at run-of-the-mill and succeeds very nicely indeed, blending in to beautiful, discriminating indistinction.
I am very solidly biased towards Keith Jarrett’s very unfussy account (in a way almost flippant), which comes closest to Bach. His Prelude in C is swift like nobody’s business, and while 135 seconds don’t look that much faster than the average 160 seconds of Jalbert/Lin/Stone, it sounds just about twice as fast. In turn, Jarrett takes the Fugue almost provocatively slow, something he has in common with Jalbert (5:10). Lin in turn shifts gears for the Fugue and is done with it in under three minutes where Jarrett spends shy of six, with Stone just under, Jalbert just over five. This tendency—Jarret fast Preludes, Lin fast Fugues, Jalbert generally slow (it admittedly pays off in his attractive D major and E minor Preludes), Stone midway between extremes—remains true for many of the remaining Prelude & Fugue pairs.
In being faster, not just in the Fugues, Jarrett avoids any sense of “get on with it, already” that is present with all the rest. Jarrett works through the pieces like an inspired machine; the total lack of wallowing inoculates him against any lingering late-romantic feelings. Perhaps that, more than the gorgeous spacious acoustic and great sound of the ECM recording, more than his great alertness, is the reason why I can listen to his recording over and over without tiring, but many of the others—including Nikolayeva—not.
Nikolayeva, speaking of her, plays the same works rather more like Schumann. That’s intriguing (and given her history with the work almost mandatory listening), but it’s also tiring over the entire set. Both Ashkenazy and Scherbakov fall somewhere in the middle between these two poles; with the latter finding greater variety and interest in what are already wildly differing Shostakovich-Bach miniatures.
Lin stands out among the non-Jarrettists: Jalbert’s touch is paltry—even limpid—compared to the spunky and intense note-attacks of Lin. Stone is somewhere between the two, which, along with superior piano-sound (the piano is caught closer and in greater detail) lifts his interpretation well above Jalbert’s.
Austro-Taiwanese Jenny Lin can’t make ‘fast’ sound as natural as Jarrett (the A minor Fugue and the F sharp minor Prelude, for example, sound stilted), but she’s capable of personal statements and individual color without bending the Preludes and Fugues out of shape. The direct sound of the Hänssler recording further enhances Lin’s distinctive character, distinguishing her from the more conventional Stone. Neither enjoy the natural reverb typical for ECM recordings… which is employed to gorgeous effect with Jarrett: Listen, for example, to the low bass notes of the E minor Prelude ring out like a pedal point on an organ. Yet none of the detail of Jarretts’ rapid passagework smudges.
Lin’s addition to the Prelude & Fugue catalogue means a new frontrunner for the pack of non-Jarrett, non-Nikolayeva recordings. And were it not for the latter’s special historical status, I’d take Lin over her, too. Lin, and Colin Stone’s recordings are bad news for Jalbert, meanwhile. What first seemed a nondescript addition to the catalogue is exposed as below par. Especially since Stone shows that even while remaining unremarkable, it is possible to consistently project more of Shostakovich’s poignancy. (Jalbert, more often than not, raises questions as to why the composer ever bothered.) For what looks like a home-produced CD (is “Big ears” the artist’s own label?), Colin Stone’s is a remarkable achievement; his release can hold its own next to Sherbakov and Ashkenazy. Jenny Lin’s is proof that nothing she does is less than interesting—and most everything a good deal more than just that.
This being the last post of 2009: A Happy New Year to all readers of the Classical WETA blog!
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Tuesday, 12.29.09, 6:00 am
January in Music
Nikolaj Znaider has one of the most beautiful tones—especially in his confident pianissimos—among violinists his generation, and hearing him play a ‘just-off the beaten path’ 20th century violin concerto like Elgar’s under Elgar-certified Leonard Slatkin is worth getting to the Kennedy Center for. So is hearing Slatkin return to the podium after his heart problems earlier this year, and hearing him return to the NSO: Freed of the baggage that ground the last two years of his tenure down, this should be liberating music-making with a punch in Holst’s The Planets. Thursday, January 7th through Saturday, January 9th.
You should be an unambiguous Brahms-lover to go to the Kennedy Center Chamber Players’ Brahms-Sonata bonanza on Sunday, January 10th, 2PM (Terrace Theater ): The Viola Sonata (a.k.a. Clarinet Sonata) op.120/2 and to some extend even the Violin Sonata op.108 are more likely to delight a Brahmsian than to make one of you if you’re not already. The Cello Sonata differs in this respect; it’s not only a masterwork, like Brahms chamber works generally, but also highly accessible even to the Brahms-skeptics that are allegedly out there.
Michael Stern is currently the conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, and apparently he’s making waves in the landlocked state of Missouri. He will be available to enjoy your scrutiny at the Kennedy Center between January 14th and 16th, conducting my favorite Sibelius Symphony—his most conventional, the Second—Barber’s Symphony no.1, and Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto won’t hurt, either, with Manny Ax playing.
Iván Fischer conducting the NSO in Mahler is obviously unmissable: Das Lied von der Erde with Christianne Stotijn and Stig Andersen between January 21st and 23rd at the Kennedy Center. Added bonus: Mozart’s Symphony no.38.
Any chance to hear Menahem Pressler on ivory before you see him in pine. Mozart and Dvořák with Alexander Kerr, Kim Kashkashian, and Antonio Meneses promise a genial evening at the Library of Congress on Thursday, January 21st, at 8PM.
The Candlelight Concert Society may not have an even remotely professional web-presence, but their recitals are everything but amateurish. In fact, for the next few months, trips up to Howard Community College’s Smith Theatre in Columbia might become mandatory for chamber music aficionados. The reason is their 2010 Beethoven string quartet cycle, split over two seasons and among three top notch string quartets. You can’t get much better a spread than the Pacifica Quartet, the Quatuor Èbéne, and the Artemis Quartet as your performers. The Pacifica Quartet gets to start, on Saturday, January 23rd at 8PM.
If the half dozen shopping centers on Rockville Pike don’t get you to North Bethesda, Radu Lupu should. WPAS presents him in a recital of Schubert (D.959), Beethoven (“Appassionata”), and Janáček (“In the Mist”) at the Music Center at Strathmore. Wednesday, January 27th, 8PM.
Whether Lenksy’s Aria from “Eugene Onegin” , transcribed for cello and orchestra, is required listening I doubt… even when Mischa Maisky is responsible for it. But Tchaikovsky Roccoco Variations will be nice to hear in concert and Dvořák with Iván Fischer—the 8th in this case—should never be missed. NSO, Kennedy Center, on January 28th through January 30th.
I liked what Schubert I heard of Matthias Soucek in the Embassy Series recital almost four years ago, and for Schubert’s birthday he is back with lots more. Again at the Embassy of Austria, on Friday, January 29th, 7.30PM.
Has the National Philharmonic so risen in status, or Leon Fleisher so fallen, that they are now playing together? Let’s hope for the former and find out in one of their two concerts notable for featuring Prokofiev’s Fourth Piano Concerto (for left hand). Musical additives include popular—populist—Musorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique”. Piotr Gajewski conducts. Saturday, January 30th, 8PM and Sunday, January 31st, 3PM. Strathmore.
Olivier Cavé
Monday, 12.28.09, 6:00 am
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.10 (Part 2)
This continues Gustav Mahler — Symphony No.10 (Part 1).
Twenty minutes into the Adagio of his Tenth Symphony, Mahler puts down two horrible, threatening nine-tone chords that remind of the ‘gate posts’ with which Beethoven’s Eroica opens. When heard in performance, they open that movement up for the first time: Here, after all, stands the terrible, black, and towering gate to modernity from which, once entered, there is no return. (A nine-tone chord might suggest that, Mahler was just three notes from having quite naturally—without any musico-ideological plan—stumbled upon a twelve-tone system of his own.) The descent from these gates tellingly brings us—via the amorphous Scherzo—to the “Purgatorio” middle movement. Mahler wrote into the margins: “Dem Teufel tanzt es mit mir”. (“The Devil is dancing [it] with me” – see picture accompanying Part 1.)
Where the travel goes from there, I cannot tell. There are moments in the finale, after passing those two horrible gates of chords again (this time some ten minutes into the movement), that suggest an ascent from the Purgatorio to a more solemn peace. The haunting flute melody (still before those gates), for example, which meanders with haunting beauty in all the performing versions, already hints at a contentedness otherwise akin only to the finale of the Ninth. But first that finale opens with seven, later repeated, dreadful (blunted) blows on…—well, and here the versions differ: a bass drum like Wheeler has it? A military drum as Carpenter suggests? Muted (as Cooke suggests) or forced, loud, and unfiltered (as Rattle departs from the Cooke score in both his versions)? And should there be two—one closing the fourth and one opening the fifth movement, as indicated by the score? Or one, to connect the two movements, as does Kurt Sanderling in his seminal 1979 recording does and as Simon Rattle and Daniel Harding have since adopted, too. These blows were apparently inspired by the passing of a cortége for a Fire Chief below Mahler’s hotel window in New York. It makes sense to hear the blows as the sound that traveled up to Mahler, possibly emitted from short ‘tattoos’ on a snare drum. If so, the vigorous single strokes of Sanderling (or Rattle I, slightly less glaring but even louder, Hammerblow-like) make less sense, whereas the washed sound of a distant drum (hence hearing the ‘tattoo’ as one solid thump) does. I have heard none more convincing than the one Barshai employs at this crucial moment in the score. Noseda opts for loud but not harsh, Harding for soft, but with too much reverb. Inbal and Gielen could both benefit from a more muffled sound.
Since the Tenth only exists in ‘performing version’, there is no point getting too deeply into the different approaches; unlike with the Sixth’s two contentious choices regarding the Hammerblow-count or the movement order, the differences in the Tenth are the point of the various versions and part of its reception. Suggesting that one touch or another works better—like Cooke’s use of brass (tuba) in the opening of the last movement, which distinctly sounds like Wagner, whereas Wheeler, Mazzetti, and Barshai, using double basses, get a more discernibly Mahlerian sound—should only suggest that we are lucky to get more and more versions of this work, all of which work off each other and can utilize good ideas and melt them with new ones. Anything else would be precisely the kind of presumptuousness that has made all the re-constructors approach this task so tepidly in the first place.
Since its appearance, Rattle’s Berlin recording of the third Cooke edition (with some of his own touches already displayed in the earlier Birmingham recording), has been hailed as the go-to ‘performing version’ tenth. Glorious sound and what was at the time deemed the most up-to-date edition as well as the fact that Rattle has been (and remains) the foremost champion of the ‘complete’ Tenth, have largely contributed to this. Since then, there have been a few other Cooke III recordings, though, and none of them worse and some better than Rattle: Michael Gielen’s on Hänssler (the most successful, most unforgiving, most terrifyingly modern), Daniel Harding’s on DG (superbly played by the Vienna Philharmonic), and Gianandrea Noseda’s on Chandos (more unified than Harding, a tremendous finale with a haunting portamento from ppp to pp, albeit with fewer ‘moments’ elswhere). In terms of sheer beauty, none of these recent releases manage to match Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw (Cooke II). Interpretively reserved, but shaped with loving dedication. Inbal (Frankfurt RSO, Denon, oop) always keeps my interest, but Sanderling (Berlin SO, Berlin Classics) no longer sounds as good next to the newly appearing competition. The playing of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra is not at an exalted level and he rarely gets the pianissimos to be truly hushed. It is interesting to hear his stylistic influences and textual choices and deviations on Rattle, but all the above named sound better and the orchestras play better, now that the Tenth is no longer a nose-wrinkling experiment to them.
Given the improvements (notably some trimming-down) of Cooke II and III over Cooke I, the re-issued Ormandy is an interesting piece of history, and an engaged performance, but not a viable choice in light of many other good performances of Cooke II or different versions. Wheeler has gotten its first commercial recording on Naxos—with Robert Olson (he also led the premiere performance) who directs the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in a fine, if not particularly polished performance. The result may have warts and the minimalist approach to Mahler’s sketches may take some getting used to, but the version and the recording are better than its reputation. Not a first choice, but a first second choice. The spartan Wheeler/Olson version turned out to be so good—so close to Mahler’s draft—that Mazzetti went back to revise his own version (originally recorded with Leonard Slatkin and the St.Louis SO), which in turn was played and recorded by Jesus López-Cobos and the Cincinnati SO. (According to Leonard Slatkin, the recorded first version should be very similar to the second version, since the latter version incorporates all the changes that he suggested to Mazzetti before performing his first completion. In conversation a few years ago, he even suggested that he might like to try his hand at completing a performing version himself, if he finds the time.)
Carpenter, who worked on his fairly liberal version without knowing of the parallel efforts by Cooke, seemed less inhibited in adding and inventing to the Mahler facsimile, and perhaps he overshoot here and there. The result is, together with Barshai (but less happily, to my ears) at the other end on the re-constructive continuum as measured from Wheeler. The recording to go with Carpenter is Andrew Litton’s with the Dallas SO. The Dallas Mahler recordings, even if I have not mentioned them in the past survey, are good; this Tenth (for obvious reasons) being the most interesting and the Second the most impressive of the lot.
Rudolf Barshai set upon his own draft, drawing on all available versions and coming up with what I find to be by far the best attempt of presenting a coherent, exciting Mahler symphony. Excellent sound and a wildly inspired playing Junge Deutsche Philharmonie add tremendously. Barshai uses an almost bewildering variety of instruments in his Tenth—moving further from the score in that regard than anyone else. Some might find the sounds of the guitar, castanettes, or xylophones as uncharacteristic of Mahler (the Mahler of symphonies 1-9 that is) or could could the atmosphere ‘congested’. Maybe, but it makes for tremendous excitement. Of course we have no idea what Mahler would have ended up using for the final version of the Tenth—and despite the curiously large number of percussion instruments that Barshai uses, the tender and sparse, ‘broken’ orchestral texture of the symphony never gets disturbed. No one else sets the two gates in the first and last movement down in such a deliciously terrifying manner; Barshai successfully circumnavigates those rare moments where Cooke sounds oddly un-Mahlerian or too literal. The additional meat he hangs on the bones of the Mahler skeleton—as compared with Wheeler’s leaner attempt—make for generally more satisfactory listening.
The font used in the title is “ITC Franklin Gothic”
Mahler 10 Choices
1. Rudolf Barshai, Version: Barshai, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Brilliant
2. Michael Gielen, Version: Cooke III, SWRSO, Hänssler
3. Robert Olson, Version: Wheeler, Polish NRSO, Naxos
4. Riccardo Chailly, Version: Cooke II, Berlin RSO, Decca/ArkivCD
Also: Gianandrea Noseda, BBC Philharmonic, Chandos or Daniel Harding, Wiener Philharmoniker, DG (both Cooke III)
Mahler 10 SACD Choice
By default, that is Martin Sieghart’s 10th (Samale-Mazzucca) on Exton. Currently only available as an import from Japan, to Europe.
Sunday, 12.27.09, 6:00 am
Haydn 2009 – Haydn Recordings to Own
Perhaps the Haydn celebrations this year—even if it is just a “death anniversary” that serves as an excuse to remember –will bring greater attention to that composer who is much better known than he is actually represented on our concert programs or in our record collections. Unlike the romantic ‘geniuses’, the dramatic narratives of whose lives we associate more readily with, or unlike the brand “Mozart”, Haydn’s reputation is more humble, just like his music is never flamboyant.
When I was a kid, I knew with great certainty that Haydn was my favorite composer. The more obvious witticisms of his music were one aspect. The accessibility of his symphonies contributed, too. But I was probably most influenced by the saucy biographical details I gathered from a biography-on-tape that I played on my big-buttoned desktop cassette recorder. That’s why I wholeheartedly embrace what Robert R. Reilly wrote for InsideCatholic.com in his September column “Long Live Haydn”: “I love Haydn. If I had to be left with only one composer in my life, it would be he—not because he is the greatest… but because of the measured quality of humanity in his music. He is the most companionable composer.” After plenty more insightful commentary about Haydn, he goes on to discuss recent Haydn box sets that have been issued by Naxos and Brilliant. The recommendations below specifically eschew box sets in favor of single discs.
In choosing this dozen of CDs, each representing one compositional aspect of Haydn, I deliberately limited myself to slightly less obvious, but unfailingly delightful discs that are not already in every half-decent Haydn collection. Of course there are more comprehensive, more famous sets of more important symphonies and worthwhile ‘complete’ sets of every other category of works. But rather than rehashing laude heaped on the usual “London Symphony” suspects (be they Beecham, Davis, or Jochum) or feeding into the completeist craze of simply ‘having’, I picked these CDs to celebrate the musical moment—allowing to enjoy Haydn by specifically picking and consciously enjoying one CD, with the muffled dissonances of daily life forgotten for one hour at a time.
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Oratorios: The Creation, Paul McCreesh (Archiv)
One of my “Best Recordings of 2008”, where you can read my enthusiastic review, and now easily my favorite way to listen to “Die Schöpfung”. Because this (historically correct) big-band approach comes from a bona-fide historical performance specialist, we don’t even have to feel historicist guilt for loving it. McCreesh’s recording nudges out my hitherto favorite recording, René Jacobs’ “Seasons”. (Hob.XXI 2)
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Symphonies: Nos. 44, 95, 98, Ferenc Fricsay (DG)
Even if it is out of print again, go hunt for used copies which are widely available. Or download the disc in mp3 form, if you are into that sort of thing. The disc was subject of my “Dip Your Ears, No. 64” review some time after it was re-released four years ago. (Hob.I 44, 95, 98)
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String Quartets: Quartets 64/4, 74/3, 76/5, Minetti Quartett (Hänssler)
“ [T]he Minetti Quartet(t) has finally released a record, and it lives up to all the high expectations and more.“ I reviewed this treasure of a disc at length in May (“Haydn 2009 – Minetti Quartet(t)”). (Hob.III 66, 74, 77)
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Scottish Songs: Trio Eisenstadt, Jamie MacDougall, Lorna Anderson, vol.1 (Brilliant)
Scottish Songs: For Beethoven duty, for Haydn ‘divertimento’. Both composed two dozen score of them, or more, but while I love Haydn’s creations, I’m rather less fond of Beethoven’s. I reviewed volume one of Brilliant’s collection (Dip Your Ears, No. 53), and it remains the obvious first choice. A single disc full of the most lovely songs, this is the perfect measure and quantity to enjoy them in. (Hob.XXXIa, various)
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Piano Trios: Beaux Arts Trio (PentaTone)
The choice for one item representing the Piano Trios proved most difficult. Even eschewing original instrument recordings (either because they are not good enough to appeal to the fortepiano-allergic or else because they are not available on single discs), I was still stuck with the choice of the Vienna Piano Trio (some years back on Nimbus, now newly on MDG), the Wanderer Trio (“Best of 2009”), and the Florestan Trio (which I haven’t heard yet, but I love that group). All except the Nimbus disc released or reissued in 2009 and all those discs contain some of the more famous, later trios. But the disc of choice for me is the Beaux Arts Trio, for their genial warmth still unbeaten at the Haydn-game, and also freshly re-issued on a PentaTone two-disc SACD with nine of the earlier Piano Trios (Hob.XV2, 5-10).
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Baryton Trios: Rincontro, “Trios for Nicolaus Esterhazy” (Alpha)
Until the complete Baryton Trio collection on Brilliant Classics came out, this genre among Haydn’s output was not just neglected, it was virtually unknown. A few discs here and there popped up, but who of us knew he had composed 160 works for baryton, most of them—at least 126—trios with viola and basso (cello or double bass)? Only the helplessly addicted will insist on getting all 21 discs worth (the Brilliant stand-alone set will be in May), but the curious should explore at least a few of these works; for the music, incidentally, not just for the curious instrument. To make that point, my recommendation is a disc that doesn’t use the baryton, but transcribes it for violin, viola, and cello. That was a common practice even in Haydn’s time, and the HIP Rincontro Ensemble doesn’t go that way to be a-historical or to make performance easier, it does it to best serve the very lovely music. (Hob.XI 14, 59, 80, 85, 96, 97)
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Mass(es): Harmony Mass, Creation Mass: Bruno Weil, Tafelmusik (Sony)
During my survey of Haydn’s Harmoniemesse I came across Bruno Weil’s recording on Vivarte/Sony. Especially after a few months of reflection, I genuflect before his recording before any of the others. Why? My smile is the broadest, recalling and re-listening to him, Tafelmusik, and the Tölz boys choir. The recording is available as an ArkivCD, where it comes with the full liner notes. The point of this list is to recommend single CDs, but in this case it might be worth pointing out that the complete late Masses of Weil and Tafelmusik are available (without documentation, alas) for just a few bucks more in a 5CD box set released this year. (Hob.XXII 13, 14)
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Mirare 076 (70:05)
Keyboard Sonatas: Zhu Xiao-Mei (Mirare)
For just a single CD (not four, like Alfred Brendel’s indispensable Haydn) of top-notch Haydn keyboard sonatas I will go to Zhu Xiao-Mei. Not Sviatoslav Richter, not Jérôme Hantaï (fortepiano), nor idiosyncratic Tzimon Barto, or charmingly-wily Fazil Say, but the French-Chinese pianist who is, on the continent at least, the not-so-secret insider’s choice. On the strength of her Goldberg Variations and this Haydn disc, she might be considered a ‘pianist’s pianists’ and her Haydn displays impeccably musicality, intelligence, wit… an ideal Haydn Sonata disc. (Hob.XVI 23, 34, 50, 52, Hob.XVII 6)
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Concertos: Andreas Staier (fortepiano), FBO (Harmonia Mundi)
If you must have the Trumpet Concerto (you must have the Trumpet Concerto), the Naxos disc compiling that, the Double Concerto, the first Horn- and the second Keyboard-Concerto is my favorite. But this list isn’t about covering all the bases, it’s about a single favorite pick. And that would have to be Andreas Staier’s recording with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra of three keyboard concertos played on the fortepiano. Andreas Staier, at his best, is the one fortepianist that can convince steadfast grand piano-lovers that their favorite instruments’ predecessor is not necessarily just an inferior forerunner. This is a historical performance specialists’ recording, but it is decidedly not my favorite only for the HIP crowd, it’s my “anybody’s favorite”… conveniently re-issued this year, as part of Harmonia Mundi’s Haydn celebration. (Hob.XVIII 4, 6, 11)
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Operas: Overtures, Manfred Huss (BIS)
At the risk of incurring the wrath of a dear Haydn Opera-loving colleague, my recommendation is: Skip the operas, get the complete overtures. No matter how many times we’ll ‘re-discover’ the operas of Haydn, they are not going to be top-flight, unless imaginatively staged. For audio-only, the overtures are just the thing. (Hob.XXI, XXVIII, XXIX, various)
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See also:
Haydn 2009 – Fricsay’s Symphonies
Haydn 2009 – Seven Last Words
Haydn 2009 – Harmoniemesse
Haydn 2009 – The String Quartets (Part 1)
Haydn 2009 – The String Quartets (Part 2)
Haydn 2009 – The String Quartets (Part 3)
